Visit to a nearby treasure. Colonial Brick kilns at Cayuga.

Driving home to Indiana from Denver, Colorado over the weekend with my wife, my sister and her daughter, I made a short visit to a brickworks in Cayuga, Indiana. Id known about it being in my state for over a year. But never had found time to make the trip to see it.

The 10 or so beehive downdraught kilns are operated by Colonial Brick Co. and still are coal fired to this day. They specialize in recreating old and out of date brick for important historical restorations all over the country.

The sights and smells of the smoke here is a powerful step back in time. If I lived closer, id work for free on the side, just to learn better some of the old ways they made and fired the brick.

I really want to build my next brick kiln like one of these scaled down for my needs. Maybe next year.