Two Years to Save the American Chestnut | 1912-1973
The film of this episode premieres April 6, 2027 on YouTube. The documents, the transcript and the sources are below now.
On May 8, 1912, the Secretary of Agriculture answered a Senate resolution on the chestnut tree blight with everything his department knew.
Transcript
Two years
R001 Pisgah National Forest. Blight-killed chestnut snag near Bennett Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Note the young chestnut sprouts at the left. These are about as large as sprouts get before the blight hits them. Taken by Leland J. Prater - August 1959
Blight-killed chestnut snag near Bennett Gap on the Blue... · Leland J. Prater, Aug. 1959 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
In 1912 Washington said it had two years to save the chestnut. This is its own file on what happened.
R002 Virginia, Blue Ridge Plateau. "The Dead Sentinal" - Large dead Chestnut in foreground. Background is typical Blue Ridge Plateau scene. Taken by Bluford W. Muir 1946
"The Dead Sentinel" - Large dead Chestnut in foreground,... · Bluford W. Muir, 1946 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Every tree in it was photographed by a federal forester, with a card typed for the file. The cards run from 1901 to 1962.
R004 Large old Chestnut on eastern slope of Pisgah Range, Pisgah Forest, North Carolina.
Large old Chestnut on eastern slope of Pisgah Range, North... · U.S. Forest Service, n.d. · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The photographs are federal, and were made in black and white. A large old chestnut on the eastern slope of the Pisgah Range, North Carolina.
R005 Chestnut (Castanea Mill.) Taken in Howard County, Md.
Chestnut, Howard County, Maryland · U.S. Forest Service, n.d. · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The color was put on by a computer, this year. A good guess, not a record. The documents are as printed.
What was here
R006 George Washington N.F., Natural Bridge. Chestnut on Cold Mt. - Virgin Stand. Taken by E. S. Shipp 1925
Chestnut on Cold Mt. - Virgin Stand, George Washington... · E. S. Shipp, 1925 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Cold Mountain, Virginia, 1925. The card says: chestnut on Cold Mountain. Virgin stand.
R007 Virginia. On right Chestnut, 42" diameter, in center Rock Chestnut Oak, 38" diameter, and on left double Chestnut 27"-30" diameter.
On right Chestnut, 42" diameter ... on left double... · U.S. Forest Service, n.d. · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Virginia. "On right chestnut, 42 inches diameter, in center rock chestnut oak, 38 inches diameter, and on left double chestnut, 27 to 30 inches."
R008 North Carolina. A Chestnut tree, d.b.h. 78 inches. The stagheaded and decay has set in at base.
A Chestnut tree, d.b.h. 78 inches, North Carolina · U.S. Forest Service, n.d. · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
North Carolina. "A chestnut tree, d.b.h. 78 inches." Six and a half feet through, at chest height.
R009 Tennessee. Chestnut full of fruit. Bears every year and last year a very heavy crop. Cattle rest beneath it a great deal and in full light.
Chestnut full of fruit. Bears every year and last year a... · U.S. Forest Service, n.d. · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Tennessee. "Chestnut full of fruit. Bears every year and last year a very heavy crop. Cattle rest beneath it a great deal."
R010 Chestnut bur open.
Chestnut bur open · U.S. Forest Service, n.d. · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The bur, open.
A01
W. W. Ashe, Chestnut in Tennessee · Tennessee Geological Survey, 1911 · title page. View the original.
In 1911 the Tennessee Geological Survey published Chestnut in Tennessee. In the Yoo-nay-ka and Smoky ranges the tree made up a quarter of the forest, over thousands of acres at a stretch.
A02
W. W. Ashe, Chestnut in Tennessee · Tennessee Geological Survey, 1911 · p. 15. View the original.
The management plan on page 15 rested on one sentence. "This scheme is based on the supposition that the destructive chestnut bark disease will not reach Tennessee."
Senate Document 653
S01
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · title page. View the original.
