Uncovering a Mid-Nineteenth Century Maple Sugar Camp and Stone Furnace at the Petticrew-Taylor Farmstead in Southwest Ohio

During the middle of the nineteenth century, maple sugar production reached its peak in the United States. Although forgotten today, during the eighteenth and late into the nineteenth century, maple sugar served as the primary sweetener used by American families in food preparation, particularly in the northern half of the country. Maple sugar processing became an integral part of farmstead operations in the Midwest, Northeast, and Great Lakes regions during this period. Sugar’s value extended beyond a farm family’s subsistence needs, because as a craft product it provided extra income during the offseason. While some historical accounts of maple sugar and syrup production in America exist, little if any physical remains of these early sugar furnaces and/or camps are documented. The results of the excavations at the Petticrew-Taylor farmstead (33MY819) fill this information gap for a maple sugar camp and stone furnace dating to the 1840s to the 1860s in southwest Ohio. They provide important new details on artifacts associated with this site type, perspective on the spatial use of the landscape, and the layout and physical attributes of an early furnace style that represented the experimental and transitional phase to the modern day evaporator

Agriculture · Archaeology · Biology · Botany · Maple · Subsistence agriculture · Sugar · American Environmental and Regional History · Archaeology and Natural History · Food Science · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History

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