Project Absurd - Celebrating The Daft!

SALT MUSEUM

SEPTEMBER 2006

by Ham

I decided to take a trip to The Salt Museum in Liverpool, NY back in September of 2006. I was able to make it there right before their 6pm closing time. I had been to The Salt Museum as a child but I couldn't remember much of it. It turns out there wasn't really much to remember. As you can see from this photo, it's not quite the size of The MET:

It is just as small as you would imagine on the inside. The entire museum consists of one room divided into two sections by a couple of stairs. I should note that this museum does not charge admission, it is right next to a lake, and is on the end of a major park (Onondaga Lake Park). These things would usually mean that the museum would be packed with people trying to relax and get out of the sun for awhile. Not so for The Salt Museum. When I first went in there were only three elderly women in the building. One worked there, and the other two were very loud and simply amazed at everything they saw. I heard them utter the phrase "Oh my!" after looking at every little thing in the museum. Anyway, once you enter the museum you are greeted by strange, flat "black and white" men working in a three dimensional color world.

I didn't like the way the guy on the right kept looking at me. After enjoying the flat men and their random piles of wood, I turned to my left and went up a couple of stairs to see the "Historic Boiling Block":

There were old pictures with text explaining all of the recreated scenes that I was viewing. I don't know why these guys went to all of this trouble to get salt. Couldn't they have just gone down the road to Nichol's Supermarket and bought a lovely salt and pepper shaker set? I guess they weren't too bright back in the "black and white" days. Here are some more displays I saw as I came down the stairs:

In the picture on the right you can see a television on a stand. This was connected to a DVD player which played a short history of salt production in the Liverpool area, over and over again ("Oh my!"). They actually did have a lot of things crammed into this small space. You had to look to find some cool stuff, like this disgusting barrel of pickles:

After about 10 minutes I had completed my tour of The Salt Museum. Right when I was about to leave, all three of the old women (the two "Oh My!" visitors and the one working there) went outside. Now I had my chance to take some pictures of my favorite part of most any museum, the gift shop:

Granted, it wasn't that much of a gift shop, but they did have some pretty cool things for sale:

Quite the strange assortment of gifts for a Salt Museum to have - dominos, whistles, card games, yo-yos, dancing stick figures, and (my favorite) Land Solar Salt. I almost bought some Land Solar Salt but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Maybe I'll go back in May (when the museum opens again) and buy some. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend making a trip specifically to go to The Salt Museum but if you're in Liverpool and you have 10 minutes to spare you might want to check it out. At least for the barrel of pickles and the solar salt, if for nothing else.

(Posted 11/2006)