Backcountry Notes

American ChestnutThe stately American Chestnut has virtually disappeared from the Appalachian forests, where this tree was once a dominant species. If there is a "national tree" of the Backcountry, it is the American Chestnut, Castanea dentata, which provided both food and lumber to generations of settlers and their descendants before being extirpated by blight.

American Chestnut restoration efforts have been under way for many years, focusing on cross-breeding with the Chinese Chestnut to introduce the blight-resistance found in the Asian tree. See National Geographic, Back-Breeding Could Restore Chestnut Trees Ravaged by Blight. Links to American Chestnut restoration organizations are given at the end of this article.

A deciduous hardwood tree of the beech family, the American Chestnut grew rapidly, attaining a size of up to 150 feet in height and ten feet in diameter. The nuts were valuable as a food source and were often ground into chestnut flour. Chestnut lumber was sturdy and rot-resistant; it is rare to find a vintage Backcountry structure which does not contain Chestnut timbers, boards, or shingles. Rough-cut-and-split American Chestnut built thousands of miles of split-rail fences, some of which survive to this day. The American Chestnut was important for wildlife, providing Fall mast for deer, wild turkey and other birds, and black bears. In some areas, the American Chestnut was a backbone of the local economy:

Once the mountains in this region of southwest Virginia were carpeted with chestnuts. "[U]p here there was a world of chestnuts," one elderly resident recalled. Indeed, the tree was once one of the most abundant and important species throughout the forests of the eastern seaboard. Legend has it a squirrel could travel the chestnut canopy from Georgia to Maine without ever touching the ground. The fast-growing trees were huge, often reaching as high as 80 feet and four feet in diameter. They were what ecologists call "a keystone species," sturdy anchors of their entire ecosystems, sustaining every living creature in their vicinity – from hares to humans – with their sweet nutritious nuts.

Susan Freinkel, "A Whole World Gone: The Loss of the American Chestnut Tree."

Throughout the Appalachian Mountains there were narrow-gauge railroads devoted to the carriage of timber, primarily chestnut. Most of these ceased operation before WWII because of the chestnut blight, which began in the vicinity of New York City in 1904 and spread rapidly throughout the range of the American Chestnut. Chestnut lumber was am important commercial product, being useful for such things as telegraph and telephone poles and railway cross-ties. Sometimes a chestnut-timber-hauling railway was not attached to a standard rail mainline at any point, but ran to a sawmill (such as Gose Mill in Burke's Garden, Tazewell County) where the trees were milled into lumber for local use. The Virginia Creeper Trail in Washington County, Virginia, is located on the route of a narrow-gauge railway which survived for a time because it provided passenger and freight service. Other such lines were simply salvaged for their ties and steel rails and abandoned. The sawmills died along with the railways, often salvaged for the chestnut lumber from which they were built.

The devastation caused by the chestnut blight was a blow to the culture of the rural Backcountry:

The loss of the American chestnut was a tragedy for poor mountain residents in the southern Appalachian region. The nuts were a vital source of food for their families, autumn forage for their animals, and a commodity for barter and sale. Many people relied upon the seasonal crop of nuts and the natural abundance that they represented. As one mountaineer put it, "chestnuts were like the manna that God sent to feed the Israelites." A mountain woman remarked, "A grove of chestnuts is a better provider than a man—easier to have around, too."

Ralph H Lutts, "Like Manna From God: The American Chestnut Trade In Southwest Virginia."

Thankfully, there are descendants of Backcountry settlers who are as stubborn as their ancestors and who are determined to bring back the American Chestnut.  Near Meadowview, Virginia, a short drive from my place, is located a research farm dedicated to that result. See Bristol Herald-Courier, Positive Steps For American Chestnut.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Memories of the American Chestnut, FOXFIRE 6.

LINKS:

American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation

American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation (Virginia Tech)

American Chestnut Restoration

Chestnut Growers