Sugarland Mountain, Sugar Orchard Branch, Maple
Sugar Gap, The Sugarlands, and other park places
were all named for sugar maple trees and the sweet sap
they relinquish for the making of maple syrup and sugar.
Tapping sugar maples was once a fairly common
enterprise in the Smokies and elsewhere in the
Southern Highlands. Native Americans used maple
sap and sugar to season meats and grains and to
make candy and beverages. During the 19th and
early 20th centuries, mountain farm families
maintained areas in the forest they called ?sugar
camps? or ?sugar bushes? for the production of syrup
and sugar.
These operations might include several dozen sugar
maples that had been grooved and tapped to
produce sap. Wooden troughs were run from the
trees to central buckets or barrels for efficient
collection. Family members then carried the sap in
buckets to a shed which housed a stone furnace and
large metal evaporator pan.
Maple sap had to be cooked down for several hours
to produce syrup. As a rule of thumb it took 30-40
gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup. Each
healthy sugar maple tree could be counted on to
produce 5-40 gallons of sap. Making maple sugar
required even more boiling and processing.
Many Smoky Mountain residents described the best
time to tap maples as ?after the first snow of spring? and
when the strong, warm spring winds roar down from the
mountains. The tapping season could last from two to
eight weeks.
Maple syrup and sugar were commodities that farm
families could consume themselves or trade at a
country store for cash or merchandise. In east
Tennessee?s Sevier County, records show farmers
produced 38,455 gallons of maple syrup in 1859.
?Sugaring? in the region declined sharply in the 20th
century, presumably due to commercial logging and
easier access to other forms of sugar.
Red maples, box elders, and other trees can be tapped
for sap, but theirs is not as sweet or plentiful.
