Archaeologists at the excavation of the new Turcot highway interchange project in Montreal have unearthed an 18th-century tannery about 200 metres from the Saint-Henri-des-Tanneries village discovered last summer.
The stone walls of the buildings are gone, but several basins and baths used for tanning remain. The archaeologists hope to gather artifacts from the site.
Unlike the tanneries found in the other village, this tannery was never reconstructed or altered, giving archaeologists a better understanding of how the industry functioned in the 18th and 19th century.
That was the good news announced by the Quebec Ministry of Transport yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, the Turcot Interchange is a major artery in the city. After the archaeological dig, the site will be destroyed.
But it is not all bad. According to Frank Rochefort, archaeologist for the Ministry of Transport, the plan is to preserve as much as possible. Several months ago, I read about the plan to take 3-D images of the site, so perhaps that is what they mean by “preserve.”
Last summer, archaeologists uncovered the remains of a small 18th-century leather works settlement, called Saint-Henri-des-Tanneries.
In the middle of the 1700s, there were eight tanneries, such as the two mentioned in this story, situated outside Montreal because of the strong smell from treating animal skins and leather.
Around the turn of the 20th century, the tanneries area was paved over and turned into a rail yard. In the 1960s, the Turcot Interchange was built.
You can see photos of this project in this CBC report.
