Plans for Meyersdale's first Maple Festival were made around a potbellied stove on a blustery winter night in 1948 to celebrate and promote Somerset County maple syrup, Pennsylvania's sweetest commodity. The first festival took place on March 18, 1948, when more than 1500 people gathered in front of the New Colonial Hotel as Pennsylvania Lt. Governor Daniel B. Strickler addressed the crowd and Agnes Jean Hornbrook was crowned the first Pennsylvania Maple Queen. The festival has grown each year and now includes maple sugar demonstrations, arts and crafts, live music, and Meyersdale Lions pancakes with pure Somerset County maple syrup, all open to the public. It also features The Legend of the Magic Water, a production rooted in local history and festival traditions with a cast of more than 100 local people ranging from newborns to people in their eighties, presenting scenes from an Indian attack to a hoedown, from a simple hymn to classic opera. Somerset County produces more maple syrup than any other county in Pennsylvania, and in early spring Meyersdale is home to the Pennsylvania Maple Festival, whose events also include horse pulls, antique car shows, reenactors, and the Legend of the Magic Waters historic pageant.