The disease had been noticed in the Bronx in 1904. On May 8, 1912, the Secretary of Agriculture answered a Senate resolution with everything his department knew. Senate Document 653.
S02
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · p. 3. View the original.
Point two. "A tree once attacked never recovers. It takes from two months to four years to kill a tree. The average length of life of a diseased tree is three years."
S03
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · p. 4, point 7. View the original.
"The value of the chestnut stand is variously estimated at between three hundred and four hundred million dollars. This disease has already caused an estimated minimum damage of twenty-five million dollars."
S04
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · p. 4, point 8. View the original.
Point eight. "It may be expected to spread throughout the range of the chestnut tree during the next two years, unless checked by human effort. Whatever is done must be attempted immediately."
S05
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · p. 4, point 11. View the original.
Point eleven. "There is no contagious disease known that does not yield to sanitation and quarantine."
S06
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · p. 5. View the original.
And what the department had spent so far, by fiscal year. Fourteen thousand, eight hundred and eighty-five dollars, and ninety-six cents.
Plate one. The known distribution on February 1, 1912. The dots are single infections found ahead of the main line. The lined area is the whole range of the tree.
S08
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · Plate VII, Wyncote, Pa., 1909-1911. View the original.
Plate seven. The same tree at Wyncote, Pennsylvania, photographed three years running. 1909. 1910. 1911. The caption says it will die this summer.
S09
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · Plate III, fig. 1, Fontella, Bedford County, Va.. View the original.
Plate three. "The most southern point of infection. A group of diseased chestnut trees at Fontella, Bedford County, Virginia."
The line
S10
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · p. 29, the Pennsylvania act, sec. 6. View the original.
Pennsylvania had already moved. Its 1911 act created a Chestnut Tree Blight Commission with power to enter any land and cut any tree, and put up two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.
R011 Penn. Tree Blight Com. Mortised posts and rail operation in chestnut grove near Devon, Pa. Taken by J. C. Nellis - 1913
Mortised posts and rail operation in chestnut grove near... · J. C. Nellis, 1913 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Near Devon, Pennsylvania, 1913. A commission photograph. Posts and rails, cut from a chestnut grove ahead of the blight.
S11
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · p. 26, Farmers' Bulletin 467 reprint. View the original.
The federal plan was a line. "It may prove necessary in some States to destroy all chestnut trees, diseased or healthy, in a belt 10 to 20 miles wide. Back of this line the chestnut trees may be abandoned to the disease."
Virginia's legislature voted its own appropriation that February. Five thousand dollars. Fifty-seven to fourteen.
S12
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · p. 18. View the original.
The bulletin ended with the choice. "The question to settle is simply which is more costly, to use the methods recommended or to lose the trees. The people concerned must decide."
S13
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · p. 35. View the original.
And a warning. "If the bark disease once becomes well established in the chestnut forests of the South, it will be well-nigh impossible to control it."
S14
Senate Document 653, Chestnut Tree Blight · Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, May 8, 1912 · p. 33. View the original.
"Unless prompt and united action is taken there is every indication that the chestnut tree in the States above mentioned will become practically extinct within 10 years." That was written in 1911.
Kentucky, 1919
Richmond, Kentucky, May 1919. "Chestnut blight feared." The state forestry commissioner and a University of Kentucky professor issued a warning. Kentucky had about two billion feet of chestnut timber.
"It is impossible to quarantine in a case like this."
R012 West Virginia, Monongahela National Forest. Blight killed chestnut at Parsons. Taken by E. S. Shipp - 1927
Blight killed chestnut at Parsons, Monongahela National Forest · E. S. Shipp, 1927 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Parsons, West Virginia, 1927. "Blight killed chestnut at Parsons."
The survey
C01
Department Circular 370, Chestnut Blight in the Southern Appalachians · USDA, May 1926 · cover. View the original.
Department Circular 370, May 1926. Chestnut Blight in the Southern Appalachians.
