Vermontville and its maple syrup festival

Vermontville got its name the honest way: it was settled in 1836 by a colony of families from Vermont, led west by a Congregational minister. They laid out a proper New England-style village, and a couple of their early buildings — an 1844 chapel-and-academy and an 1860s church — still stand.

What really puts Vermontville on the map, though, is sap. The village hosts Michigan’s original maple syrup festival, held every year on the last full weekend in April. The idea was hatched in 1940 in a local barber shop, where syrup-makers were looking for a way to draw attention to their town — and it worked, drawing crowds to a village of a few hundred people ever since. Expect pancakes, a parade, syrup straight from the producers, and a festival queen.

The Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival runs the last full weekend in April; details are posted by the festival each spring.