Secret Places, Roche Harbor

 

I can’t count the number of times we have been to Roche Harbor and never hiked the trails above the lime kilns; this was our year to discover the hidden back country.  We picked up a trail map from the Hotel which wasn’t all that accurate, but we still found our way through the forest trails which climb up into the hillsides where the rock quarries are located.  

Anchor Point for Holding Men or Buckets

The map we had showed a loop trail, but in fact there is a maze of trails.  Limestone was mined from as many as 15 quarries cut from the hills behind Roche Harbor.  

200ft Cliff Face

Cliff faces at some of the quarries are over 200 feet high.  When we broke through the trees at the top, we stood still in our tracks and crouched down from fright; we found ourselves on a narrow ledge with a sheer vertical drop on both sides of us – I think we found those 200 foot drops!  

A Frightful Drop!

No wonder quarry work is described as hot, dirty, and dangerous.  Men would bore holes in the side of a quarry using compressed air drills.  Dynamite was then placed in these holes and charges were fired at the end of the day, creating a large pile of loose limestone.  In the morning a different crew loaded the stone into ore carts to transport to the kilns.  

Cart/Rail Track 

The carts were first pulled by horses which were later replaced with a small 3’ gauge rail and steam locomotive.  We found what looked like the old path or rail line that gradually descended down the hillside.  

The Rope Swing

We also found a small clear lake with a rope swing over a perfect swimming hole.  It looked like great fun if you didn’t mind sharing it with the fish. 


A Clear Mountain Lake

Perhaps the men who worked the quarries cooled themselves off at this very spot.  Another crew of men would have been down at the kilns, processing the stones.  In order to process the limestone, rocks had to be at least 6 inches in diameter so air could escape up through the stones to distribute the heat.  Once mined and transported down the hillside, the stone was dumped into the top of the kilns.  The kilns were heated to over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit in order to convert the stone to lime.  

Hiking Through the Limestone Boulders

When cooled the lime was drawn off into barrels.  In order to keep the kilns at such intense heat, 32 cords of dry wood were consumed every day.  Together, the kilns produced approximately 1,500 barrels (200lbs each) of lime every day. At one time Roche Harbor was the largest producer of lime west of the Mississippi.  A large part of the production went to San Francisco to rebuild the city after the great fire of 1906.  Steel required high quality lime and Roche Harbor’s lime was 98.32% pure carbonate of lime.  John McMillin had the quarries worked in such a way as to produce stone that was easy and inexpensive.  Over the years this resulted in making the quarries inefficient to mine. 

The Lookout

Production ceased in 1956 with the sale of Roche Harbor to Rueben Tarte and family.  The adventure of hiking through the hills is well worth the effort to see these quarries now shrouded in silence.  On our hike back down the mountain, we discovered another side trail that took us up to a lookout where we had great views of Garrison Bay and Westcott Bay.           

Great Views from the Lookout