One learns interesting facts from the collecting of vintage postcards – in this case, that central New York State was the nation’s leading producer of salt for long portions of the 19th century.

Brackish springs near the Finger Lakes were vestiges of the great inland seas that covered the area after the last Ice Age.

French explorers were the first to identify the foul-tasting water as salt-water.

Extraction of salt followed swiftly – so needful and valuable was salt to frontier communities.

By the second half of the 19th century, individual salt-producing efforts were overtaken by large salt companies.

The brackish water was pumped from springs and poured into huge, shallow pans – and the action of the sun evaporated the water, leaving the salty residue to be collected.

The salt industry near Syracuse subsided when the enormous underground salt deposits of the Great Lakes region began to be extracted with mining equipment.

A Salt Museum near Syracuse is all that remains of the businesses that gave rise to the city’s moniker of “Salt City”.

In September of 1908, Nell Overton was in Syracuse.

She mailed a postcard to her friend, Mr. Hollis Basinger, in Belleville, New York.

While Syracuse is a city on the Erie Canal, near the center of New York State,  Belleville is a village on the eastern tip of Lake Ontario, about 55 miles north of Syracuse.

The postcard from Nell was a photograph of the salt pans of the Syracuse salt industry.

Published by the American Publicity Company of Syracuse, the uncolored photograph was printed in the United States.

(The photograph must have been taken on a rainy day as the pans are covered.  Under the hot sun of upstate New York, the pans would be uncovered.)

Addressing Hollis as “old head”, Nell expresses her concern that he may be working too hard, and tells him to “be good to yourself”.

Nell encourages him to “don”t bother about the girls”.

It isn’t clear if she is advising that he keep his fancy free or if there are particular girls for whom Mr. Basinger might feel responsible.

One hopes that Mr. Hollis succeeded in his endeavors, that Nell enjoyed her time in Syracuse, and that the two remained friends for many years.