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- Subject is exactly "Salz Tannery"
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Vegetable tanned - or tanoak - leather was hung until ready for shipping. Vegetable leather dried naturally over a period of days. Salz Tannery switched to a chrome process about 1961. The chrome process made a softer tannage, more suitable for…
Salz plant superintendent, Joe Bellas, holds the finished product. The Ansel Adams photograph was part of a series documenting each step of the leather making process in 1954.
Tan pits could be dangerous so employees often worked in pairs while removing vegetable tanned hides from them. Jeremy Lezin remembers that as a kid "Salz sales manager Howard Halper fell into the pits while conducting a tour." The term…
Green bark was removed from a tanoak tree. Salz started harvesting tanoak outside Santa Cruz County in the 1940's and 1950's when the local supply dwindled. The Mendocino Coast was deemed the best source at the time. Bark stripping was always…
This Salz Tannery greeting card featured a product display that included fine saddles, personal leather goods and luggage. Salz California Saddle Leather TM was distributed nationwide. The company had an agent in Mexico as well. In later years Salz…
San Lorenzo Tannery employees used sharp knives to "hand flesh" or separate the flesh from the hides. The San Lorenzo Tannery began its relationship with Kullman-Salz in the 1880's. It was later sold to Kullman-Salz in 1917. It closed in 1929 due to…
Stripping tanoak from trees was a labor intensive process. Salz Tannery purchased tanoak bark from suppliers who found a good supply along the Mendocino coast. The man in the photograph worked for a supplier.
Hides were stacked after being removed from the salt pits. They could be stored for months in salt. Hides were brine cured and dosed with rock salt to preserve them in transit.
Santa Cruz artist Gene Flores designed a sculpture for Salz Tannery that was both beautiful and functional. Salz Tannery required a cooling tower for a particular piece of equipment. Norman Lezin decided that one of Gene Flores' fountain sculptures…
The installation of the Salz fountain in 1975 required an enormous crane to move the sculpture from River Street down into the courtyard. Its placement was further complicated by the presence of a mature oak tree that once filled in the courtyard…