Sap Spout Company Histories: Willis Sap Spout

By Matthew M. Thomas

 Image of Eben Willis’ 1877 patent design for maple sap spout that was never manufactured.

The history of the Willis Sap Spout is a curious story of business partners, misleading patent claims, and changing manufacturers. The Willis Sap Spout began with Eben Willis obtaining a patent in April 1877 (US189,330) for a rather curious sap spout design. Willis was a farmer and sugarmaker from Colton, New York who designed an odd-stubby-shaped cast iron spout with a sharp sloping channel at the front, a pin to suspend a bucket from its handle and a lower hook to suspend a bucket as an alternative hanging method. It has been long suspected by expert sap spout collectors that this 1877 patent design by Willis was never put into production, and according to testimony by Willis in a later court case it is true that no spouts under the April 1877 patent design were ever produced.

Image of Willis’ 1891 sap spout patent design, sold with patent dates of both 1877 and 1891 embossed on the side. This is the first Willis Sap Spout.

The first Willis Sap Spout actually produced looks nothing like the true 1877 patent design and was curiously embossed with a “PAT’D” on one side and “1877” on the other side and featured a square apex (point inserted into tap hole) and both an open and closed top channel for sap. Contrary to the claimed patent date, this Willis spout was designed and first manufactured beginning sometime after 1877; however, it wasn’t actually patented until 1891 (US455,784). In addition to the incorrect 1877 patent date, many of this version of the Willis Spout were embossed with the correct patent date of 1891 as well.

Advertisement flyer for Willis & Spear sale of the Willis Sap Spout, showing an open channel variation on the 1891 patent design.

Willis entered into a 50-50 partnership in 1879 with local Canton mill owner and banker James Spear for patent ownership and the production and sale of the Willis Spout. In these early years Willis & Spear handled the sale and distribution of the spout themselves and listed their business location as Troy, New York, although both men were longtime Canton residents. The Willis Spout was clearly being produced and sold in sufficient quantities by 1880 to have gotten the attention of C.C. Post, the manufacturer of the Eureka Sap Spout.  C.C. Post claimed that Willis and his spout manufacturer, Floyd Chamberlin & Company, had infringed on his patent claims with their design.

Article that appeared in the Burlington Free Press in February 1880 describing a patent infringement meeting between C.C. Post and the manufacturers of the Willis Sap Spout.

According to Post, upon examination by “two chosen patent law experts”, Floyd, Chamberlin & Company agreed that it was an infringement and ceased production immediately. While it may be true that the manufacturing company may have elected to cease production, Eben Willis himself took a much different view and declared in his local newspaper that he would not be intimidated by C.C. Post. This seems to be the case and in 1887 Eben Willis, operating as Willis and Spear, contracted with Charles Millar and Sons out of Utica, New York for the exclusive sale of the Willis Sap Spout in the United States, with plans to produce at least 100,000 spouts a year. The sap spouts were actually manufactured at a foundry in Connecticut who shipped the spouts to Millar and Sons. Around this time, Willis also contracted with the James Smart Manufacturing Company, LTD in Brockville, Ontario for the sale of the spout in Canada.

1889 advertisement for Charles Millar & Sons sale of the Willis Sap Spout.

In 1886 it was announced that Eben Willis had designed and would soon be manufacturing an arch to support sap pans, although further information on the success or design of this arch has not yet been found. Similarly, in 1891 Willis claimed in the local paper to have designed and patented his own evaporator and would soon begin production; however, no evidence of an evaporator design attributed to Willis, let alone a patent, has been found.

1901 advertisement for the Hunting-Weekes Company sale of the Willis Sap Spout showing both open and closed channel variations on the 1898 skeleton apex design.

