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How a Tannery Built a Town
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The
tannery gave Amherst its economic base before burning in
1907. |
Long-time
residents of the small town on the west branch of the Union
River can point to the field that rises out of the woods along
Tannery Loop Road.
That’s where
the tannery used to be, they say. And the road’s name is all
that remains to honor the hemlock tanning factory that gave rise
to Amherst’s reputation and population in the mid- and
late-1800s.
Maine’s
pioneers needed leather for all reasons—boots and shoes, aprons
and saddles among them. So when the tannery opened in 1831, it
was a bridge between the milling and lumber operations that also
supported the town in the 1800s.
At its height,
there were 800 people in town. Those who found work there were
men from eastern
Maine, plus immigrants from
Canada, Ireland
and Scotland.
There were
shops, boarding houses and a thriving economy that made Amherst
the envy of area towns.
But the tannery
burned in 1907, and the town never really recovered.
Lumbering,
farming and blueberrying carried the town over the next decades
as the population declined.
Today, the 230
residents are hearty as they ever were. But it’s a small town
caught between two cities—23 miles northeast of Ellsworth and 22
miles east of Bangor.
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