Salz Tannery

Salz Tannery. History of the Tannery. For 145 years, Santa Cruz was a leading source of tanned hides, first in California and later throughout the world. After the Gold Rush, people were clamoring for leather goods – boots, harnesses, and machinery belts for farming and mining equipment. The Santa Cruz region with its ranchos and cattle, abundant water, tanoak forests, limestone deposits, and access by sea was well suited to support the growing industry., Three tanneries have operated on this site where Pogonip Creek meets the San Lorenzo River. The earliest was Grove Tannery, a small operation started in 1856, which was almost entirely washed away in the flood of 1861. Then came Kron Tannery, which by the 1890s employed 50 workers. Kullman Salz Company, which later became Salz Tannery, took over in 1918. By the 1960s Salz Tannery employed 400 people, processed about 13 million square feet of leather a year, and sold to customers around the world. By the 1990s much of the leather industry had shifted overseas and Salz, the oldest, longest running tannery in California closed in 2001., Today this site along the San Lorenzo River continues to bustle with activity. Artists have moved into the historic, refurbished buildings where leather tanners once worked. The Tannery Arts Center, part of a long tradition of local craftsmanship and industry, continues as an integral part of life and work in Santa Cruz County.