Sunday was a beautiful day, a perfect day to celebrate the history and nature of Salt Point, Lansing's reboot of a piece of history that included industry, crime, and natural beauty.  The event included a ribbon cutting to inaugurate the latest addition to the park, an informational kiosk that displays photographs and information about the International Salt Company, local birds, flora and fauna, and geological history of the property.  The celebration attracted people of all ages to celebrate what has turned into a major reboot of the property that turned it into a notorious party, crime and substance abuse area to a quiet, thoughtful nature park.

“Salt Point now offers people a mix of uses that respects the culture of our town,” said Friends of Salt Point  and Cayuga Bird Club member Donna Scott.  “Many volunteer, community and corporation members, philanthropic groups, the Town Board and some Town of Lansing employees have worked hard to make Salt Point a safe, lovely and peaceful natural area, and it has happened in just four years.”


Scott noted that over 239 species of birds have been found in and around Salt Point.  Of course, the star of the show is the Osprey family that made it's lakefront home on a nesting platform since it was erected in 2003.


While the Town of Lansing is responsible for managing the park, it is owned by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which means activities including hunting and fishing must be allowed.  In addition boating, fishing, hunting, bird watching, hiking, and fireworks are among other activities Salt Point has been optimized for, with new hiking trails and informational signs about wildlife and flora.  LaVigne and many of the other speakers noted that people with these sometimes conflicting interests have managed to get along well since Salt Point has been transformed.


For years Salt Point was infamous for parties, bonfires, crime and dumping.  Despite the efforts of nearby residents to clean up the area, piles of junk, beer cans, used diapers, piles of tires littered the property, and law enforcement was often called to stop criminal activities or rescue overturned vehicles.  Despite that, Town Supervisor Ed LaVigne noted that some people didn't like the taming of Salt Point.

"I told them the story of the three drunk drivers we had in one day," he said.  "I don’t want to have to spend another dime on another bench named after somebody that got killed.  Because the Friends of Salt Point had the passion and the courage to keep going forward this is a safer place, and a much more inviting place."


In 1891 the Cayuga Lake Salt Company began operations.  In 1892 it was renamed International Salt Company, and the property was referred to as International Point.  Unlike the Cargill Salt Mine, just south of Salt Point, the plant produced table salt, and other kinds of salt for consumption.  Syrian workers lived on the hill overlooking the salt plant on what is still called Syrian Hill today.

"I was just a bride when my husband brought me down here in 1955 and showed me the salt plant," recalled Lansing Historian Louise Bement.

In 1962 the company moved the plant’s resources to its Seneca Lake location, and sold the land to the DEC in 1962.  The building burned to the ground shortly thereafter.  The DEC operated a fish hatchery on the property for a decade in the 1970s, after which the area was effectively abandoned.  That attracted illegal activities including drug and alcohol abuse, dumping, illegal boating and swimming.  This led to the name ‘UC Point’, named for the popular Utica Club beer.


"The improvement in Salt Point, both as a place to walk into the blind and the cleanliness of the beach since the Town took it over and the Friends of Salt Point started taking care of the place, is unbelievable," said resident and local hunter Larry Sharpsteen.  "For the fist 15 or 20 years it was a pig stye.  People dropped whatever garbage they brought in with them — broken bottles, cans, diapers — and nobody cared."

Sharpsteen told the assembly why Salt Point continues to draw not only local nature lovers and hunters, but people from as far as Watertown, Syracuse, Binghamton, Albany and Plattsburgh.

"People come here because this is one of the few remaining public access spots for hunters on the lake, and it’s one of the better ones," he said.  "Hunters and non-hunters have successfully coexisted down here.  Dog-walkers shared the land with duck hunters.  In the time I’ve been here I’ve never been aware of any friction.  I think we can continue to maintain that kind of cooperation here, because we have something worth hanging onto."

In 2006 the Town of Lansing signed a contract with the DEC to manage the park, and cleanup efforts began in earnest.  After most of the roads were closed and the existing road created, The Friends of Salt Point was formed to continue developing and maintaining the park with grant money and private donations.  The osprey nesting platform was erected in 2013 and an osprey family almost immediately moved in.

"This is the model example of what happens when the private sector and the public sector gets together," said Lansing Park Superintendent Steve Colt.  "It’s the way it should be.  I am so lucky to have an all-star team in our Friends of Salt Point."

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