In the Spring of 1997, college freshmen, life-long friends and Maine natives Miguel Ibarguen and John Graham decided to pool their resources and buy a maple syrup evaporator. Both young men had been maple syrup enthusiasts from a very young age. Bowley Brook Maple was born in an old carriage house on John's father's land. For the next thirteen years John and Miguel produced award winning maple syrup there, trucking in sap from locations in Weld and Wilton.

Miguel Ibarguen lives in South Paris with his partner Brandy Durant and their daughter Braylin. He owns and operates MEI Excavation, a company which has doubled its gross revenue every year since its inception in 2005. Miguel attended Southern Maine Technical College, graduating in 1998 with a degree in Business. He has worked in the woods and earth industries since graduation. Miguel's passion for syrup production began when he was just three years old, after his grandfather had taken him to visit various sugar houses during Maine's annual Maine Maple Sunday celebration. Thereafter Miguel began organizing the tapping of his grandfather's trees and has been making maple syrup every Spring ever since.

John Graham was born on a small farm in Weld where his parents made maple syrup each Spring. Syrup production quicky became his passion...if the evaporator was steaming young John was not sleeping. John attended Bates College in Lewiston and graduated with a degree in Rhetoric. He has been a commercial real estate professional in Portland since 2002. John has purchased, managed and sold multi-family real estate, and is a top broker with Sullivan Multi-Family Realty.

In the Fall of 2009, John and Miguel signed a twenty year contract on 2300 acres of land north of Weld comprised of Hurricane and Pope Mountains and bordering Mt Blue State Park.

In late September 2009, with Timmy Hall as their only full time employee and with help from many, many friends, they began to clear land, put in foundations, driveways, a septic system and poles for electricity. Months were spent thinning the southwest side of Hurricane Mountain and in November they started running tubing to the "sugar bush". By March of 2010 over twenty-eight miles of tubing had been strung connecting 4800 taps, some as far as three miles from the sap house. Construction of the sap house began in mid January 2010 and was completed sufficiently for over 1000 gallons of syrup to be produced in all grades during the first season of operation.

Work continues on the sap house, more maple orchard space is being thinned and Miguel and John plan to have ten to twelve thousand taps in operation for the 2011 season.