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creamy-white flowers, the mountains appeared snowcapped. The trees could be giants. Mature chestnuts averaged up to five feet in diameter and up to one hundred feet tall.
Native wildlife including birds, bears, squirrels, and deer depended on the tree’s abundant crops of nutritious nuts. The American chestnut was a major cash crop for people in Rappahannock County in the 1800’s. It provided bark for tanneries, excellent wood for building houses, and nuts that were roasted and sold. Throughout Appalachian mountain communities, the chestnut was a central part of rural economies. As winter came on, attics were often stacked with bags of the nuts. Smokehouses were hung with hams from livestock that had fattened on the harvest gleanings. As year-end holidays approached, nuts by the railroad car-full were shipped to New York, Philadelphia, and other cities where street vendors sold them fresh roasted.
The tree was one of the best for timber. It grew straight and often branch-free for 50 ft. Loggers tell of loading entire railroad cars with boards cut from just one tree. Straight-grained, lighter in weight than oak and more easily worked, chestnut was as rot resistant as redwood. It was used for virtually everything — telegraph poles, rail
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