Written by David P. O'Brien

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For the Walrath family and Robert Henry O’Brien, making maple syrup was a chore.  Much like planting the garden, tapping trees provided a means to provide food for the family.

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For Bob and Ethel O’Brien, it was more of a hobby that they could enjoy in the woods where they were building a new home. Bob loved cutting wood and spending time outside and Ethel enjoyed canning. Dad traveled nearly every week and for the kids that were living at home during this time, it once again became a chore.  

  

For their Bob and Ethel's son Bill O’Brien, the maple woods became a vision.  He saw a place that would bring and keep the O’Brien family together.

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As Ethel O’Brien approached and planned for their end of her life here on earth, it became her mission to create a self-sustaining entity that would be independent and forever, owned by her children and generations to come.

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Over the last decade Bill’s vision has become a reality through the work of many. 

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Today, for every one of us, the O’Brien Maple Grove is a gift.  A gift that has been given to us by God and every person that has come before us.

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It is also is a gift that each of us give to each other every time we work, eat, share, love and laugh in that special place we call the O’Brien Maple Grove.

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What we do with this gift is up to us and to our children and all generations to come.