The Wild Center Maple Project is just the newest part in the history of maple sugaring near our site. In the early 1900's, Tupper Lake was a major producer of maple syrup.
Abbot Augustus Low was the man behind the sap. An entrepreneur and inventor from Brooklyn who owned the Horseshoe Forestry Company, his business enterprises included spring water production, wild berry preserves, and maple syrup. His large maple sugaring operation was one of the first to have a tubing system with metal pipes and troughs that used gravity instead of pails to collect sap. His property around Lows Lake included a blacksmith shop, an energy generating plant, a stable, an engine house, storehouses and maple sugaring buildings.
At peak production in 1907, Low’s operation produced 20,000 gallons of syrup.
At the time of his death in 1912, he was second only to Thomas Edison for the number of patents held by a single person, for things like a motor, exhaust system, igniter, bottle design and a means of preserving maple sugar. He invented a square glass bottle to ship spring water to New York City. The square bottle allowed for easier packing in a box. The bottles could then be returned and reused.