US Forestry Department

About forestry service, 65354, Syracuse, MO, US, New York

Syracuse ( SIRR-ə-kewz, SERR-, -⁠kewss) is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13th-most populated municipality in the state of New York. Formally established in 1820, Syracuse was named after the classical Greek city Syracuse (Siracusa in Italian), a city on the eastern coast of the Italian island of Sicily, for its similar natural features. It has historically functioned as a major crossroads, first between the Erie Canal and its branch canals, then of the railway network. Today, the city is at the intersection of Interstates 81 and 90, and its airport is the largest in Central New York, a five-county region of over one million inhabitants. Syracuse is the economic and educational hub of Central New York. It hosts a number of convention sites, including a large downtown convention complex, and is home to prominent institutions such as Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate Medical University, SUNY ESF, Le Moyne College and Onondaga Community College == History == French missionaries were the first Europeans to come to this area, arriving to work with and convert the Native Americans in the mid-17th century. At the invitation of the Onondaga Nation, one of the five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, a Jesuit priest by the name of Simon Le Moyne, accompanied by soldiers and coureurs des bois, including Pierre Esprit Radisson, set up a mission, known as Ste. Marie de Gannentaha, on the northeast shore of Onondaga Lake. Jesuit missionaries reported salty brine springs around the southern end of what they referred to as "Salt Lake", known today as Onondaga Lake in honor of the historic tribe.