The Akin Lime Kiln

Lime Kilns can be seen just above center right in this Civil War era map.

During the Civil War, old maps show two lime kilns located just east of Kingston. By the early 20th Century, Georgia State Geology publications mention the Akin Lime Kiln as being located near Cave Station in Bartow County.

The Akin lime kiln stands mostly in decent shape.

A lime kiln is a giant furnace used to convert limestone (Calcium Carbonate) into quick lime (Calcium Oxide). The Akin lime kiln is about 30 feet high and built from stone quarried on site. At the top of the kiln is a walkway where workers would use wheelbarrows to dump coal and limestone into a vertical shaft resembling a chimney. The shaft would be covered with a fireproof brick to prevent it from being damaged by the extreme heat.

In order to remove the carbon from limestone, the temperatures would have to reach 900 degrees. The limestone would break down into chunks of quick lime. Quick lime is extremely volatile and reactive to water. When the quick lime was scooped out from beneath the lime kiln, they would fill buckets with it and then slowly add water. This turned the quick lime into slaked lime. (Calcium Hydroxide)

Beneath this arch is where the quick lime would be extracted.

A collapsed wall reveals the inner area of the shaft where the limestone would have burned.

Slaked lime could be mixed with sand to produce mortar, be used for whitewashing buildings, making plaster, tanning hides for taxidermy, agricultural purposes, making certain kids of food, and for covering up the stench of dead bodies and outhouses. In fact, in Europe, when mass graves of bodies were made from the victims of cholera, Calcium Hydroxide was used to destroy the flesh and cholera.

Across the stream from the kiln the brick remains of buildings can still be seen.

The brick remains of other buildings lay destitute in the grass.

The quick lime made near Kingston was only used locally and not used by the Confederate Army. Because of this, Sherman's men did not destroy the lime kilns as they passed through the area on their way to Atlanta.

However, as mentioned above, cave station refers to a nearby saltpeter mine which did supply the Confederate Army with the materials needed for gunpowder and was destroyed on May 20, 1864 by Brigadier General Kenner Garrard's troops.