Eric J. Wallace is a writer, avid lover of the outdoors, and devotee to the never-ending search for the Good Life. His work has appeared in more than 50 noteworthy publications, including Outside, Backpacker, Canoe & Kayak, Dirt Rag, WIRED, Atlas Obscura, Modern Farmer and more. He is presently a contributing editor for the internet's greatest fount of culinary wonder, Gastro Obscura.
Published
When the European colonists arrived, American chestnut trees were a dominant species throughout most of the eastern piedmont and Appalachian Mountain range. Their trunks could grow to be 10 feet wide and stretch upward of 105 feet into the canopy; limbs spanned an equally wide footprint. The trees could live for three or more centuries and covered an estimated 300,000 square miles of land from Maine to Mississippi.
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