Politics may be partly to blame for the demise of Syracuse’s once vibrant salt industry.
That’s according to geography professor William Meyer, whose research about the Salt City’s salt springs was highlighted this week in The Post-Standard (Syracuse).
Meyer’s research project was one of five funded this academic year by the university’s Upstate Institute, a resource for organizations seeking regional expertise and information about upstate New York.
“I think it’s part of us being good neighbors in the best possible way,” President Rebecca Chopp told The Post-Standard. “We want to join the effort to make Upstate a livable and attractive place, to make sure people stay here and so more people come to live here.”
During a research symposium Saturday, Meyer described how the springs — a key source of revenue for the state — didn’t dry up, but rather a combination of political and economic factors led to the shut down in 1926.
Even after the salt springs began losing money, he said, they remained open because they provided politically appointed jobs, ultimately leaving the industry further in a financial hole.
Meyer, who plans to write a book on the history of the salt springs, said “this was the most important program of patronage appointments available in upstate New York.”
Meika Loe, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology and women’s studies, also was in the media spotlight.
National Public Radio (NPR) correspondent Margot Adler featured Loe in a about the Fortnightly Club of Hamilton.
The club, which meets every two weeks at the , was founded in the 19th century as a place for women to have an intellectual life at a time when they were denied access to universities.
In the radio report heard around the country, Loe outlined the club’s formal rules and procedures, and she also described how Hamilton’s Fortnightly is being revitalized by a new generation of retired women.
Loe is studying the club as part of her current book project involving aging and well-being in the U.S. elder population, especially among women.
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