After Spear unsuccessfully requested that they dissolve their partnership, with Willis “buying out” Spear, James Spear sued Willis in 1890 to recover the value and profits from his half of ownership of the patent, manufacturing and sale of the Willis Sap Spout.  Willis attempted to claim that their partnership was based on the April 1877 patent (US189330) which was a design that in fact was never used to produce the Willis spout. Instead, Willis claimed that Spear had no claim to the actual Willis Sap Spout that was produced and sold. Unfortunately, for Willis, he lost the case against him as well as two appeals and in the end the partnership was fully dissolved, and Willis was forced to compensate Spear for $5000.

Image of Willis’ 1898 patent design featuring the skeleton style apex on the portion of the spout that rest in the sap hole and permits sap to enter the spout channel.

In 1898 Willis was awarded another design patent (US606613) for a spout similar to the 1891 design with the key difference being the square apex being replaced with a cross-shaped apex sometimes called a skeleton apex. Interestingly, Willis repeated his earlier fudging of patent dates when he falsely stamped an earlier patent date of 1891 on the 1898 patent design. The Willis Sap Spout made on the skeleton apex design that was awarded a patent in 1898 were sometimes embossed with “PAT’D” and “1891”, as well as the more accurate “1898” and even “1899”. Testimony from the partnership and patent ownership court case between Spear and Willis noted that “from time to time different alterations and improvements have been made to the spout” further explaining the many subtle variations now found to vex the antique sap spout collectors. See Hale Mattoon’s book Maple Spouts Taps & Tools for illustrations of all the variations of the Willis Sap Spout.

Following the end of the contract with Millar and Sons, around 1900 Willis contracted with the Hunting-Weekes Company of Watertown, New York to be the exclusive sale representatives of the Willis Sap Spouts. Eben Willis died at age 83 on July 31, 1906 in Canton, New York, bringing production and sale of the Willis Sap Spout to an end.

Sap Spout Company Histories: C.C. Post – Eureka Sap Spout

Charles Covil Post, better known as C.C. Post, was the inventor and maker of one of the first and most widely used, mass produced metal maple sap spouts. Born on January 18, 1831 in Hinesburgh, Vermont, Post was the son of A.H. Post, an industrious builder, farmer and cheese maker.

C.C. Post tin shop in old brick general store on Main Street in Hinesburgh, Vermont.

As a young single man C.C. Post worked as a farmer, but soon after his marriage in  1851  Post shifted to the metal work business, opening C.C. Post’s stove and tinware shop in Hinesburgh near the corner of Main Street and Mechanicsville Road.   At the time, Post occupied the former Hinesburgh general store, a brick building built in 1820 at the center of town.

1857 Map of Hinesburgh, Vermont showing location of C.C. Post tin shop.
Advertisement from 1863 for the sale of Cook’s Sugar Evaporator with C.C. Post of Hinesburgh as the sales agent.

C.C. Post’s entry in the maple sugar equipment business came in late 1862 or early 1863 when he secured the rights to manufacture and sell the Cook’s Sugar Evaporator. Introduced in 1859 by Daniel McFarland Cook out of Mansfield, Ohio, the new Cook’s evaporator introduced a maze-like network of baffles that facilitated the continuous flow of sap into syrup, notably more advanced and efficient than the commonly used flat pans and kettles of the time. As a result the Cook’s evaporator saw immediate popularity; however, no one was manufacturing the units locally. With the first Cook’s evaporators manufactured in Ohio and shipped to Vermont, becoming the exclusive agent for sale in Vermont quickly spread the name C.C. Post among maple sugar makers.

Image from C.C. Post’s first sap spout design patent awarded in 1868 (US84032).

Although there is no indication C.C. Post was ever a sugarmaker, he know the business and basics of its operation and began to develop his own ideas on sap spout designs and in November 1868 was awarded a patent for his first sap spout design (US84032).  Having his own sap spout to sell along with the popular Cook’s evaporator, in 1869 C.C. Post focused his metal manufacturing efforts from general tin and stove works to just making sap spouts and selling maple sugaring equipment. With this focus on maple equipment making he briefly moved his operation from Hinesburgh to Waterbury for the year 1869 then in 1870 moved his business and home to Burlington.

