Sugar House History

Sugar House History

Maple Syrup production is a thriving business in our county from days gone by to present.  Maple Sugar harvest in Pennsylvania pre-dates recorded history.  Marty Roloson and his family harvested sap from the Sugar Maple trees which are limited to the northeast quadrant of the North America continent.  In these Sugar houses is where the sap is processed into maple sugar products from Maple syrup to maple candy.

Sugar House History

The Sugar House originally located on the Stryker Farm in Columbia Cross Roads, PA. was moved to The Heritage Village in 1999. It took a crew 4 days to completely dismantle and load the building onto a flat bed truck for transfer. The move involved cutting tress and clearing brush from the grounds. The moving crew included: leader Richard Rogers, Warren Driscoll, Heather Packard, Liston Slater and James Trujillo and the project was funded by Bradford County Action through their Summer Youth Service Corp employment program.  

The Sugar House contains early tree tapping equipment, wooden yokes and wooden carrying buckets, large vat for boiling down sap to syrup and various containers. Outside is an oxen drawn sled with a large wooden tub for gathering the sap and transporting it to the Sugar House.  Generally the ratio of sap to syrup for the sugar maple is 40 to 1 or 40 gallons of sap make one gallon of maple syrup.  Fill a 5 gallon bucket of sap and boil it approximately 4 hours and the syrup is done when it reaches 219 degrees farinheit or 66% sugar content.

American Indians first discovered how to make maple syrup years ago.  They collected sap from Birch bark by boiling it in a hollowed out log with sap and rocks to hold the heat.  They had no way to store the sticky liquid so they boiled it longer and made maple candy.  They  annual tradition of making maple syrup has been part of Pennsylvania history for well over 200 years.