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Vermont has long been involved in the wood products industry from mills built by early settlers to the well-known furniture and novelty factories of the last century. So it’s no surprise that in the mid-1970’s teenager Mike Rainville took up woodworking as a hobby. He collected scraps of wood from his grandfather’s carpentry projects and set up shop in the basement of his childhood home making cribbage boards and tic-tac-toe games. Friends and neighbors were impressed with his work so began asking him to make crafts for them and a business was born!
Continuing his woodworking business all through college, Mike graduated from Clarkson University in 1984. Taking his business full time, he built a brand new shop for Maple Landmark Woodcraft. Mike’s grandfather, Fletcher Brown, had started a maple sugaring company more than sixty-five years earlier that had grown into a family business that included a dairy farm, all under the umbrella of the Maple Landmark Homestead. It seemed only natural to Mike to continue the legacy using the Maple Landmark name.
In 1987 Mike purchased a Vermont toy company by the name of Troll’s Toy Workshop. This acquisition added many new products to Mike’s rapidly growing business. By late 1994 Maple Landmark Woodcraft had outgrown its shop in the rural mountains of Vermont. A decision was made to relocate to Middlebury, the county seat, and a larger city that was more practical for conducting business. In 1996 the new workshop and a retail store were completed and opened to the public.
2001 marked another milestone as the company acquired an additional long established Vermont toy company, Montgomery Schoolhouse, bringing an even wider range of toys into the family of Maple Landmark Woodcraft! More recently with the very real worries about toxic chemicals leeching from toys and ongoing environmental concerns, the company has introduced its Schoolhouse Naturals line of wooden toys that we are thrilled to offer! Today the company has about thirty dedicated employees, producing and selling a wide range of products to over twenty-two hundred gift shops and toy stores in the US and throughout the world.
Maple Landmark Woodcraft continues to offer high quality American made toys and other wood crafts. Product safety remains the number one priority. You can rest assured each product is designed to meet or exceed American safety standards and that all manufacturing complies with American standards of ethical business practices in the workplace. The company does as much business locally as is possible including the many services needed and most material sourcing. The wood Maple Landmark uses is from sustainable native species, primarily rock maple. Only about one percent of its budget goes to purchasing foreign-sourced materials.
The company has actively recycled materials from the very beginning. Although it is standard practice to maximize lumber use, inevitably some scrap is generated. Wood heat is commonly used to warm homes through the long Vermont winters. Maple Landmark makes wood scraps available to the local people to be used for kindling. Small wood chips and sawdust are picked up by local farms for cattle bedding.
Packaging is kept to a minimum and shipping materials are recycled where possible. Recycling is a way of life at Maple Landmark, giving the staff a sense of pride to work for a company that is mindful of the environment in a world of excess waste and consumption.
In its continuing efforts to be connected to the local communities, Maple Landmark and its employees dedicate time and resources to church groups, civic organizations, elderly service programs, and fire & rescue departments. The company offers support to children’s organizations like the annual Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign and Shriners Hospitals for Children. Maple Landmark Woodcraft is proud of its accomplishments and feels like it is a company that has the right combination of materials, people and products to continue being America’s Toymaker for a good long time!
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