Advertisement for C.C. Post’s Eureka Sap Spout from 1869 with his location listed as Waterbury, Vermont as he transitioned his operations from Hinesburgh to Burlington.

Post later sold his tin works building in Hinesburgh in 1881 to John S. Patrick who started the Reed and Patrick tin works. While in Burlington, Post initially resided on Colchester Street before later buying a lot at 83 North Union Street and building a home there in 1877. It is unclear where exactly C.C. Post carried out the foundry work of pouring the hundreds of thousands of cast iron metal taps he made. There was once a large barn that was possibly workshop or warehouse on the property behind the house on North Union Street. The house was listed in Burlington directories as both his residential and the official business address for his maple hardware business. Current owners of the house informed me that the barn was in poor condition and torn down. A block of eight condos were more recently built on the site of the former barn.

Aerial shot of C.C. Post house at 83 North Union Street in Burlington, Vermont.

From the get-go C.C. Post called his spout the Eureka and as arguably the first widely available cast iron spout was very popular and used extensively across the maple industry. While more expensive than the commonly used tubular wood spouts, cast iron spouts were durable, nested snugly in the taphole, were less prone to getting sour during the season, and were easily washable for years of continued use.

Portrait drawing of C.C. Post.

The Eureka sap spout was probably the most popular and best-selling sap spout in the 1870s and 1880s and Post didn’t hesitate to defend his spout designs against possible patent infringement. In 1879 C.C. Post declared, contrary to the claims by F.E. Lord that the Boss Sap Spout did not infringe on the patent for the Eureka Sap Spout, the Boss design infringed on a design owned by Post that was originally patented to James B. Sargent in 1868 (US76530), later owned and re-issued by Post in 1878 (USRE8495). A history of the Boss sap spout will be covered in a later post.  In another case with the makers of the Willis Sap Spout dating to 1880, patent law experts were consulted and as reported in the Burlington Free Press that “the Willis sap spout and bucket hanger was decided to be so clearly an infringement that the manufacturers decided to at once discontinue its manufacture and sale.”

Image from one of C.C. Post’s later sap spout design patents awarded in 1871 (US117326).

Post continued to tweak his sap spout design and was awarded at least two more patents for new sap spout designs (US117326 and US117457) on July 25, 1871. He also developed a unique metal sap pail in 1870 that featured an indented or curved face at the point of the hanging hole to more tightly fit against the curve of the tree (US107407). It is interesting to study and compare the designs in Post’s patents and the images of spouts that appear in his advertisements, since the drawings are sometimes very different.

Advertisement for C.C. Posts Eureka Sap Spouts No. 1 and No.2. Notice the claim of over 11 million spouts sold.

Even more interesting is to look at the actual preserved examples of C.C. Post’s spouts in various antique maple spout collections. To learn more about these spout variations I highly recommend consulting Hale Mattoon’s comprehensive book Maple Spouts Spiles & Taps and Tools. Mattoon has done an incredible job of analyzing and describing these many subtle differences and changes that occurred with Post’s new patent designs and production changes.

Image of evaporator patent from J.F. Ferguson and C.C. Post awarded in 1884 (US308407).

In 1884, in conjunction with Burlington-based dairy equipment manufacturer and tin worker James F. Ferguson, C.C. Post was awarded a patent for a maple sap evaporator (US308407); however, despite both men being experienced with making and selling metal tools and equipment to the maple industry, there is no indication that this evaporator design was ever put into production.

Following the marriage of his daughter Lora L. Post to Charles C. Stelle of Brooklyn, New York in 1892, C.C. Post sold his sap spout and maple equipment business to his new son-in-law Stelle and retired from business. With the sale to Stelle, the business address for the manufacturing of Eureka spouts moved from 83 North Union Street in Burlington to 81 Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.

1894 advertisement for Chas. C. Stelle’s sales of Eureka Sap Spouts with a Brooklyn business address.

