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Posted March 31, 2025
Thanks in part to Plymouth High School construction students, the upcoming Plymouth Maple Festival will debut a new sugar shack where people can observe and participate in the craft of making maple syrup.
After contractors laid the concrete slab for the shack last summer, the PHS Building Construction class did most of the building. Students began working on the project Oct. 1 and finished Dec. 15, devoting 20 three-hour class periods to the effort. The 15 students, along with teacher Beau Biller and John Nelson from the Maple Festival committee, put in about 1,000 hours of labor.
“Students worked on all aspects of the construction of the building: mortise and tenon joinery and layout, post and beam assembly, window and door installation, roof and cupola construction, board and baton siding, and building trim.” Mr. Biller said.
Mr. Biller said he looks for opportunities to get students out of the classroom and onto a construction site. “It gives students a much more realistic idea of what it is like to work in the field,” he said. “Students love having a full three-hour class to work and learn on site.”
The sugar shack was an especially fun and interesting project, he said. “Students got to experience post-and-beam construction techniques,” he said. “It is also special for students to work on a community project and be able to drive by the building and be able to say ‘I helped build that’.”
The sugar shack is meant to be a permanent symbol of the local maple sugaring heritage, according to the Plymouth Maple Festival website. It houses an evaporator and other equipment needed to transform 40 gallons of maple sap into one gallon of maple syrup.
Among the first to use the evaporator were seventh-graders from Riverview Middle School, who earlier this month had a chance to drill a hole, tap in a spile, or place a bucket or lid for some 60 trees in City Park. By the time they completed tapping, sap was flowing and puddling in the sap buckets. Students have been going over as needed to empty the buckets.
The public can get a look at the sugar shack during the annual Plymouth Maple Festival set for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday April 5 in Plymouth City Park. The event will feature a pancake breakfast, maple sap collection, syrup production, kids’ activities, chainsaw carving, and vendor booths selling crafts and all things maple syrup. A dedication ceremony for the sugar shack will follow the festival at about 1 p.m.
Learn more:
• Visit the Plymouth Maple Festival website.
• Explore the Community Engagement section of our award-winning District Report Card to learn more about how our students give back to the community.
