As an archaeologist by training, I am always keeping my eyes and ears open for new reports and research on maple history with a particular archaeological bend to it. One such project that recently popped up and caught my attention is from a group of archaeology graduate students at Michigan State University. Through their efforts to learn about and protect interesting and important archaeological remains on the Michigan State University campus the Campus Archaeology Program discovered that the archaeological remains of a long since demolished sugar house were hiding in the Sanford Woodlot right on campus.
Like most curious archaeologists, these archaeology students wanted to know more about their discovery and soon learned that for many decades of the 20th century, the Michigan State Forestry Department supported a maple syrup research and demonstration program. Like most maple syrup research programs, this included a working sugarbush and sugar house. Archival research revealed that the first sugar house was built around 1915 and was used for approximately ten years before being lost to a fire. A replacement sugar house was built on the same site and was used through the 1930s to the 1960s at which time the structure was torn down.
I’ve always been interested in the history of the maple syrup program at MSU with a particular attention to the work of Forestry Professor Putnam Robbins. “Put” Robbins came through the MSU Forestry program as a student in the 1940s, where he researched and wrote his 1948 Master’s Thesis on the effects of tapping location on maple sap flow, before becoming an MSU Extension Forester. As an Extension Forester in the Forestry Department he was encouraged to continue his interest and applied research with the maple industry.
My interest in Robbins centers around the history of work he did with Robert Costilow, an MSU campus microbiologist, to develop a tablet to be inserted into the tapholes of maple trees with the idea that the anti-microbial effects of paraformaldehyde, its active ingredient, would increase the volume and prolong the flow of maple sap during the tapping season. Known as the PF tablet, the tablets did that job quite well but it was discovered that this chemical application also were harmful to the long-term health of the maple trees and it was subsequently banned for use in the maple syrup industry in the US and Canada in the 1990s.
Of course, the PF tablet history does not directly play into the sorts of things that the archaeologist might learn from their investigations of the remains of the MSU sugar house, but it goes to show that the MSU forestry department and maple syrup program made significant contributions to the history of the maple industry. Who knows, maybe the detailed look into the history of this program coupled with on the ground archaeological investigations of the Campus Archaeology Program will expand our knowledge and appreciation even further. I, for one, am glad that they are looking and giving it the attention it deserves and will be following their progress reports on their blog and the Campus Archaeology Program Facebook page.
UPDATE –
Research by the Michigan State University Campus Archaeology Program continues to learn more about the history and role of the sugarhouse in the campus’ Sanford Woodlot. See their November 7, 2018 blog post for an update on their progress.