Tay Valley Township Recognizes the Miller Farm Sugar Shack

Tay Valley Township Recognizes the Maple Sugar Sector

Miller Family Farm Heritage Sugar Shack

Tay Valley Township Council has announced the recognition of a local maple sugar shack under the municipality’s Heritage Property Recognition Program.  This sugar shack, which exemplifies so many operated by our area’s private landowners in the past, is located in Tayside Estates, on the former Miller farm, a five-generation family farm in Glen Tay Hamlet.

In the 1940s, the family owners, Ernest and Evelyn Miller, began tapping their sugar bush off Glen Tay Road, commencing with 400 spiles (spouts).  The following year, they expanded, collecting sap from a second property, and, later, acquired an evaporator.  By the 1960s, the family were tapping 1,800 trees, based out of this small sugar shack.

Ernest Miller was known for other farming and community accomplishments, and a prominent figure in what is now Tay Valley Township. In 2003, he was posthumously inaugurated into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame, in recognition of 60 years of dedicated service in numerous local, regional, and provincial organizations, representing young people, livestock, crops and co-operatives, as well as genealogy, and his church.

The sugar shack featured in this recognition is typical of what smaller local producers have traditionally used.  It was reconstructed in 2021, based on original photographs, by the present owners of the residential lot on which it is located, Gilbert and Shelley Rossignol.  It retains the character of an early shack, including a gambrel roof, wood siding and tin chimney.

Since settlement days, maple syrup has been an important by-product for most Lanark County farms, and, with more than 200 producers, it is still an important part of the region’s culture and economy.  The County proudly displays the logo ‘Maple Syrup Capital of Ontario’.

The Heritage Properties Program acknowledges Tay Valley Township’s long and diverse indigenous and settler history, and the wealth of heritage properties that define our community.  Properties eligible to receive recognition include buildings that have historic or cultural significance to the community, structures such as monuments, cemetery markers or bridges, and heritage landscapes and archaeological sites. This program is commemorative and carries no legal restrictions for properties. Please note that these are private properties.  For further information please visit https://www.tayvalleytwp.ca/HeritagePropertiesProgram/.