In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Schoharie County Maple Festival, the Jefferson Historical Society is planning a tribute to its origins by holding a free square dance in the Maple Museum on Saturday, May 9 at 7pm.
The festival began in 1965 on the Jefferson Town Green.
The Green was established in 1817 by Jefferson's founding father, Stephen Judd, and was originally surrounded by 120 maple trees.
On the southwest corner is the the Maple Museum, the classic Greek Revival building that was renamed in the 1960s in recognition of the town's maple sugaring industry and its Maple Festival.
Charlie Buck, who with his wife was on the festival board for many years, remembers how the community pulled together to promote the maple industry and to make the festival a success.
Some of the early board members were the Clarks from Prospect Farm in North Harpersfield, Putnams from Beard's Hollow, Mrs. Enders from the Cooperative Extension, and Churchills from Jefferson.
Maple trees on the Green were tapped, and sap that had been collected earlier was boiled in an evaporator set up in a makeshift sap house.
Another board member from the 1970's, Dave Wilson, spoke about the challenge of holding the Festival outdoors.
"Once when the festival was a two-day event, once it rained all day Saturday and snowed on Sunday. Another year, the weather was perfect - warm and sunny until just after the Maple Queen was crowned and then it snowed. That emptied out the town fast!"
Mr. Wilson said that estimates of festival attendance during those years approached 5,000 visitors: "It was a really big deal."
Sharon Collins, owner of Buck Hill Farm, recalls the early days: Pancake breakfasts in the Grange, maple candy fresh out of the molds in the firehouse, a tractor-pulled hay wagon carrying visitors up and down Main Street.
"The Boy Scouts used to set up a large cauldron suspended over a fire to boil eggs in maple syrup - definitely a novelty you wouldn't want to miss. The whole town would be there, it was a wonderful time," she said.
Barb Palmer, who was festival director one year, says "I think I attended every Maple Festival that was held in Jefferson, except one year I didn't make it home from college.
"My family were long time maple producers and so it was near and dear to my heart."
Ms. Palmer recalls that every building in town had an activity: antique show in the school auditorium with vendors dressed in old fashioned clothing, rummage sale in the church basement, arts and crafts in the Maple Museum.
The square dance on May 9 will be called by Paul Rosenberg with music by the group Tamarack (including fiddle, flute, whistle, guitar, banjo and mandolin).
They plan to include some traditional community dances (circles, squares, lines) made popular by French Canadians at maple sugaring parties.
These dances are easy to do for young children as well as grandparents. Some favorite old time dances include Duck for the Oyster, Marching Through Georgia, Virginia Reel, and the Spiral dance
Refreshments will feature all things maple, and Buck's Maple Barn will be selling their maple soft-serve ice cream.
Kymar Distillery from Charlotteville will also be on hand to provide tastings of their locally-sourced Mapple Jack and Schoharie Shine. The square dance is free and all ages are welcome.
The Maple Museum is at 221 Creamery Street, Jefferson.