C02
Department Circular 370, Chestnut Blight in the Southern Appalachians · USDA, May 1926 · p. 1. View the original.
"To-day the chestnut north of the Potomac River and east of the Allegheny Mountains has been laid waste by the blight fungus. The remaining American chestnut stands of the southern Appalachian Mountains face certain destruction."
C03
Department Circular 370, Chestnut Blight in the Southern Appalachians · USDA, May 1926 · p. 6, Table 1, the 1925 survey. View the original.
Table 1. Two hundred counties inspected in 1925. Virginia: 27 of 48 counties with 80 to 100 percent of trees infected. Kentucky: 22 counties inspected. Eight with no blight found. Fourteen under one percent.
Figure 2, the forecast. The dark area is 80 percent infected in 1924. The lighter band is where 80 percent was predicted for 1930. Kentucky and Tennessee sit just outside it.
C06
Department Circular 370, Chestnut Blight in the Southern Appalachians · USDA, May 1926 · p. 8. View the original.
The stake, in one sentence. "The chestnut timber from the thirty-three million acres of the southern Appalachians, where the species represents 25 per cent of the stand."
C07
Department Circular 370, Chestnut Blight in the Southern Appalachians · USDA, May 1926 · p. 8. View the original.
"Eventual destruction of all commercial chestnut by the blight is inevitable."
C08
Department Circular 370, Chestnut Blight in the Southern Appalachians · USDA, May 1926 · p. 9. View the original.
"The American chestnut supplies approximately one-half of this country's production of tannin for leather manufacture. With this species facing extermination, to what future source of raw material must this vital industry look?"
Hazard, 1927
The Hazard Herald, September 13, 1927. "Tree Blight Is Found In State." Breth-it and Knott counties, in the Robinson forest at Quicksand. "This is said to be the first official discovery of the chestnut blight in Kentucky."
The forester "said the blight probably would destroy all chestnut trees in the state in 10 years. He urged farmers to begin selling chestnut timber as opportunity presents."
The Courier-Journal, February 1930. A letter from the state forester. To contend with the blight, "which is slowly devastating the remaining stands of Kentucky's once large acreage of this very valuable tree," the state had secured three thousand Asiatic chestnut seedlings, for Pine Mountain in Harlan County.
Acid wood
R013 Wagon load of acid wood (chestnut). About 7/8 cord (5 foot sticks) and 7 linear feet of a cord. (Three horses to load). Jonesboro, Tenn. Taken by W. R. Mattoon - 7/22/15
Wagon load of acid wood (chestnut) ... Jonesboro, Tenn. · W. R. Mattoon, July 22, 1915 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Selling it meant this. Jonesboro, Tennessee, 1915. "Wagon load of acid wood. About seven-eighths cord. Three horses to load."
R014 North Carolina, Pisgah N. F. Loading Chestnut tanbark on cars at Marshall. Taken by Shipp 1911
Loading Chestnut tanbark on cars at Marshall, Pisgah N. F. · E. S. Shipp, 1911 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Loading chestnut tanbark on cars at Marshall, North Carolina, 1911.
R015 Tennessee. Chestnut Extract wood on Bear Branch. Taken by E. S. Shipp - 1928
Chestnut Extract wood on Bear Branch, Tennessee · E. S. Shipp, 1928 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Chestnut extract wood on Bear Branch, Tennessee, 1928.
R016 Tennessee. Bucking logs in a chestnut extract wood operation. Taken by E. S. Shipp 1928
Bucking logs in a chestnut extract wood operation, Tennessee · E. S. Shipp, 1928 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
"Bucking logs in a chestnut extract wood operation."
R017 North Carolina, Nantahala N. F. Side view of flat car loaded with chestnut extractwood - approximately 15 cords. Ranger Nothstein branding ends of cordwood. Taken by J. L. Averell - June 1940
Flat car loaded with chestnut extractwood - approximately... · J. L. Averell, June 1940 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Nantahala National Forest, June 1940. "Flat car loaded with chestnut extractwood, approximately 15 cords. Ranger Nothstein branding ends of cordwood."
