The Champion Evaporator was first manufactured in Hudson, Ohio in 1881, and in June of 1890, G.H. Grimm secured a lease for land alongside the railroad in Rutland, Vermont and over that summer erected a 120 by 40-foot one-story building.

There was another, completely unrelated, Champion Evaporator Company that operated in Berkshire, Vermont and later Richford, Vermont about this same time in the 1880s. This company was relatively short lived with evaporators in production from 1882 to about 1887.

You can read more history about this and maple syrup in general here: https://maplesyruphistory.com/2019/02/27/evaporator-company-histories-g-h-grimm-manufacturing-co/

We used a Grimm 4x10 in the 2010s.

Did you order the corn?

Sorghums cool. I started growing it for cow feed in a drought a couple years ago, but in talking to some sorghum specialists I learned all about how it’s what most refer to as sugar cane in the US.

I think only northerners say this. In Hawaii and Florida where there's real sugar cane we know what it is.

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Really? Did it work well?

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What’s funny is the people I’ve talked to were in the Carolina’s, which yeah, that’s a north from where real sugarcane grows, but so far from a northerner in my book. Haha

Yeah well up there they also call the Civil War the War of Northern Aggression

It worked. Good enough to pay for the next setup. It had raised flues that seeped, not a great steam hood, and a soldered finish pan that got overheated and warped and we had to have un-soldered and welded. Had decorated cast iron doors for the fire box that leaked. But made the next person happy too, I'm sure!