Historical Marker · No. 186
Serrano Tanning Vats
Corona, Riverside County · California
Erected by State Department of Parks & Recreation, Temescal Water Company Hydro Conduit Corp., Glen Ivy Hot Springs, Phil Porretta family and Billy Holcomb Chapter of E Clampus Vitus, 1981
Two vats, cut in 1819 by Payómkawichum workers under Leandro Serrano, for turning cowhide into leather. Hides were the rancho economy's only real export and the crews who produced them were Luiseño. What stands beside the freeway is not where any of that happened: the vats were lifted, restored and reset on this spot in 1981 by a Clampers chapter. The object is genuine and its location is a decision. And the name on all three landmarks along this stretch is a Spanish family's, not the Serrano nation's.
What the plaque says
Nearby, two vats were built in 1819 by the Luiseño Indians under the direction of Leandro Serrano, first non-Indian settler in what is now Riverside County. The vats were used in making leather from cow hides. In 1981 the vats were restored and placed here by the Billy Holcomb Chapter of E Clampus Vitus.
Where it stands
33.77805, -117.48595 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Wigwam Motel — 24 miNineteen concrete teepees on Foothill Boulevard, the last of Frank Redford's Wigwam Villages and still renting rooms.
- Original McDonald's Site — 26 miThe corner where two brothers invented fast food, now an unofficial museum the corporation has never blessed.
More markers nearby
- Ruins of Third Serrano Adobe — steps away
- Serrano Boulder — 0.7 mi
- Old Temescal Road — 1.0 mi
- Butterfield Stage Station — 2.9 mi