Danville sugarhouse original pics

[MainelyMaple]

I was fortunate enough to learn the rest of the history of the sugarhouse we are using. Once they ran the article on us in the paper the people who use to sugar it got ahold of us. they showed us all of the old slides and allowed me to make prints from them.

The sugarhouse (he called it Rock Maple Mountain) was built in 1954 By Raymond Hearn who has since passed but his wife, son, and daughter in law have given me all of this information.

The sugarbush was going to be logged off but someone in town knew that raymond was interested in maple syrup and told him about it, he was able to purchase the land, and essentially saved that sugarbush.

He had about 1000-1200 buckets.He boiled on a 4X12 leader evaporator which we still have the cast doors in the sugarhouse, we are going to hang them on the wall.

He originally collected sap with a horse but eventually bought the tractor.

He bought the 5 ton train engine from a company in bangor and it was used to haul pulp wood. before that the train came from south america.

As this was going on the Maine turnpike was being built through Auburn. the Hearn's lived in a large farm house and were asked if some of the contstruction workers could stay with them. the construction workers got really excited about what Raymond was doing and convincer their bosses to take some equipment to build the railroad bed, which is still there today.

Besides that Raymond laid all of the ties himself with some help from friends and family.

Well here are the pictures i got:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/284500-R1-00-0.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-25-25.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-24-24.jpg

[MainelyMaple]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-23-23.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-22-22.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-21-21.jpg

[MainelyMaple]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-20-20.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-19-19.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-18-18.jpg

[MainelyMaple]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-17-17.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-16-16.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-15-15.jpg

[MainelyMaple]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-13-13.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-12-12.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-11-11.jpg

[MainelyMaple]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-07-7.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-09-9.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-10-10.jpg

[MainelyMaple]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-06-6.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-04-4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-03-3.jpg

[MainelyMaple]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-00-0.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-01-1.jpg

And thats about all of them. sorry for all the pics lol i got kinda carried away. hope you enjoy as much as i did

[tom jr.]

Mainely, those are some sweet old pictures, Its alwase fun to hear about the history of a sugarbush. Im glad to see your getting it up and running again, Do you think you will be tapping the whole bush in the future?

[tuckermtn]

those are some great shots...I would love to tap a place like that with such a rich history...

best of luck...

[MainelyMaple]

Tom- we are definetly planning on tapping the whole bush in the future. we are starting with 500 next spring and adding about 500 or so each year.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

GREAT PICS! Enjoy that bush as much as the previous owner.

[johnallin]

Make a hill so you can transfer your sap using plain ole' gravity!
Best part of the pictures for me. Now those folks knew how to solve a problem! I am inspired and in awe.

[gmcooper]

Wow those are really nice pics!
Are you sure you don't want trade that site for 800 red maples?????? LOL

It was good to see the progress you made this year. Next year will be a huge change for sure.

Did you find out why he built the sugar house on the hill instead of at the bottom?

Mark

[40to1]

Great photos!
Thanks for posting them. It was interesting to see the size of the operation, but I was also surprised by the innocent details: the kids wearing saddle shoes as they washed buckets, and ALL those buckets! It was also strange to see people getting along fairly well without a strand of microfiber, Thinsulate, or GoreTex anywhere to be seen.

The small hill from which to run down the sap got me. That was a good one.

[Flat47]

Great pics...thanks for sharing. I really like seeing a place stay in production like that. Lots of history. Great looking place, too.

[Amber Gold]

Nice pics...good luck

[TapME]

its great to know that it is in good hands now. As said before any help you need just give me a ring.

[tuckermtn]

perhaps a future site of a maplehaulics meeting? sign me up...

[MainelyMaple]

Sounds like a good idea.....maybe about the time im gonna set up the tubing? lol ill supply the beer......

[TapME]

Its a long journey but I will be there if the meeting is called to order.

[NH Maplemaker]

Sounds like a good idea.....maybe about the time im gonna set up the tubing? lol ill supply the beer......

Sound to me like he just called the meeting to order!! All we need now is a date!! JimL.

[KenWP]

Is there any records of the production this fellow got from the sugar bush. Can you find today any of the trees in the pictures also. I was wondering how much they grew in all those years.

[MainelyMaple]

Is there any records of the production this fellow got from the sugar bush. Can you find today any of the trees in the pictures also. I was wondering how much they grew in all those years.


I dont believe there are any production records. His son did tell me that he never got the amount of sap he had ever hoped for from this north slope bush. i hope to overcome this with vacuum.

a few of the trees i notice particularly the ones directly in front of the sugarhouse. they have not got significantly bigger over the 50 years.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/192067-R1-22-22.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/SMorin119/Sugaring%202009/maple041.jpg

i also noticed there aren't as many trees right around the sugarhouse as there use to be but the ones that are there are definitely bigger.