The Silk Mill

"The following is a student created blog regarding the history of the Petaluma Watershed. This blog is part of a series from students at Casa Grande participating in the Watershed Classroom with educators Paula Biancalana and Jolene Thinnes."

Petaluma's Silk Mill on Lakeville and Jefferson was home to many manufacturing businesses that shaped our community and economy. It supplied our city with abundant amount of jobs working in the factory and it also supplied many different types of manufactured items such as raw, spool, and knitting silk, as well as fishing lines. Many ships travelled along the Petaluma River to pick up these items and distribute them throughout the city and even to other states back in the late 1800s to the early 1900s when the river was still existing. Without the Silk Mill the ships would not have any manufactured items to be transferred throughout the area and other states, however, without the Petaluma River flowing past the Silk Mill, the business would have no way to transport these items back and forth. Both the River and the Silk Mill worked together benefiting Petaluma greatly in the process of bettering our community.

By Kayla O’Shea