Salt industry in Syracuse, New York

The salt industry has a long history in and around Syracuse, New York. Jesuit missionaries visiting the region in 1654 were the first to report salty brine springs around the southern end of "Salt Lake," known today as Onondaga Lake. Later, the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784) and designation of the area by the State of New York as the "Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation" provided the basis for commercial salt production from the late 18th century through the early 20th century. The salt springs extended around much of Onondaga Lake, originating in the town of Salina and passing through Geddes and Liverpool to the mouth of Ninemile Creek, a distance of almost nine miles. The majority of salt used in the United States in the 19th century came from Syracuse. Even today, Syracuse is sometimes known as "the Salt City."

A series of deep and shallow aquifer systems in the Onondaga Creek Valley provided the brine that stimulated early growth in the Syracuse area. Many settlers came to the region to mine the salt and earn a better standard of living for their families.

Throughout the years, a wide variety of coarse salt produced from boiling and refined salt produced by the solar method were manufactured on the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation including; dairy, table, common, fine and fertilizing salts.

Thick layers of shale beneath the Syracuse area were formed over a period of 300 to 500 million years ago. On the East Coast of North America, two landmasses collided and formed a large mountain range. A large shallow depression to the west formed an inland sea. Precipitation and runoff over millions of years gradually eroded the mountain range and sediment, in the form of mud, consolidated into thick layers of what later hardened into shale.

The northern shore of the inland sea was situated in Tully, about five miles south the city. The salt was formed after evaporation from the shallowest areas left layers of evaporites or salts. These included calcium carbonate (calcite), calcium sulfate (gypsum) and sodium chloride (halite), also known as common salt.

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