C.C. Post died in October 1899 in Burlington, Vermont at age 68, either from the complications of a spinal injury from a bicycle accident, as reported in his obituary, or from the effects of a stroke as reported on his death record. With his death, the value of C.C. Post’s property and estate totaled $167,000 which was divided evenly among his five surviving daughters.

Although not a lot is known about Charles C. Stelle, who was better known in Brooklyn as a real estate agent, he carried on the production, sales and promotion of the Eureka sap spout into the early 1900s. In 1912 Stelle came up with his own modification to Post’s Eureka spout and obtained a patent on his design modification (US104834). Advertisements for the sale the Stelle-Eureka sap spout continued to appear through 1916, after which it appears that sales and production by Stelle ceased. Charles C. Stelle passed away at age 61 in his Huntington, New York home in 1924.

Upcoming Presentation: A Sugarbush Like None Other

On Wednesday, September 9th I will be making an online virtual presentation to discuss the research and story from my new book A Sugarbush Like None Other: Adirondack Maple Syrup and the Horse Shoe Forestry Company. The presentation will be hosted by the Goff-Nelson Memorial Library in Tupper Lake, New York.

Here is additional information on the event and how to attend:

Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 7 PM – 8 PM EDT

Online Event Hosted by Goff-Nelson Memorial Library

Email goffnelson@gmail.com to request the Zoom invite.

A sugarbush of 50,000 taps, a network of pipelines to carry sap from the woods to collection points, with sap boiled on colossal evaporators in a series of syrup plants sounds like a description of a modern industrial maple syrup operation. For Abbot Augustus Low’s Horse Shoe Forestry Company 120 years ago, it was a novel attempt at making maple syrup in the Adirondack wilderness on a scale never before experienced. From 1896 to 1908, A.A. Low and his army of workers carved an industrial landscape out of the forest around Horseshoe Lake, complete with railroads, electrification, mills, dams, a private camp, and the centerpiece maple syrup operation. In time the landscape of A.A. Low’s private estate changed hands and uses, but as told in Matthew Thomas’ new the book, A Sugarbush Like None Other, the remnants of the story of the Horse Shoe Forestry Company can still be found on the land.

Please join author Matthew Thomas on September 9th at 7 pm for a virtual presentation of his research and field investigations that went into documenting the history and remains of the Horse Shoe Forestry Company.

The Unique Vocabulary of Maple Sugaring – A Few References

With any specialized activity a certain lingo, slang, or jargon develops over time and space. Terminology may include unique terms and phrases  that form a vocabulary clearly understood by those that participate in the activity but which may be confusing or misunderstood by outsiders. The term maple sugaring is a good example of a term that is clearly understood by vast majority of people who make maple syrup to inclusively represent the entirety of the business of converting maple sap to some kind of maple syrup, sugar, candy, or confectionary product; yet, the term maple sugaring is confusing to outsiders and those not in the know.

Maple sugaring is an activity with a vocabulary all its own with terms and meanings that are broadly and universally understood by all maple producers across international borders. There are also regionally unique terms that are only used in different parts of the United States or Canada. In some cases, a term used in one region or state may be entirely foreign to another area. Other terms are now becoming antiquated with changing technology and the development of a more universal and less vernacular English language. Fortunately, a few individuals have taken time to document the terminology of maple sugaring which I have shared here.

First up is an article titled Maple Sugar Language in Vermont by Dr. Margaret M. Bryant, a professor of English at Brooklyn College, who spent time documenting maple sugaring vocabulary one summer in 1947 in Vermont. Dr. Bryant’s obituary described her as “an expert on grammar, linguistics, proverbs and folklore” suggesting she had a well-tuned ear and was sensitive to the importance of recording the cultural heritage of New England maple producers.  She was a founding member and president of the American Name Society, a group dedicated to the study of, origin, history, and use of proper names. Dr. Bryant’s study, published by the American Dialect Society, is notable for the time period in which it was gathered and published, namely in the era before the replacement of stock animals by trucks and tractors and before the replacement of metal sap pails by flexible plastic tubing. To read the article, click on the image of the article above or select this link.

