On Maple Sunday, 10 March 2013, at the Chenango County Historical Society's Museum campus, Reggie Card of Earlville told me that dugout logs were used by Native Americans to evaporate maple sap. They put the sap into the log and then dropped in hot stones to heat it. The model resembled a dugout canoe, so when I saw it, I immediately thought of Dave Walker's dugout canoe.
Here are photos of the model that Reggie built for his presentations on the early history of maple syrup.
I now wonder if our Dave Walker canoe, which does not look as if it could safely transport anyone, could have been used for maple syrup. We suspect it was used for harvesting wild rice. Background on this canoe is on this blog posting of Tuesday August 16, 2011. Also, its shallow dugout and wide area would enhance concentration by freezing.
Google has a lot on dugout logs for sap, but so far it seems to be all anecdotal comments. I am searching for a real archaeological paper. Scientific papers on Google are usually not readable by nonsubscribers, so I may have to rely on interlibrary loans.
I asked David Moyer for his comments. They appear on the next posting.
================================================
