Preparations are under way for six more kilns and a second afterburner.
Burgers sizzling on a charcoal grill are as essential as summer itself. Those cookouts would be a lot less flavorful if it weren't for the Ozarks. Southeastern Missouri produces approximately three-quarters of all the barbecue charcoal used in the United States, converting sawmill waste into the mainstay of summertime outdoor cooking. But there is another side to the pleasing aroma of meat sizzling over a charcoal fire. It is the dense, moist, choking smoke that rises from the 229 kilns scattered around Missouri's Ozarks where charcoal is made.