The present owner, Carl Borgh, bought the foundry a couple of decades
ago for the love of the old technology as much as anything. Business was
found increasingly in historic preservation - as you walk around Old
Sacramento's restored historic district you will see much decorative and
structural iron work with the Knight Foundry imprint. However, business
declined and Carl shut down operations about five years ago.

With the closing of Knight Foundry a number ofSutter Creekresidents,
led by Ed Arata (whose grandfather had been a machinist at Knight), as
well as other concerned people from throughout the region, suddenly
realized what a historic treasure they were losing and formed the Friends
of Knight Foundry to develop interpretive programs and to acquire the
foundry. They also formed Historic Knight Foundry to continue
commercial operations.

The interpretive programs were quite successful; the three day workshops
in particular generated tremendous enthusiasm and a lot of revenue. A
large corps of volunteers put in a wonderful effort to organize and restore
the machine shop and to assist with monthly pours, which became a
magnet for Sutter Creek visitors. The foundry got a lot of great publicity in
the public media and membership in the Friends ballooned.

In maintaining operations, the assistance of veteran Knight workers turned
out to an indispensable source of training and inspiration. Molder Wendell
Boitano in his 80s and pattern maker Ernie Malatesta in his 90s as well as
'youngster' Carl Borgh, were often there to help meetmoments of crisis,
which, especially during the pouring of tons of molten iron, can be pretty
dramatic. It was the contact with Wendell and Ernie more than anything
that again opened the eyes and minds of the group that soon formed the
Consortium to the complex and deep cultural values embodied in the
master skilled worker.

Unfortunately, after three years of heroic struggle, the effort collapsed and
the foundry operation reverted to Carl, who, with iron master Russ
Johnson, is still committed to somehow preserving the foundry. The
failure of the Friends stemmed from a too exclusive focus on acquiring the
foundry and a resulting neglect of marketing the commercial foundry
business. It is not to fault anyone involved, but it needs to be pointed out
that while every thing else was in place, the key missing ingredient was
sales and marketing expertise. There is strong concensus among
knowledgeable Consortium members that there is plenty ofbusiness to be
had for Knight Foundry in the historic preservation movement, now a
multi-hundred million dollar endeavor annually nation wide.

It is worth emphasizing at this juncture that preserving the foundry only
as an industrial site and collection of artifacts is almost pointless without
ongoing production. It will not attract visitors as such and, more to the
point, without the presence of skilled artisans at work the real historic
meaning of foundry isnearly impossible to decipher. Anyone who has
joined the crowdswitnessing a pour or chatted with a machinist or molder
at work or heard the hiss of the water motors and the flap and drone of the
overhead belt wheels and line shafts will immediately understand what we
mean.

There is presently an effort being organized to acquire the foundry for the
State Park system. The quarter of a million dollars or so needed to buy the
foundry is a not big deal for the Parks - the land the foundry sits on is
worth as much. However, the Parks will not be interested in taking on a

Samuel Knight Chapter SIA Newsletter

May 9, 1997

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