Project will bring back beehive kilns

MARQUETTE — In the next year or so, a piece of Marquette’s history will be brought back to life.

The Iron Ore Heritage Recreation Authority plans to rebuild some of the beehive shaped kilns that stood by the Carp River Bridge. The last of the 36 collapsed in 2016, and the Authority kept hearing from the public about wanting them rebuilt.

The new addition will bring out the heritage in Heritage Trail.

“We are an interpretive trail, so this is part of our history that we just wanted to bring back to life,  said Iron Ore Heritage Recreation Authority Administrator Carol Fulsher. “We think that this is going to be one of those places that people are going to make a destination to come and see. It’s also accessible by vehicle, so I think a lot of people will have a new understanding of our history.”

The kilns will be reconstructed with the local sandstone, still usable from the last two kilns that collapsed.

The project will be completed in 2019.