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Maple Valley Township
TheMaple Valley Name
by Bertha (Mrs. Carl) Johnson
Valley Of The Maples. Where did Maple Valley get itsname? When the first settlers came in 1858, the area wasthickly forested with beautiful maple groves and
pine trees. Many romances blossomed in the sugar bushes, asthey were called, when the sap from the maple trees was gathered inbuckets, boiled down in huge
vats over a blazing fire and became maple syrup and sugar. Itbecame the place to go for young folks to watch the process.
Sap started flowing the first warm days of spring. It wastime for farmers to tap the trees and hang the buckets to catch thesap. Maple Syrup and sugar became
the first crop of the year for many farmers who had settled in thevalley.
If you have historic photos, or information aboutthis township, please contact our on-line township historians; Coral's Michael Baribeau, at: (email). Trufant's Gerry Christiansen at: (email).
The current settlements in Maple Valleytownship, are Coral& Trufant.
Coral, in Maple Valley Township, was first settled by Rev. Charles Parker in1861. He donated 80 acres to become the newvillage. He became involved in lumbering. The lumber camp, calledStumptown, was said to be first named Stumptown after the Stump andMorris mill & was later platted as Coral. Logging flourishedand the Hart Oaks Company sawmill operated until 1880 when the pineforests in the area were exhausted. Coral Enterprise newspaper beganpublication here in 1875. The railroad came through in 1871 and aspotato farming increased potato warehouses were built along the tracksin Coral and Trufant. http://www.montcalm.org/history0025.asp
Trufant, in Maple Valley Township, was named after Emory Trufant, whoacquired land, which was platted and recorded in 1871. He operated asawmill and soon after a steam sawmill and shingles and planing millswere operating in the area. Farming was very important to many of thesettlers who were from Denmark. They cultivated the land planting theircrops among the wood stumps often pulling them out by hand and then bymachine. These stumps were later used to fence in their fields.Potatoes were a very successful crop in the area and these were shippedby rail to Greenville. http://www.montcalm.org/history0035.asp
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