R018 North Carolina, Nantahala National Forest. Clay County. Dead chestnut suitable for extractwood in Fires Creek. Note man standing to right of left tree. Taken by J. L. Averell - February 1941
Dead chestnut suitable for extractwood in Fires Creek,... · J. L. Averell, Feb. 1941 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Clay County, North Carolina, February 1941. "Dead chestnut suitable for extractwood in Fires Creek. Note man standing to right of left tree."
Sound wormy
F01
Farmers' Bulletin 582, Uses for Chestnut Timber Killed by the Bark Disease · USDA, 1914 · cover. View the original.
Farmers' Bulletin 582, 1914. Uses for Chestnut Timber Killed by the Bark Disease.
F02
Farmers' Bulletin 582, Uses for Chestnut Timber Killed by the Bark Disease · USDA, 1914 · p. 12, hardwood grades. View the original.
The lumber grades on page 12 carry a new word. "Firsts and seconds, wormy." "Number one common, wormy." "Sound wormy."
R019 Monongahela N. F., West Virginia. Fernow Experimental Forest, Parsons, W. Va. Fireplace in ranger's dwelling showing Heatilator Unit #344 installed and detail of interior trim of beaded sound wormy chestnut paneling. Mantel clear chestnut. Taken by C. A. Abell. Sept. 25, 1934.
Interior trim of beaded sound wormy chestnut paneling,... · C. A. Abell, Sept. 25, 1934 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Parsons, West Virginia, 1934. The ranger's dwelling on the Fernow Experimental Forest. "Interior trim of beaded sound wormy chestnut paneling. Mantel clear chestnut."
R020 Georgia, Chattahoochee N. F. Sawing bolts from a log. Blight killed chestnut on the Chattahoochee National Forest being utilized through sales of pulpwood and donations to forest residents, who utilize this salvaged wood for timbers, lumber, and shingles. (A mountain family in poor circumstances, who are eking out a small income by making hand rived shingles on free use of salvaged timber.) Taken by Clint Davis - July, 1941 [the year on the card is amended by hand to 1937]
Sawing bolts from a log. Blight killed chestnut on the... · Clint Davis, July 1941 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia. "Sawing bolts from a log. Blight killed chestnut being utilized through sales of pulpwood and donations to forest residents."
R021 Georgia, Chattahoochee N. F. This three-man saw team is composed of grandpa and his two granddaughters. Blight killed chestnut on the Chattahoochee National Forest being utilized through sales of pulpwood and donations to forest residents, who utilize the salvaged wood for lumber, timbers and shingles. A mountain family in poor circumstances, who are eking out a small income by making hand rived shingles on free use of salvaged timber. Taken by Clint Davis - July, 1941.
This three-man saw team is composed of grandpa and his two... · Clint Davis, July 1941 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
"This three-man saw team is composed of grandpa and his two granddaughters. A mountain family in poor circumstances, who are eking out a small income by making hand rived shingles on free use of salvaged timber."
R022 Indiana, Hoosier N. F. Mixed hardwood farm woodland on the Thomas farm near Heltonville, Indiana. Note stacked fence posts salvaged from recently blight-killed chestnut trees in the stand. This farm woodland comprises an area of approximately 110 acres; has been in the family since the area was first entered back in 1840. The area has not been burned over or grazed for 25 years and consists of a well-stocked, all-aged stand. In the past three years an average of about $500 per year has been earned by Mr. Thomas from the sale of products salvaged from blight-killed chestnut. White oak, yellow poplar and hickory. Taken by Leland J. Prater - May 1940
Stacked fence posts salvaged from recently blight-killed... · Leland J. Prater, May 1940 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Near Heltonville, Indiana, May 1940. "Note stacked fence posts salvaged from recently blight-killed chestnut trees." The card says the farmer earned about five hundred dollars a year from the salvage.
