I Stole Something

Yes, I'm a thief. During the pandemic lockdown, I looted a piece of history (from a federally quarantined Superfund site). I'm no Jack Reacher. My slender butt hasn't rappelled in years.. I drove right through the front gate in the middle of the day without any tactical black gear. I didn't even use a laser glass cutter or a false mustache.

I strolled the flat demolished concrete and tile slab of the former Ashtabula Hide and Leather Company on Tannery Rd and saw an abandoned pile of rubbish bulldozed into the weeds. Jutting out from the bottom of a pile of weathered decaying wood was a table leg. It had previously spent its life as one integral part of a four member squad carrying the weight of hundreds of thousands of tanned and dried hides waiting to be shipped across the country.

Started in 1879 (originally sited in Rock Creek) by James Roderick McKay, a plucky Scottsman from Nova Scotia, the tannery remained in operation long enough that we still have county residents who had grandparents that worked there.

Due to the runoff of tanning chemicals into the gulf of the Ashtabula River, the EPA declared it a Superfund site in 1989. It currently rests in "Brownfield" status.

To now own a discarded chunk of that amazing history of Ashtabula County is very much like having a seat from the old Browns stadium for this leatherworker and well worth the time I would spend in a federal penitentiary for picking up garbage.