THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
The American
chestnut tree may have a comeback. Scientists, organizations and an
army of interested persons are working hard to restore this giant to
eastern forests.
I was a very
young child, but I remember picking up American chestnuts and enjoying
them as the Mel Torme/Robert Wells song
indicates: “chestnuts roasting on an open fire"
The song was
recorded in its original version in 1946 by the famed Nat King Cole, years after the Asian Chestnut blight had
made havoc of the tall, productive chestnut trees that once were so
prevalent throughout the Appalachian region of
We had a
short-cut road that led through the forest from our house to my Grandpa
Bud Collins' house. It was alongside this road that the largest
American chestnut tree I had ever seen lifted its huge trunk from the
forest floor. It was to the right of the road on a steep bluff
overlooking Town Creek. We could hardly wait until the tree began
shedding its burrs, each of which yielded two or three chestnuts. We
would climb the bluff up to the tree, gather a few chestnuts, and hurry
on across the bridge to Grandpa's house. When we showed our Aunts Ethel
and Avery our treasures, we could be sure to entice them back with us
and fill the buckets they provided with the nuts from that large tree.
Thinking back
now, that large chestnut tree may have been among the last of the
American chestnut trees that succumbed to the Asian chestnut blight, a
bark fungus, that had, by 1940 or
thereabouts, made havoc of the beautiful deciduous trees that had been
important to the Appalachian economy since settlers came to the
mountains.
I remember
hearing stories of how my father and others, when they were children,
gathered chestnuts by the sack-full and hauled them to Gainesville by
wagon, along with other farm products, to trade for coffee, sugar,
spices, shoes, cloth and other items not grown on Choestoe farms. The chestnuts, then plentiful, were a valuable
commodity free for the taking to anyone with the industry to pick them
up and use them as barter.
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In my childhood, the American chestnut trees were less numerous
throughout the forest. The large specimen near my grandfather's house
was the best-remembered because of all the pleasant associations of our
making a game to gather the nuts and to have a party roasting and
eating them.
The American
chestnut once dominated forests from
Before range
laws were enacted and cattle and hogs were allowed to graze at will in
the mountains, chestnuts were an important food for the livestock. Wild
animals depended on chestnuts for much of their winter store. Bears fed
on them before taking their winter hibernation. And many of the
industrious settlers in the Appalachian areas depended on chestnut
crops for extra cash. Chestnut trees provided wood for building
purposes, fence posts, and making furniture.
More than four
billion trees from
There is hope
on the horizon for the American chestnut tree. Thanks to the "Mother
Tree" Project and extensive efforts of The American Chestnut Foundation
and the
In 2005, Nathan
Klaus, a wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural
Resources, found a stand of healthy American chestnut trees near
The large tree
found by Klaus in
I read with
interest that the Union County Rotary Club at the April 2006 meeting
heard Dr. Mark Stallings from the Georgia Chapter of the American
Chestnut Foundation (GATACF) who spoke on plans for restoring
blight-free chestnut trees to our forests.
Maybe in the
future we can walk again under one of
Harris Green in
the Spring 2006 issue of "The Georgia
Sprout" (GATACF) wrote, "Longfellow's loving depiction of the tree
inspires us to do what is necessary 'at the flaming forge of life' to
bring back that wonderful tree-and maybe some of those missing virtues
in the process."
c2006 by Ethelene
Dyer Jones; published
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Updated May 2, 2010
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