R023 West Virginia, Monongahela National Forest. Splitting dead chestnut logs into sizes for use as fence posts and rails on a salvage sale in Yeager Hollow. Taken by Leland J. Prater 6-23-55
Splitting dead chestnut logs ... on a salvage sale in... · Leland J. Prater, June 23, 1955 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia, 1955. "Splitting dead chestnut logs into sizes for use as fence posts and rails on a salvage sale in Yeager Hollow."
R024 West Virginia, Monongahela National Forest. Truck load of dead chestnut fence posts and rails. Taken by Leland J. Prater 1955
Truck load of dead chestnut fence posts and rails,... · Leland J. Prater, 1955 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
"Truck load of dead chestnut fence posts and rails."
R025 Virginia, Wise County. Chestnut rail plant at Tacoma, Va. Operator buys N.F. chestnut timber and makes it into rails and posts. A small plant that utilizes dead chestnut timber. 7-24-58
Chestnut rail plant at Tacoma, Va. A small plant that... · U.S. Forest Service, July 24, 1958 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Tacoma, Virginia, 1958. "A small plant that utilizes dead chestnut timber."
R026 Tennessee, Sullivan County. Chestnut rail fence display at Minton's Rustic and Modern Fences south of Bristol. Taken by Leland J. Prater - July 1959
Chestnut rail fence display at Minton's Rustic and Modern... · Leland J. Prater, July 1959 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
South of Bristol, Tennessee, July 1959. Two rail chestnut rails. Chestnut posts. Thirty years after the trees died, the wood was still for sale.
The ledger
Farmers' Bulletin 2068, 1954. Figure 1. The spread, by decade, from New York in 1910 to the whole range in 1950.
F04
Farmers' Bulletin 2068, Chestnut Blight and Resistant Chestnuts · USDA, 1954 · p. 8. View the original.
"By 1961 practically all the operable chestnut will be gone from Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee."
F07
American Chestnut... an American Wood, FS-230 · U.S. Forest Service, Feb. 1973 · cover. View the original.
The Forest Service closed the account in February 1973. American Chestnut, an American Wood.
F08
American Chestnut... an American Wood, FS-230 · U.S. Forest Service, Feb. 1973 · p. 3, Supply. View the original.
"In 1924 the volume of chestnut sawtimber was estimated at 19.3 billion board feet. By 1940 virtually all chestnut had been killed by the blight."
F09
American Chestnut... an American Wood, FS-230 · U.S. Forest Service, Feb. 1973 · p. 4, Production. View the original.
Lumber. 663.9 million board feet in 1909. 269.9 million in 1929. 50.5 million in 1933. 4.4 million in 1960, "cut from long-dead trees."
F10
American Chestnut... an American Wood, FS-230 · U.S. Forest Service, Feb. 1973 · p. 5. View the original.
In 1928 the telephone, telegraph and power companies bought 808,000 chestnut poles, more than a quarter of all the poles in the country. Railroads bought eight million chestnut crossties in 1908, and 115,000 in 1931.
F11
American Chestnut... an American Wood, FS-230 · U.S. Forest Service, Feb. 1973 · p. 5. View the original.
"American chestnut, however, has been eliminated as a commercial species by the chestnut blight."
The sprouts
R027 Georgia, Chattahoochee National Forest. Chattahoochee Camera Station #5. Wolf Pen Gap Road. To show replacement of native chestnut stands, Northern N.C. Taken by Charles A. Rowland - 1939
Wolf Pen Gap Road. To show replacement of native chestnut... · Charles A. Rowland, 1939 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Wolf Pen Gap Road, Georgia, 1939. Camera station number five, "to show replacement of native chestnut stands."
R028 Maryland. Mixed hardwood stand - ash, red oak and red hickory -- springing up following the killing of the chestnut trees in 1916 by the chestnut blight. Catoctin Mountain Range, Frederick County, Maryland. Taken by W. R. Mattoon - 1940
Mixed hardwood stand springing up following the killing of... · W. R. Mattoon, 1940 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Catoctin Mountain, Maryland, 1940. "Mixed hardwood stand, ash, red oak and red hickory, springing up following the killing of the chestnut trees in 1916."
