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c. 1974 — present · Bendix Woods County Park, west of the city
The frame: This is a county institution and is framed as the county's: Bendix Woods County Park, west of the city near New Carlisle, was the county's first county park (1966), a gift of the Studebaker proving-ground woods by way of Bendix, as the Trails record tells it. In its sugar bush the county parks run a working sugar camp, and its festival, Sugar Camp Days, reaches its 53rd annual running in 2026 by the state's events listing — putting the first at about 1974. The county parks' own master plan calls Sugar Camp Days the largest annual special event the parks coordinate.
The season, at document size: The 2026 season is reported at working detail. About 60 trees were tapped and 160 more stood on tubing; about 1,000 students came on field trips; the festival ran March 14–15, 2026, as WNDU reported on February 19, 2026. Joe Dits's reporting of March 2026 counts almost 100 gallons of syrup cooked from tapping day, February 14, to the festival in that season, at the sugar camp's working ratio of about 40 gallons of sap to a gallon of syrup. One honest detail the record insists on: the syrup on the festival's pancake breakfast comes from another area producer — Bendix Woods' own syrup is sold in jugs and in the camp's maple baked goods. The county's maple record is thus a teaching camp and a small commercial boil, not a syrup industry, and it is printed at exactly that size — the only maple entry this history carries, because it is the only one the record documents.
Sources:
- Events listing, State of Indiana (events.in.gov) — Sugar Camp Days as the 53rd annual in 2026.
- St. Joseph County Parks master plan — Sugar Camp Days as the largest annual special event the county parks coordinate.
- WNDU (19 February 2026) — about 60 tapped trees and 160 on tubing; about 1,000 students on field trips; the festival of 14–15 March 2026.
- Joe Dits, reporting (March 2026) — almost 100 gallons of syrup from the 14 February tapping; the 40-to-1 ratio; the pancake breakfast's syrup from another producer; Bendix Woods' own syrup in jugs and maple baked goods.