1 6 BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE ONONDAGA SALT FIELD 



The systematic manufacture of salt in the vicinity of 

 Syracuse by white men was begun in 1788. In a letter from 

 Colonel Comfort Tyler to Dr Jeremiah Van Rensselaer* 

 he says that in May, 1788, his family needed some salt and 

 he obtained about a pound from the Indians which they had 

 made from the springs near the shore of the lake. The 

 Indians offered to show him the location of the brine springs 

 and accordingly he went to the lake with a guide. The 

 guide in his canoe took Col. Comfort out of the mouth of 

 Onondaga Creek easterly into a pass since called Mud 

 Creek. After passing over the marsh then covered by about 

 3 feet of water and starting toward the bluff upon which was 

 afterward founded the village of Salina, he fastened his 

 canoe and pointed to a hole in the ground which had ap- 

 parently been dug there and said that there was the salt. 

 In the same year Asa Danforth and Col. Tyler undertook 

 the manufacture of salt in a very primitive way, their only 

 outfit being a 5-pail kettle suspended by a chain from a pole 

 resting upon two crotched stakes. 



In 1789 Nathaniel Loomis started a small establishment 

 with a number of kettles and during the winter of 1 789-90 

 made from 500 to 600 bushels of salt which he sold for $1 

 a bushel. 



William Van Vleck made salt at Salt Point and Jeremiah 

 Gould afterwards made salt in kettles on arches. 



In 1793 Moses Dewitt and William Van Vleck entered 

 into partnership, erected an arch containing 4 potash ket- 

 tles and manufactured salt enough for the wants of the in- 

 habitants of the neighboring country. In the same year 

 James Geddes began manufacturing salt at the place which 

 now bears his name, and shortly after John Danforth begun 

 to make salt at Liverpool. 



In 1797 the legislature of the State of New York passed 



* Essay on Salt. 



