Syracuse Salt Museum

Who knew that up until 100 years ago Syracuse was a leading producer of salt? Turns out the Indians discovered a brine spring but didn't really know what to do with it. The white man eventually capitalized on it and started mass producing salt by piping the brine water in through hollowed out logs into huge copper bowls and boiling away the water(see photo). When they had used up all of the trees in the area for fuel, they began using solar power to evaporate the water. Taxes collected on the salt production paid for most of the cost of building the Erie Canal and the availability of salt for preservation helped the North win the Civil War.