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Onondaga County

Onondaga, the central council fire of the Confederacy; Onondaga Lake; the Central Trail and the branch north to Three Rivers.

Onondaga was the seat of the Confederacy’s council fire, and the 1851 sheet spreads the nation’s name across the whole county: O-nun-da-ga-o-no-ga. The village itself moved several times; in the eighteenth century it stood in the Onondaga valley south of the present city, where Nedrow and the Onondaga Nation territory are today. Earlier sites lie east in Pompey.

Onondaga Lake (Ga-nun-ta-ah on the sheet) was the salt lake; Onondaga Creek runs into it from the south. The Central Trail crossed the county from Jamesville and Manlius on the east to Marcellus and Skaneateles on the west, the line of NY-173, the Seneca Turnpike and US-20 rather than the Thruway. A branch left the trail near Onondaga for the Seneca River and Three Rivers, the route north to Oneida Lake and Oswego, roughly the corridor of NY-48 and the Oswego River.

On the overlay the Finger Lakes on the county’s western edge, Skaneateles (Skan-e-a-dice) and Otisco, are drawn well; the lake outlines are among the control points that pin this part of the sheet.

Trails through the county

  • The Central Trail: Onondaga to Canandaigua — The western half of the Iroquois Trail across the Finger Lakes: Marcellus, Skaneateles, Auburn, the Cayuga crossing, Seneca Falls, Geneva and Canandaigua.
  • Oneida Lake and the Oswego River — The branch from the Central Trail north to Oneida Lake, Three Rivers and Oswego, and the shore trail along Lake Ontario to the Salmon River.
  • The Central Trail: Onondaga to Rome — The eastern half of the Iroquois Trail, from the Onondaga council fire through Manlius, Chittenango, Canastota and Oneida Castle to the carrying place at Rome.

Sources

Updated 2026-09-17. Positions on the overlays are accurate to the map's stated error (about 5 km for the 1851 map): read them as which valley, not which lot.