Maple Sugar Festival & Pancake Breakfast
Enjoy fresh air and delicious aroma of simmering syrup with the whole family (Kids are FREE).
Set off into the woods in search of sweet adventure along the Maple History Trail. As you hike through the sugar bush you'll see trees tapped with modern plastic tubing, metal spiles and wooden wedges. Stops along the trail demonstrate sap collection and sugaring methods from the earliest settlers to the present day.
Learn fun trivia about sugar maples and how to identify them. Become a pro at selecting trees for tapping, then try your hand using sugaring tools that evolved throughout the 19th century in concert with new technologies. Feel what it was like to hike through the snow and manage sap buckets on a shoulder yoke
Explore our NEW sugarhouse! Amid billows of steam our modern evaporator boils down clear, sweetish maple sap into thick, amber maple syrup. Stick around for a complimentary taste treat – sugar on snow – or stop by the Nature Center for delicious maple cotton candy ($). Warm up in the Meeting Center with Native American tales of the origin of maple sap and sugaring with storytellers from Ganondagan.
Maple syrup is one of the oldest natural sweeteners in North America, and “boiling down” was arguably the only sugar refining process available to Native Americans and early settlers in the north. After you visit the maple sugar camp, head out to the Historic Village and:
- Meet the tinsmith and the cooper who crafted the buckets, spiles and troughs used to catch the sap.
- See the art of making tallow candles at the MacKay House.
- Watch as trees are tapped live on the Village Square (timed throughout the day).
- Taste the delicious 19th-century dishes made with the thick amber treasure of our New York forests.
- Enjoy refreshments at the historic Hosmer's Inn Tavern.
Please note: Due to weather conditions, handicap accessibility may be limited. Scout-friendly; no reservations required