I encourage readers to scan through the Bryant article and see how many terms she documented are familiar to them and still used today and reflect on what new or different terms are currently in use. Language evolves and changes; old terms die off and new terms are born. What would we include in an updated version of this vocabulary?

A slightly more humorous take on regional differences in the language of maple producers was  A sugaring vocabulary primer,  written by John Page, a former University of Vermont Extension Agent March 8, 1978. Published in the Bennington Banner newspaper, Page used the differences in maple jargon in Michigan versus the “correct” terminology of Vermont to shed light on the sometimes quirky or distinctive words adopted by maple producers over time.

On the French language front, there is an even larger collection of maple sugaring terms and phrases documented between 1984 and 1986 by the Quebec Office of the French Language. Organized like an alphabetical dictionary, the document is entirely in French, but with the aid of Google Translate, English speakers can stumble through and discover the many words and phrases unique to French-speaking maple producers and maybe even learn a few terms that will raise an eyebrow in surprise from our maple producing friends across the border. Compiled by Jude Des Chênes and published in 1988, the Vocabulaire de l’acériculture comprises 645 numbered terms and phrases.  The “Vocabulaire” does includes an index in English to the numbered entries, but all the entries are in French, so back to Google Translate for a more careful reading. Surprisingly, this “vocabulaire” is virtually unavailable in libraries in the United States, so hopefully this complete PDF of the dictionary is useful to interested readers.

Here are a few additional links to websites with more contemporary lists of maple syrup lingo:

https://saphoundsyrup.com/blogs/kettletender/maple-syrup-lingo

http://www.ctmaple.org/uploads/1/1/7/9/11794542/glossary_of_terms.pdf

https://www.hallfarms.com/maine-maple-sweet-talk

 

New Book – A Sugarbush Like None Other

My new book on maple history has hit the streets, titled A Sugarbush Like None Other: Adirondack Maple Syrup and the Horse Shoe Forestry Company. This book is the culmination of a number of years of archival and field research into the story and historic remains of Abbot Augustus Low’s turn of the century industrial scale maple syrup operation deep in the woods of the Adirondack wilderness of New York state. The size and complexity of A.A. Low’s maple operation was like nothing ever seen, either before, or for a long time after. As described in the eBay listing for online orders:

A sugarbush of 50,000 taps, a network of pipelines to carry sap from the woods to collection points, with sap boiled on colossal evaporators in a series of syrup plants sounds like a description of a modern industrial maple syrup operation.  For Abbot Augustus Low’s Horse Shoe Forestry Company 120 years ago, it was a novel attempt at making maple syrup in the Adirondack wilderness on a scale never before experienced. This is the interesting tale of how from 1896 to 1908 one man, A.A. Low and his army of workers, carved an industrial landscape out of the forest, complete with railroads, electrification, mills, dams, a private camp, and the centerpiece maple syrup operation.  

The book is  illustrated with dozens of photographs, historic and recent, as well as original maps, and extensive documentation and references.  With a soft cover format, the story is told across the following eleven chapters spanning 202 pages.

1      Introduction

2      A.A. Low – The Man and His Family

3      The Industrial Landscape and Estate of A.A. Low

4      Maple Sugaring in the Late Nineteenth Century

5      Making Maple Syrup and Maple Sugar at Horseshoe

6      Grasse River Sugarbush

7      Wake Robin Sugarbush

8      Maple Valley Sugarbush

9      Syrup House and Sugarbush Operations

10    An End and New Beginnings

11    Conclusion and Final Thoughts

A Sugarbush Like None Other is available for immediate purchase through eBay at this link and will be on the shelf of bookstores and gifts shops in the northern New York and Adirondack region later this year.

