Onondaga Indians, the keepers of the council fires for the Iroquois League, lived here. French soldiers and Jesuit missionaries came from Canada in 1654 to seek their friendship, and in that year Father Simon Le Moyne discovered salt springs in the area. Salt works were established in 1788, soon after the first permanent settlement, and salt manufacturing flourished until the 1860's. For many years, the tax on salt supplied the State's chief revenue, and this industry gave the name Salina to the original site of Syracuse. After 1825, the Erie Canal and the Oswego Canal, connecting the Erie at Syracuse with Lake Ontario, ushered in an era of prosperity and expansion. Railroads and highways followed the east-west water level route and stimulated industrial growth. Situated on the edge of the fruitful lake plain beside Onondaga Lake, Syracuse lies near the geographical center of New York State. Serving a wide area, its industries, which began with the salt works, became many and varied, including chinaware, alloy steel, automobiles and automotive gears, air-conditioning and typewriters, chemicals, and electronics, reflecting the industrial growth of America. The first New York State Fair was held in 1841 in Syracuse, where it has been an annual event since 1890.