Think Spring at National Lakeshores Maple Sugar Time

Date: February 14, 2013
Contact: Ryan Koepke, 219-395-1882

INDIANA DUNES NATIONAL LAKESHORE: Get a sweet taste of spring at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore's annual Maple Sugar Time. The historic Chellberg Farm will be bustling with the activities of maple sugaring from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm on the weekends of March 2 & 3 and March 9 & 10, 2013. Join park rangers and volunteers for this fun and educational event marking the unofficial start of spring in dune country.

See how American Indians first boiled maple sap into sugar and learn how the early settlers used large iron kettles to create syrup. Then, stand in the warm steam of the sugar shack where sap is still boiled down the way the Chellbergs did it in the 1930s. Try your hand at drilling a tap hole, lugging heavy sap buckets using an old-fashioned yolk, or just enjoying a free taste of pure maple syrup! Admission for all activities is free.

Over the past 400 years, pure maple sugar and syrup have played very different roles in the lives of dune's residents. This difference is as much a result of our changing relationship to our natural resources as it is a change in technology. Take a short, easy stroll along the self-guided farm trail to learn more about this part of our shared heritage. Along the way, help the kids complete a junior ranger activity sheet so they can earn a free Junior Ranger Heritage Patch. Then warm up in the farm house and collect recipes featuring maple syrup. Pure maple syrup and sugar, and related products, will be for sale on site.

Maple Sugar Time takes place at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore's Chellberg Farm on Mineral Springs Road between U.S. 20 and Highway 12 in the central portion of the national lakeshore. For more information on this or other programs at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, visit the park website at www.nps.gov/indu/planyourvisit or contact the park's information desk at 219-395-1882.

www.nps.gov

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is part of the National Park System. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 398 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov.rtunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov.