Ghost of the Sugar House

[Clan Delaney]

My sister-in-law and her husband have mentioned a few times that they'd heard of the burned remains of an old sugarhouse in the woods behind their place. On Sunday, we went to take a look.

There is nothing at all left of the sugarhouse structure. Broken glass, a stone foundation, but that's all. What is still there is a gigantic, authentic Leader evaporator, complete with drop flue pans!! Sadly, there's more rust than anything else. now. Sadder still - I noticed that the rear pan has the remains of wooden rails on it. They show no sign of charring, which suggests to me that the fire that destroyed the structure didn't do any serious damage to the evaporator. That means that after the fire, this magnificent beauty was left to the elements.

I'm dying to get back out there and find a way to remove the front of the arch - the part with the Leader name on it. It would look magnificent cleaned up, painted and hanging in my shack. Perhaps above the door. Far more dignified than being reclaimed by time and Mother Nature.

You can see all the pics we took with the not-so-great cell phone camera here (http://picasaweb.google.com/pat.delaney/OldEvaporator#).

[waysidemaple]

Sweet find. I have the same thing up behind my house. The shack fell down a few years ago but the collection tank and an old 3 by 5 flat pan made of english tin are still in it plus about 150 buckets that are way to rusted to use. I brought the pan down last spring and about 150 bucket lids and put it away, Ill have the go up this week and take pictures and bring down the arch. It would be neat to have set up someday just as a demo type deal.

[heus]

Patrick thats awesome. I love to look at old finds like that. There are the remains of my great grandfather's Warren evaporator in our woods. All that's left are pieces of the arch, part of the old bobsled, and the bottom halves of some rusty sap buckets. Also the cornerstones of the old sugarhouse. I have one of the doors to the arch on the wall in our sugarhouse. Maybe you could start a thread where people post old pictures like that.

[3rdgen.maple]

Finds like that are very cool. A little walk back in time. Patrick what kind of shape are the arch rails and such in. I bet you could revive some of it with new tin. You could always shorten it up to fit your needs and buy new pans. Now that would be cool if the rails are good. Wonder if you dig around a little if you could find the doors as well.

[gmcooper]

Cool find! Unfortunately there are many similar stories out there of abandoned sugarhouses. One near my inlaws that I've never seen but my grandfather used to hunt near it and said one year the owners made syrup closed up for the season and never went back. Everthing was there for many years till it all fell in. Supposed to have been 2000 buckets.

[3rdgen.maple]

After thinking about it I have a guy a few miles away that inhereted his fathers farm that has a sugarhouse on it. I stopped there a few times as the son does not boil and every year it looks closer and closer to caving in. The son will not part with anything in there and wont let anyone in. Told him I was not looking for freebies and if anything of interest was in there I would make it worth his time but he refuses. Sad cause I know his father tapped over a 1000 taps and it was a nice setup.

[Revi]

I went with a friend and found his grandfather's spot where he had a sugarhouse. There was the remains of a 3x10 laying in the woods and you could see where the shack was. It was probably abandoned in the 50's.

It makes you wonder what will be left of our sugaring operations in fifty or a hundred years.

[3rdgen.maple]

Yeah good point. Hopefully somebody come across mine when Im gone and being all stainless it finds a new home. Better yet I hope it gets passed down for a few more generations. Maybe Ill engrave mapletrader.com in it and that person or next generations to come sign on here and reads this. Now that would be cool. So if you are reading this and it is like 3010 treat her good. lol

[sapbrush]

some things are beter left to the ghosts from the past,realy cool find

[wally]

some things are beter left to the ghosts from the past,realy cool find

indeed.

leave 'em be, especially if they aren't on your property. ;)

[Dill]

Hanging the arch in the sugar house is a great idea.
There is a giant arch up in the woods at my aunts up in Derby. Its a True and Blanchard probably 5ft wide. It would look cool hanging on the wood shed side.

[Clan Delaney]

indeed.

leave 'em be, especially if they aren't on your property. ;)

Don't get me wrong... I intend to find out who owns it first. No rush, it's not like it's going anywhere!