WHY THE TANNERY CLOSED DOWN

        Farming with cattle had a direct effect on Unity’s tanning industry. The presence of hides will influence the location of a tannery about twice as strongly as the location of the market. Because of the high costs of transport, and the length of time involved in the tanning process, it made economic sense that tanneries be proximate to the source of hides.  But  bark was even more important in determining where a tannery would be located than hides —by a factor of seven to two.   Given the amount of hemlock bark that the tannery used annually, it would seem as if the once abundant hemlock supply in the Unity area would have decreased rapidly. It seems that this resource depletion would be a likely cause of the death of the tanning industry in Maine.

          Other reasons existed.   The development of an artificial tanning agent in the late 1860’s made bulky bark obsolete. Transportation increased (especially rail) and costs decreased—it was cheaper to ship hides to larger, centralized tanneries.  Larger forests elsewhere were waiting to be cut for bark.

                       

               As time went on the resources needed by the tannery began to disappear and the cost of producing and exporting the leather came to be too much on the industry, making the business unprofitable. This in turn led to the downfall of the tannery on Sandy Stream.   A lesson can be learned from the tanners who once used the area and its natural resources to their benefit---you can only put so much pressure on a resource before it becomes depleted or ruined, and when the resources are gone than so is the industry that depended on it.