It was upon this site, which still in called "The Tannery," and which lends its name to the road which runs past it and the ridge over which the road crossed the river, that the first tannery of the Wisconsin Leather Company was built in 1850-51. The Company bought about 1,200 acres of government land which was covered with a growth of hemlock and it cost but 50 cents an acre. The bark was peeled from the trees within a stone's throw of the tannery when it began operations.

The hides were shipped to Two Rivers by boats from Chicago and Milwaukee and then towed up the East Twin River on barges or scows. The tan bark was first procured from the woods near the field of operation, but as the supply began to dwindle, the farmers and woodsmen for miles around began to bring in loads of the bark for sale.

The leather tanned there was mostly of the heavier variety, the kind used in making harnesses and saddles. About 100 men were employed. During the summer, the leather was shipped by boats which stopped at Two Rivers piers twice a week, but during the winter it was hauled by teams to Milwaukee. It took exactly a week to make a round trip with the horses.

The first year, seven large houses were built and also a boarding house for some 40 boarders. A provision store, a blacksmith shop and stables for horses completed the little colony that huddled about the tannery. In the winter of 1851-52, a school was started in the wing of a shanty attached to the boarding house and children of workers attended.

In 1861, a second tannery was built just south of the first on and both of them were operated for a time. The original was torn down soon after, however.

As the years passed, the industry began to suffer from the fact that its only plea for establishment in the first place was the existence of the hemlock bard about Two Rivers. The hides were taken from the western plains; the finished leather was again shipped south. As long as the tan bark could be cheaply obtained near at hand, the industry prospered. As the supply ran out and it became necessary to ship in the bark as well as the hides, the Tannery started on the decline. In 1887, the second tannery was closed. It remained standing until 1891, when it accidentally aught fire and burned to the ground. Today, on the bare, reddish patch is the monument to the busy little colony of 1851.

Two other tanneries, both of them smaller, existed in Two Rivers during this period. Carl Winkelmiller stared one in 1856 on the site just east of the northern approach to the Washington Street bridge, where a gasoline filling station now stands. He was forced to discontinue business in 1888. In 1870, the H. Lohman and Co. started the other on the plot formerly occupied by the David Smoke saw mill, just north of where the Eggers Veneer Seating Company now stands. The Lohman tannery closed in 1887 and with it died the industry in Two Rivers.