R029 Dead Chestnut Tree at Pittman Center. Pittman Center, Tennessee. June 10, 1939.
Dead Chestnut Tree at Pittman Center, Tennessee · TVA, June 10, 1939 · TVA · NARA RG 142 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Pittman Center, Tennessee, June 1939. The Tennessee Valley Authority's card reads: dead chestnut tree.
R030 Pisgah National Forest. Blight-killed chestnut snag near Bennett Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Note the young chestnut sprouts at the left. These are about as large as sprouts get before the blight hits them. Taken by Leland J. Prater - August 1959
Blight-killed chestnut snag near Bennett Gap on the Blue... · Leland J. Prater, Aug. 1959 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Bennett Gap, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, August 1959. "Note the young chestnut sprouts at the left. These are about as large as sprouts get before the blight hits them."
F06
Farmers' Bulletin 2068, Chestnut Blight and Resistant Chestnuts · USDA, 1954 · p. 1. View the original.
The 1954 bulletin, page one. "Roots of dead chestnuts continue to sprout. Farmers are asking about these root sprouts."
R031 Pennsylvania, Allegheny National Forest. Plot of Chinese chestnut trees in the Bull Hill Area. 2-0 stock of P. I. #58602 strain of Chinese chestnut planted in 1954. Planting was done by members of the Sheffield Rod and Gun Club in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Game Commission and U. S. Forest Service. Posts supporting the young trees are from American chestnut trees killed by chestnut blight introduced when Chinese chestnut trees were imported into America for ornamental plantings. Taken by Leland J. Prater 7/9/62
Plot of Chinese chestnut trees ... Posts are from American... · Leland J. Prater, July 9, 1962 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Allegheny National Forest, 1962. A plot of Chinese chestnut. "Posts supporting the young trees are from American chestnut trees killed by chestnut blight introduced when Chinese chestnut trees were imported into America."
R003 View of blight killed chestnut still standing ghost-like in the Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia. Taken by Clint Davis - July, 1941.
Blight killed chestnut still standing ghost-like,... · Clint Davis, July 1941 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The Senate was told in 1912 that no contagious disease fails to yield to quarantine. If there is wormy chestnut in your barn, or a sprout still coming up in your woods, say where.
R032 Virginia. Chestnut (Castanea mill) in bloom. Taken by E. R. Mosher 1914
Chestnut in bloom, Virginia · E. R. Mosher, 1914 · U.S. Forest Service · NARA RG 95 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Sources
- Chestnut Tree Blight: Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture transmitting, in response to Senate Resolution of April 30, 1912, information relative to the study and investigation of the so-called chestnut tree blight, Senate Document No. 653, 62d Congress, 2d session, May 8, 1912 — https://archive.org/details/chestnuttreeblig00unit - p. 3: "(2) A tree once attacked never recovers. It takes from two months to four years to kill a tree ... The average length of life of a diseased tree is three years." - p. 4, point 7: "The value of the chestnut stand is variously estimated at between three hundred and four hundred million dollars. This disease has already caused an estimated minimum damage of $25,000,000." - p. 4, point 8: "it may be expected to spread throughout the range of the chestnut tree during the next two years, unless checked by human effort. Whatever is done to control the disease by any methods known at present must be attempted immediately." - p. 4, point 11: "There is no contagious disease known that does not yield to sanitation and quarantine." - p. 5: expenditures itemized by fiscal year 1908–1912, total $14,885.96, signed James Wilson, Secretary. - Plate I, "Known distribution of the chestnut bark disease February 1, 1912"; Plate III, fig. 1, "The most southern point of infection — a group of diseased chestnut trees at Fontella, Bedford County, Va."; Plate VII, "Views of the same tree, taken on three successive years, 1909, 1910, and 1911 respectively, Wyncote, Pa. The branches have been cut off as fast as they were killed. The tree will die this summer (1912)." - pp. 27–29, the Pennsylvania act of 1911 (reprinted in Farmers' Bulletin 467): sec. 2, right "to enter upon any premises"; sec. 3, power to "remove, cut down, and destroy"; sec. 6, "$25,000 ... and the further sum of $250,000." - p. 26 (Farmers' Bulletin 467 reprint): "It may prove necessary in some States to destroy all chestnut trees, diseased or healthy, in a belt 10 to 20 miles wide ... Back of this line the chestnut trees may be abandoned to the disease." - p. 18 (Bulletin 141 reprint, Metcalf and Collins, 1909): "The question to settle is simply which is more costly—to use the methods recommended or to lose the trees. The people concerned must decide." - p. 33 (Farmers' Bulletin 467, Oct. 28, 1911): "unless prompt and united action is taken there is every indication that the chestnut tree in the States above mentioned will become practically extinct within 10 years." - p. 35: "The best chestnut timber of America is south of the Potomac River ... If the bark disease once becomes well established in the chestnut forests of the South, it will be well-nigh impossible to control it."
