Placer County CA Archives History - Books .....Tanyards 1861
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com June 23, 2005, 6:17 pm

Book Title: Directory Of The County Of Placer

TANYARDS.

   In our general statistics .of the county, we purposely omitted giving any
notice of this branch of the mechanical pursuits of the people of the county, as
we intended to give the only tanyard in the county more than a passing notice.
Observing that saw mills, water ditches, turnpike roads, toll bridges, quartz
mills, etc., formed the main feature of the report of the County Assessor of
this county, and no mention whatever was made of this important branch of
industry, we think it worthy of more than a passing notice.

   The Iowa Hill Tanyard is situated upon Indian Canon, about two and a half
miles above Iowa Hill. Although it might be considered a small concern, yet the
proprietor, JOHN RUTHERFORD, being himself a tanner and currier, informed us
that he was fully satisfied, from past experience in the business, that he can
make the business at that place self-sustaining. He states that with his present
facilities he can turn out two thousand sides of sole and harness leather per
annum; and can furnish leather to customers at a small advance upon prices paid
for a similar article in the markets of the Eastern States.

   Spruce, balsam and oak barks are used by the proprietor in tanning, a
sufficient supply of which can be had in the forests contiguous for a number of
years to come, even should the business increase to twenty times the capacity of
the yard at the present time.

   This experiment in the tanning business in Placer county, when found to be
successful, as it must, cannot fail to draw the attention of tanners and induce
them to enter into the business upon a more extensive scale, and eventually
check the present extensive exportation of hides from, and importation of
leather in return to this State. Hides can be procured at a low price; bark is
easily obtained convenient to the yard; natural water exists in the canon in
great plenty, and there is nothing that one can conceive of except the high
price of mechanics' wages to prevent the manufacture of leather in that locality
as cheap as in any part of the United States.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from 

DIRECTORY OF THE COUNTY OF PLACER, FOR THE YEAR 1861
CONTAINING A HISTORY OF THE COUNTY, AND OF THE DIFFERENT TOWNS IN THE
COUNTY; WITH THE NAMES OF INHABITANTS, AND  EYERY THING APPERTAINING TO A
COMPLETE DIRECTORY.
COMPILED BY R. J. STEELE, JAMES P. BULL, AND F. I. HOUSTON.

PRINTED FOR THE PUBLISHERS,
BY CHARLES F. ROBBINS, 413 TO 417 CLAY STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, 1861.


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