Hanover Township near Loudonville in Ashland County, Ohio — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)

The American Chestnut

Mohican State Park

Photographed by Joel Seewald, November 11, 2024

1. The American Chestnut Marker

Inscription. Panel 1 The Mighty Giant The American chestnut tree was once one of the most important trees in our eastern forest. The tree's native range extended from Georgia all the way to Maine and west to the Ohio River Valley. In the Appalachian Mountains, roughly one tree in four was an American chestnut. The American chestnut could grow very large and fast, allowing it to become the dominant tree in many areas. In mature stands, the tree could grow for 300 years or more, reach over 100 feet in height and more than 6 feet in diameter. These traits inspired the nickname "The Mighty Giant."

American chestnut trees bloom in the early summer. Where the trees once grew thickly on Appalachian ridges, their creamy white flowers made the mountainside appear snow covered. The native wildlife depended extensively on the nutritious nuts, especially deer, turkeys, squirrels and bears.

The "Cradle to Grave" Tree
Chestnutting (gathering chestnuts) was both a social activity and provided income, particularly in rural communities. Railroad cars were loaded with nuts for shipment to the larger cities, where vendors could sell them freshly

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roasted. Farmers fattened their livestock on the nuts and used the nuts in traditional recipes, and even ground the nutmeat into flour.

The tree was also an excellent source of lumber. It grew straight, often branch-free for the first 50 feet or more. It was straight-grained, easily split, rot resistant and lighter than oak. Chestnut was known as the "cradle to grave tree," as it was used for both cradles and caskets, as well as many other everyday items. The lumber was also used for split-rail fences, post-and-beam construction, railroad ties, shingles, panels, and telephone poles; some of which are still in use today.

Captions, top to bottom:
• Original range of the American chestnut
• Gathering chestnuts 1878
• American chestnuts, Smoky Mountains, circa 1910

Panel 2 Chestnut Blight Strikes! First identified in 1904 in New York's Bronx Zoological Park, the chestnut blight is caused by an Asiatic fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica) and is almost always lethal to the American chestnut. Moving through the range of the chestnut as a rate of up to 30 miles a year, by the 1950s the chestnut blight had devastated over 200 million

The American Chestnut Marker: Chestnut Blight image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Joel Seewald, November 11, 2024

2. The American Chestnut Marker: Chestnut Blight

acres, killing an estimated 4 billion chestnut trees. The loss of the chestnut is often cited as the worst ecological disaster of the 20th Century in the U.S. In fact, because of the unintentional import of chestnut blight, the federal government created its first plant quarantine laws.

How The Blight Kills
Chestnut blight is characterized by blight fungus, which feeds on the cambium tissue under the bark of the tree. The fungus creates cankers that break through the bark, cutting off the flow of nutrients between the leaves and the roots, which kills the tree. Typical cankers on young, smooth-barked trees first appear orange in contrast to the normal green or grey bark. Thick bark on larger trees becomes cracked and flaking.

Stump Sprouts
The roots of the chestnut tree are usually not affected by fungus, [missing line] the base of the tree or stump for many years. These sprouts can sometimes grow 30 feet or more before succumbing to the chestnut blight. Sometimes a fortunate sprout will avoid the blight and grow large enough to produce flowers and seed.

Mohican State Park Prior to 1949, most of the area comprising today's

The American Chestnut Marker: Restoring the Chestnut image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Joel Seewald, November 11, 2024

3. The American Chestnut Marker: Restoring the Chestnut

Mohican State Park, including the nearby gorge area was part of the Mohican State Forest Park, which was managed by the Ohio Division of Forestry. When the Ohio Department of Natural Resources was created in 1949, Mohican and several other state parks were developed from existing state forests. The mission of Mohican State Park is to provide exceptional outdoor recreation and sound natural resource management. In December 2015, approximately 400 American chestnut bare root seedlings (15/16 blight resistant variety) were planted on this site to re-establish the once important species with the Mohican Area.

Captions, top to bottom:
• An estimated 4 billion American chestnut trees died from the blight in the first half of the 20th Century
• Young American chestnuts killed by blight

Panel 3 Restoring the Chestnut Bringing Back the American Chestnut
In 1983 a dedicated group of scientists founded The American Chestnut Foundation® (TACF) with the mission of restoring the American chestnut to our eastern forests to benefit our environment, our wildlife, and our society.

Centered at our research farms in Meadowview, VA, the goal

Photographed by Joel Seewald, November 11, 2024

4. The American Chestnut Marker

of TACF's breeding program is to develop American chestnut trees that are resistant to the chestnut blight and able to create a self-sustaining population that can continue to evolve in a natural forest environment. Additionally, in order to breed trees that are regionally adapted to the wide climatic variations found throughout the vast range of the chestnut, TACF state chapters have established over 300 chestnut breeding orchards from Maine to Georgia, containing more than 120,000 chestnut trees.

In 2009, TACF announced the first forest planting of our potentially blight-resistant chestnuts we call "Restoration Chestnut 1.0." Today, planting, testing and evaluating these remarkable seeds continues, while additional breeding and development is underway to produce even more advanced and blight-resistant chestnuts in the future. Much of this work, as well as the tending of breeding orchards is being done by some of the 6000 dedicated TACF members and volunteers in twenty states. These efforts are vital to the foundations' activities.

Recent developments in the science of molecular genetics now offer the promise of accelerating

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our breeding process by allowing us to screen the genetic sequences of chestnuts, to see if they have the genetic composition desired by our scientists.

Although it will likely be several decades before large quantities of American chestnuts once again populate our eastern forests, the future is beginning to look much brighter for "The Mighty Giant."

Captions, top to bottom:
• Controlled pollination at TACF's Meadowview Research Farms in Virginia
• Potentially blight-resistant American chestnut tree at Meadowview Research Farms, VA
• "Restoration Chestnut 1.0" seeds hold the promise for the future of the American chestnut
• Chestnut catkin

Erected by The American Chestnut Foundation.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Environment • Horticulture & Forestry. A significant historical month for this entry is December 2015.

Location. 40° 36.643′ N, 82° 17.174′ W. Marker is near Loudonville, Ohio, in Ashland County. It is in Hanover Township. It is on Gorge Overlook, on the right when traveling east. Marker is adjacent to the gorge overlook parking lot, about one mile northwest of Ohio Route 97, in Mohican State Park. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Perrysville OH 44864, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Amish Country.

It is also in the American Midwest.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy,

the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

and the Northwest Territory.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 2 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Clear Fork Gorge (within shouting distance of this marker); High Water Mark (approx. one mile away); Ohio Department of Natural Resources 75th Anniversary (approx. one mile away); Mohican Fire Tower (approx. 1.1 miles away); a different marker also named Mohican Fire Tower (approx. 1.1 miles away); Cline Cabin (approx. 1.4 miles away); The Corn Crib (approx. 1.4 miles away); The Plow (approx. 1.4 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Loudonville.

Additional commentary.
1. Nearly identical marker
There is a nearly identical marker in Scioto Trail State Forest. The only difference is the text at the bottom of the middle panel.

— Submitted November 30, 2024, by Joel Seewald of Madison Heights, Michigan.

Credits. This page was last revised on May 31, 2025. It was originally submitted on November 30, 2024, by Joel Seewald of Madison Heights, Michigan. This page has been viewed 302 times since then and 36 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4. submitted on November 30, 2024, by Joel Seewald of Madison Heights, Michigan.