The Ward Charcoal Ovens are located in the Egan Mountain Range, 18 miles south of Ely, Nevada. The ovens were built in 1876 to provide high quality charcoal to the nearby smelters for processing silver ore. Each oven could hold 35 cords of wood and would produce 30-50 bushels of charcoal per cord. It is speculated that the charcoal ovens remained in use until 1879 when the nearby smelter shut down.