Reynolds Sugarbush History Book Available Here

I am happy to share on this website a digital version of the late Lynn H. Reynolds’ book Reynolds, Maple and History: Fit for Kings. This colossal book shares the story of many generations of Reynolds family maple syrup making within the broader context of the history of maple industry in North America. Especially interesting in the book are the first hand memories and experiences of members of the Reynolds family from Wisconsin who were engaged at all levels and components of the maple industry for much of the 20th century. In particular, Adin Reynolds and his two sons Lynn and Juan Reynolds saw it all, from making a lot of maple syrup (they were the largest operation in the world for many years in the 1960s and 1970s), equipment sales, buying and selling syrup, to organizational leadership at the state, national, and international levels.

Originally published in 1998 with a limited number of copies printed, the book quickly sold out and went out of print. Having been asked on numerous occasions by folks interested in maple history where they might get a copy I decided to contact the Reynolds family and thankfully they were kind enough to grant me permission to create a PDF copy of the book and make it available to people for free on this website.

The book covers 578 pages, so be advised, the digital file is fairly large at 115 mb. In addition, I created an index for the maple syrup history topics covered in the book and have included it at the end of the PDF version. You can down load the book HERE or by clicking on the image of the book above.

New Book – Boiling Off: The Story of Maple Sugaring in Maine

In January of this year, Down East Books released a new book by John Hodgkins titled Boiling Off: The Story of Maple Sugaring in Maine. As the name implies, the book focuses on the often-overlooked place of Maine in the North American maple syrup industry. Hodgkins brings together skill as a writer with previous book and magazine articles to his credit, and his experience as a sugarmaker, one who has made award winning syrup and served two terms as the president of the Maine Maple Syrup Producers Association, to helps us better understand recent Maine maple history and shed some light on the people that made it possible.

The book has four main themes that all interrelate and for which Hodgkins was and is intimately familiar. These are the origins and evolution of Hodgkins own maple syrup business, the development and events of the Maine Maple Producers Association, the role and impact of constantly improving new technology in the maple industry, and the recent growth and influence of the State of Maine, and especially Somerset County, in the larger story of North American maple syrup.

Hodgkins’ handling of all of these themes is interesting and informative, especially coming from the experiences of someone that was there first-hand. For example, Hodgkins shares how his own thinking and use of paraformaldehyde pellets changed from one of eager support to concern and abandonment in light of changing public opinion, personal observations, and scientific evidence of the harm to trees. I especially appreciated how Hodgkins presented his personal experiences and technological change in his sugarbush within the context of how such changes and innovations were being introduced and adopted in Maine and the greater maple industry.

Although it is the most recent part of the Maine maple story, as a historian I was very glad to see the book devote a significant portion to the expansion of Maine syrup production. Hodgkins traces the growth of Maine maple from being a sleepy maple syrup backwater making 8,000 gallons a year and lagging in ninth place among maple producing states, to producing three quarters of a million gallons of syrup and becoming the third most productive maple syrup state in the course of 30 short years. A significant part of that story is centered on the unique situation in the northwestern part of the state, adjacent to Quebec, where there is a long history of Quebeckers who live in Canada and travel across the border to Maine to lease and operate sugarbushes on largely privately held timber company lands. Producing mostly bulk syrup sold to American buyers, these producers in Somerset County have experienced exponential growth with many now running 30,000 to 80,000 taps operations making Somerset county the most productive county in the US.

I was also glad to see a number of pages dedicated to the origins and activities of the Maine Maple Producers Association. It is great to see an accounting of how this organization brought the Maine Maple Sunday to life and how they have adjusted to the changes over time in the make-up of their membership and importance of different regions in the state. It is a personal wish of mine that more state and provincial maple organizations would make an effort to research and write their histories and take advantage of preserving the memories and institutional knowledge of their older and long-standing members.

The book is written in an easy to read, sometimes folksy tone and it is Hodgkins’ story to tell, so he freely interjects his own opinions and thoughts on any number of topics and themes outlined above. It is very Maine-centric, and should make no apologies for it, after all, as the title says, that is the point. Hodgkins is a good story teller, if a bit repetitive in his telling. Many of the chapters read as if they were written as stand-alone columns or journal entries, which may explain the jumping back and forth between a first-person story-telling narrative and a third person journalistic narrative.