- W. W. Ashe, Chestnut in Tennessee, Tennessee Geological Survey Bulletin 10-B, 1911 — https://archive.org/details/chestnutintennes00ashe - p. 6: in the Unaka and Smoky ranges "it forms as much as twenty-five per cent of the forest over tracts several thousand acres in extent." - p. 15: "This scheme is based on the supposition that the destructive chestnut bark disease will not reach Tennessee."
- G. F. Gravatt and R. P. Marshall, Chestnut Blight in the Southern Appalachians, USDA Department Circular 370, May 1926 — https://archive.org/details/chestnutblightin370grav - p. 1: "To-day the chestnut north of the Potomac River and east of the Allegheny Mountains has been laid waste by the blight fungus. The remaining American chestnut stands of the southern Appalachian Mountains face certain destruction." - p. 6, Table 1, the 1925 survey of 200 counties: Kentucky 22 inspected (8 no infection, 14 less than 1 per cent); Virginia 48 inspected (27 at 80 to 100 per cent); Tennessee 32 (1 none, 14 under 1 per cent, 15 at 1 to 9 per cent); 38 counties in all at 80 to 100 per cent. - p. 6, fig. 2, "Map forecasting 80 per cent chestnut-blight infection in the southern Appalachians"; p. 7: "by 1930 well over half the counties of the southern Appalachians will be 80 per cent blighted and ... by 1935 nine-tenths of them will have passed that stage." - p. 8: "the chestnut timber from the 33,000,000 acres of the southern Appalachians, where the species represents 25 per cent of the stand"; "Eventual destruction of all commercial chestnut by the blight is inevitable." - p. 9: "The American chestnut supplies approximately one-half of this country's production of tannin for leather manufacture. With this species facing extermination, to what future source of raw material must this vital industry look?"
- C. F. Korstian and P. W. Stickel, The Natural Replacement of Blight-Killed Chestnut, USDA Miscellaneous Circular 100, 1927 — https://archive.org/details/naturalreplaceme100kors - p. 5: "the blight-killed chestnut has been very largely replaced by oak."
- The Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), Feb. 27, 1912, p. 3 — https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85038615/1912-02-27/ed-1/?sp=3 - "Appropriating $5,000 to prevent the spread of chestnut blight. Patron, Mr. Williams. Vote 57 to 14."
- Richmond Daily Register (Richmond, Ky.), May 16, 1919, p. 2, "Chestnut Blight Feared" — https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86069168/1919-05-16/ed-1/?sp=2 - Warnings by J. E. Barton, commissioner of forestry and geology, and Prof. Garman of the University of Kentucky; "Kentucky has about 2,000,000,000 feet of chestnut timber"; "It is impossible to quarantine in a case like this."
