Syracuse

Syracuse exists because salt springs bubbled up around Onondaga Lake—brine that the Onondaga Nation had used for centuries before Revolutionary War veterans began commercial extraction in 1788. By 1860, Syracuse produced 5.6 million bushels annually, one-sixth of America's salt. They called the Erie Canal 'the ditch that salt built' because Syracuse salt taxes financed its construction.

The salt industry died in 1926, but the pattern persisted: extract a resource, process it, ship it out. Carrier Corporation made Syracuse the air conditioning capital. Allied Chemical produced soda ash. Then came the extractive finale: Carrier closed in 2004, putting 1,200 out of work. Allied had already shuttered in 1986, leaving Onondaga Lake so polluted it became a Superfund site. Syracuse became a Rust Belt cautionary tale—one of America's poorest cities.

Then came Micron.

In October 2022, the Idaho-based memory chip maker announced the largest private investment in American history: $100 billion over 20 years to build four semiconductor fabrication plants in Clay, just north of Syracuse. Construction begins November 2025. The $6.1 billion CHIPS Act grant sealed the deal. When complete, 9,000 workers will manufacture chips on-site, supporting 40,000 total jobs—growth not seen since the 1950s.

Syracuse University opened its Center for Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, feeding a 'semiconductor superhighway' connecting Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. By 2030, one in four American-made chips will come from upstate New York.

The Salt City that built the Erie Canal is betting on Micron to build the next transformative infrastructure—silicon instead of sodium, but the same extractive logic: process here, ship everywhere.