Luther — Economic Geology of Onondaga County. 



253 



for rock "salt anywhere on the reservation. His explorations were made in 

 the higher land east of Salina. They resulted in failure. In 1825, Simon 

 Ford, engineer in charge of the salt works, drove a tube, twelve feet in diam- 

 eter and made of staves thirty-two feet long, to a depth of thirty feet, and 

 then removed the mud and earth from the inside, thus making a new well. 

 In 1826, a well was sunk at Liverpool, that appears to have been in the shales. 

 It was the only well that did not require to be curbed. In 1827, wells wen 

 sunk at Greddes, Salina, and one mile north of Salina. In 1830, iron tubas, 

 twelve inches in diameter and three and one-half feet long, were clamped 

 together and sunk, by boring, to a depth of sixty feet. In 1831, the Onondaga 

 Salt Co. bored a well, 160 feet deep, to good brine. In 1839, a w ell was sunk 

 at Salina by the state to the depth of 600 feet, in search of the bed of rock 

 salt that was thought might be in the immediate vicinity and supply the 

 saline qualities to the waters of the marsh, by contact with subterranean 

 streams. No crystals of salt were found. It had been ascertained that the 

 strength of the brine was greater as the depth from which it was taken 

 through the tubular wells on the borders of the lake and marsh was increased. 

 At sixty feet it was twenty -five per cent, stronger than in the old shallow 

 w T ells. By the use of tubes constructed of iron or of hard maple wood 

 banded and clamped with iron, wells were sunk in the mud and sand of the 

 low lands about the head and east side of the lake, which reached the depth 

 of 225 to 340 feet in the Syracuse wells, 150 to 310 feet at Salina, and 8<> to 

 100 feet at Liverpool. 



In 1851, a well was sunk in the middle of the valley, at the head of the 

 lake, to the depth of 114 feet, through the follow ing strata : 



White and beach sand 34 feet. 



Blue and light colored clay 148 " 



Coarse sand 209 " 



Clear gravel 6 " 



Quicksand 11 " 



Cemented gravel 2 " 



Red clay 3 " 



Hard red clay 1 " 



Except as to the thickness of the layers, this appears r<» represent the 

 section in all of the producing wells, the best brine being found in the clear 

 gravel, which is reached at varying depths in all of the wells. In 1888, fifty 

 wells were in operation, and produced all of the brine from w hich salt w as 

 manufactured on the reservation. They were in five groups as follows: 



