Audio
Chellberg Sugar Shack
Transcript
You are standing at the edge of a ravine carved by glacial meltwater over 10,000 years ago. Beginning in the early 1930s during the heart of the Great Depression, the Chellberg family began to make maple syrup. Before building this sugar camp, they collected sap and made syrup with rudimentary equipment for a few years. This structure was built between 1934 and 1935 by a relative’s construction crew and third generation Chellberg, Carl.
The blocks used to build this “sugar shack” were made in nearby Dune Acres using beach sand, pebbles and stones. If you look closely you can find flat skipping rocks and even crinoid fossils.
The sugaring operation here lasted about 15 years and involved tapping over 100 trees each year, mostly in the ravine. Holes were drilled, spigots were added and buckets were hung to collect the dripping sap. Buckets were poured into a barrel on a wagon or sled pulled by horses on the path here along the tree line. Sap was transferred to storage tanks on the platform outside the sugar shack, where a pipe brought it inside to a large evaporator pan over a woodburning brick oven. They made 55-60 gallons of syrup each year, which sold for as low as $2 a gallon to as much as $10 a gallon in 1948. This is equivalent to about $130 dollars in 2024.
Description
Interpretive audio recording describing the Chellberg Sugar Shack
Credit
NPS/Ranger Joe Gruzalski
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