At 215 pages in length, the book is a rich first-hand description written from Hodgkins personal memory of events since the 1960s. From a historical perspective, the book is largely focused on the last 60 years, which is one of its strengths and which is an especially interesting time in the history of Maine maple syrup production. I highly recommend this book for those looking to learn more about Maine’s growing place in the North American maple industry and for a personal account of the ebbs and flows of the realities of being a mid-size to smaller commercial maple syrup producer in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

The book can be purchased in paperback for $19.95, plus shipping, through various online outlets like Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com. It is also available as a Kindle edition.

Archaeological Investigations of Old Sugaring Site in Minnesota

The spring 2020 edition of the Minnesota Archaeological Society newsletter features an article titled Boiling Arch Archaeology by Nicole Foss. This article, available here, describes recent archaeological investigations that documented the remains of two u-shaped boiling arches in Interstate State Park, near the St. Croix River and Taylors Falls, Minnesota.

One arch was constructed of bermed earth, stone, and brick while the other, probably later arch, was built poured concrete with three walls and a concrete floor. Historical research and archaeological investigations determined that the arches were probably open air boiling sites used by local syrup makers of European-American descent in the late 1800s to mid-1900s.

Archaeologist have been recording the remains of former maple sugaring and syrup making sites in the upper midwest for the last 40 years, although it is only in the last 20 years that there has been an increase in recognizing and documenting boiling arches as important features of many sugaring sites of both Euro-American and Native American sugarmakers. The report of finding these two arches is a valuable contribution to the historic archaeological record in Minnesota.

In addition to providing permission to share the newsletter article here, site investigators Jacob Foss, Nicole Foss, and David Radford were kind enough to share a few additional photographs from the site.

Photograph of earth and stone u-shaped boiling arch at Hobb’s Woods maple sugaring site, Interstate State Park, Minnesota.
Photograph of the remains of the concrete U-shaped boiling arch at the Hobb’s Woods maple sugaring site in Interstate State Park, Minnesota.
Photograph of a metal maple sugaring spout found at the Hobb’s Woods maple sugaring site at Interstate State Park, Minnesota.

A Pair of Recent Maple History Presentations

In January 2020 I had the honor of being invited to the Vermont Maple Conference to make a couple of presentations on historical research I had conducted in the last few years. One presentation was a condensed version of the story of George C. Cary and the Cary Maple Sugar Company, which is the topic of my book Maple King: The Making of a Maple Syrup Empire. The second presentation was on new research I have completed for an article currently in review for publication in the journal Vermont History. This research traces the  early origins and development of the use of plastic tubing for gathering maple sap in the maple syrup industry.

University of Vermont Extension Maple Specialist Mark Isselhardt arranged to have the audio from both presentations recorded in association with the presentation slides and posted these on the UVM Extension Maple Website. You can click on the following presentation titles or the title slides here to link to the full audio/slide show for each one. Enjoy!

Presentation titled  – Vermont’s Maple King: The History of George C. Cary and the Cary Maple Sugar Company  – 42 minutes in length

 

Presentation titled History of the Origins and Development of Plastic Tubing in the Maple Syrup Industry – 50 minutes in length

 

 

100 Years of Quebec Maple History – A New Book from the Quebec Maple Federation

To mark 100 years of maple production, in February, Quebec’s maple federation, Producteurs et productrices acéricoles du Québec published a book on the history of maple sugaring and syrup making in Quebec titled Si l’érable m’était conté, 1920 – 2020: un siècle d’acériculture au Québec, which roughly translates in English to “If maple was told to me, 1920 – 2020: a century of maple syrup production in Quebec.”

The book is written in French and covers 16 chapters. It cost $22 CAD and can be ordered online at the Federation website. in addition there is a sample excerpt of the book, including the table of contents that can be found here.

The available copies may be limited, so if interested, I suggest one order online soon. I look forward to receiving my copy in the mail and will post a summary and review at a later date.