Uriah Nephi Smart Tannery

Turning hides into leather was slow, reeking work, and Uriah Nephi Smart built a whole factory for it in 1880. His two-story tannery — a hundred feet long, adobe on a red-sandstone foundation — stood in a hollow south of 3900 South. Eight redwood vats sat on the ground floor: some held lime water to loosen the hair, others tannic acid to cure the hide. Smart made his own acid by grinding pine bark, and boiled animal bones down to neat's-foot oil to soften the finished leather. Upstairs the hides were fleshed and worked by hand.

What the plaque says

In a deep hollow south of 3900 South, Uriah Nephi Smart built his tannery in 1880. This two story building was thirty feet wide and one hundred feet long. It was built of adobe bricks, which were made from clay taken from a bank north of the building site. The foundation was of red sandstone from Red Butte Canyon, and the lumber in the building was red pine from Millcreek Canyon. There were eight large redwood vats on the bottom floor which were used to soak the hides, some in lime water to loosen the hair, and others in tannic acid to soften the hides. Uriah Smart made his own tannic acid from pine bark, ground in a mill south of the tannery. He also made his own neat's-foot oil used to soften the leather by boiling down animal bones in large cast-iron kettles. On the top floor of the tannery the leather was fleshed and softened, sheep and goat skins were tanned, and the hides were stored. This property was donated by Uriah Nephi Smart's grandson, Rowland W. Smart.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 4.5 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon
• Gilgal Sculpture Garden — 4.6 mi
  A surreal and eccentric sculpture garden hidden in a residential neighborhood
• Liberty Park — 4.9 mi
  Salt Lake Citys beloved 80-acre urban park since 1882
• Natural History Museum of Utah — 5.3 mi
  A world-class museum built into the foothills above Salt Lake City

More markers nearby

• Pioneer Flour Mill Site — 0.7 mi
• Legacy of the Black Pioneer — 0.8 mi
• The Tithing Yard — 1.2 mi
• Holladay's 1853 Fort — 1.3 mi