- The Hazard Herald (Hazard, Ky.), Sept. 13, 1927, p. 3, "Tree Blight Is Found In State" — https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85052003/1927-09-13/ed-1/?sp=3 - Discovery in Breathitt and Knott counties announced by Clarence Hill Burrage, forester at the Robinson experiment substation at Quicksand, in the 15,000 acres of the Robinson timber area; "This is said to be the first official discovery of the chestnut blight in Kentucky"; "the blight probably would destroy all chestnut trees in the state in 10 years. He urged farmers to begin selling chestnut timber as opportunity presents."
- The Courier-Journal (Louisville), Feb. 6, 1930, p. 6, "Japanese Chestnut To Be Planted in Kentucky," letter to the editor — https://www.newspapers.com/image/107054455/ (1930, public domain) - The blight "slowly devastating the remaining stands of Kentucky's once large acreage of this very valuable tree"; 3,000 Asiatic chestnut seedlings for the Kentenia State Forest on Pine Mountain in Harlan County, W. E. Jackson, Jr., State Forester.
- J. C. Nellis, Uses for Chestnut Timber Killed by the Bark Disease, USDA Farmers' Bulletin 582, May 16, 1914 — https://archive.org/details/CAT87202318 - p. 12, the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association grades for chestnut lumber: "Firsts and seconds, wormy," "No. 1 common, wormy," "Sound wormy."
- G. F. Gravatt, Chestnut Blight and Resistant Chestnuts, USDA Farmers' Bulletin 2068, 1954 — https://archive.org/details/CAT87204871 - p. 1: "The American chestnut has been almost entirely destroyed by chestnut blight. However, roots of dead chestnuts continue to sprout. Farmers are asking about these root sprouts." - p. 2, fig. 1, "Spread of the chestnut blight," contours for 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 and 1950. - p. 8: "By 1961, however, practically all the operable chestnut will be gone from Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee and the volume remaining in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia will be extremely scattered and inaccessible"; "chestnut sprouts are now found throughout the natural range of the American chestnut."
- Joseph R. Saucier, American Chestnut ... an American Wood, U.S. Forest Service FS-230, February 1973 — https://archive.org/details/americanchestnut230sauc - p. 3, Supply: "In 1924 the volume of chestnut sawtimber was estimated at 19.3 billion board feet. Of this, probably 15 billion board feet was in the southern Appalachian Mountains where it made up about 25 percent of the timber volume. By 1940 virtually all chestnut had been killed by the blight." - p. 3–4, Production: 906.7 million board feet in 1899; the maximum cut, 663.9 million, in 1909; 269.9 million in 1929; 50.5 million in 1933; 84.7 million in 1943; 4.4 million in 1960, "cut from long-dead trees that were previously inaccessible." - p. 5: 516,000 chestnut poles purchased in 1908, 808,000 in 1928, "more than 25 percent of the total of all poles purchased in that year"; about 8 million chestnut crossties in 1908, 115,000 in 1931; "American chestnut, however, has been eliminated as a commercial species by the chestnut blight."
- U.S. Forest Service photographs, Record Group 95-GP, National Archives at College Park, 1901–1962 — https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7108503 - Each plate's credit carries the caption typed on the print's file card and the photographer and date where the card gives them. Photographers named on the cards: E. S. Shipp, W. R. Mattoon, J. C. Nellis, J. M. Keeler Jr., G. F. Schwarz, R. Zon, E. R. Mosher, C. A. Abell, Clint Davis, Charles A. Rowland, J. L. Averell, Bluford W. Muir, Leland J. Prater. Two Chattahoochee cards carry "July, 1941" struck and "1937" written in by hand; the plates use the typed date. Each plate's manifest entry carries its naId.
- Tennessee Valley Authority photograph, Record Group 142, National Archives at Atlanta, June 10, 1939 — https://catalog.archives.gov/id/214439392
- The photographs were made in black and white and colorized with DDColor in 2026; a gray-patch audit (tools/spotfix.py) was run on every frame used. The color is a computer's estimate.