Syracuse, NY Summary

Syracuse (population 157,000) is at the south end of Lake Onondaga. Onondaga people were the first inhabitants, and the area was the capital of the Five Nations of the Iroquois. In 1615, French explorer Samuel de Champlain visited the area. In 1654 French Jesuit missionary Father Simon LeMoyne found a salt spring. In 1655 European colonists established a mission and fort but abandoned it in 1658 after attacks by Native Americans.

Salt processing developed and by the 1780s the area was settled. Nicknamed “Salt City,” it was officially named for the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, also near a salt spring. After the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, and the railroad opened in the late 1830s, Syracuse developed as a transportation center.

The canal ran through town on what is now Erie Boulevard. In 1848 it was incorporated as a city, enclosing two adjacent towns. The salt industry grew to reach the point where Syracuse was supplying most of the salt to the nation.

Production began to decline around 1870, and ceased in 1926. The manufacture of steel, typewriters, and also automobiles carried on through the twentieth century. Today, Syracuse is a commercial, distribution, and manufacturing center and the surrounding areas are agricultural.

Downtown attractions include the Urban Cultural Park Visitor Center and Erie Canal Museum, the Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology, the Landmark Theater, Clinton Square, the Armory Square, the Jerry Rescue Monument, the Onondaga Historical Association Museum, Mulroy Civic Center, and the Everson Museum of Art. On the west side of town is the Burnett Zoo. Onondaga Lake Park offers the Salt Museum and Sainte Marie Among the Iroquois, a re-creation of the seventeenth-century world of the French missionaries and Iroquois. Camillus Erie Canal Park, is a 300-acre park which has 7 miles of canal and towpath trails.

The Beaver Lake Nature Center is in nearby Baldwinville. Syracuse University’s Carrier Dome offers football, basketball, and lacrosse games. Since 1841 Syracuse has hosted the New York State Fair, which takes place each August. The Onondaga Indian Reservation south of the city in Nedrow is the seat of the Indian Confederacy, and Syracuse is the gateway to the Finger Lakes region.

Syracuse has an international airport, and trains and buses serve the area. Cars are essential here.