Connecticut news

340 Year Old Solid Chestnut Canoe

By Bill Adamsen

Canoe at Mashantucket Pequot Museum[click for larger photo]
Canoe at Mashantucket Pequot Museum


While visiting the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, I was thrilled to see their exhibit of a large dugout canoe carved from solid American chestnut. I was visiting the museum with my daughter and her friends and was stunned by this canoe's appearance. A full eighteen feet long, it was built from solid chestnut and the grain of the mammoth tree is still clearly visible.

Found at the bottom of West Hill Pond in northwestern Connecticut by divers in 1988, the canoe had been deliberately sunk in about 12 feet of water using rocks, perhaps to ensure it remained below the ice of the lake during the winter. West Hill Pond is located at 900+ feet elevation and ice thickness frequently reaches eighteen to twenty four inches. The pond itself bottoms out at about 65 feet – deep for lakes in Connecticut. The actual depth at time of sinking may have been perhaps four to five less, since that is the depth of the impoundment caused by the West Hill Pond dam.

The divers turned the eighteen foot long canoe over to Yale University's Peabody Museum – who in turn donated the canoe to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum in 1996 for conservation and display. More can be found at the Norwich Bulletin or at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum.

Canoe at Mashantucket Pequot Museum[click for larger photo]
Canoe at Mashantucket Pequot Museum


Dugout canoe in process of fabrication[click for larger photo]
Dugout canoe in process of fabrication


Apparently American chestnut dugouts were not uncommon on freshwater lakes in CT. The Connecticut State Museum also has a an example of a dugout canoe discovered during the draining of a lake in Bethel, CT back in 1911. That canoe is also estimated to be from the 16th or 17th century. The article goes on to note that all the dugout canoes found in New England have been found underwater or at the bottom of lakes where the cold water enhances preservation and inaccessibility hinders destructive access.

Chestnut would have been a preferred material for building a dugout. The wood has a high tannic acid content which makes it resistant to decay. The trees were common, grew close to the water, and the tall straight (branchless) trunks would all have made them suitable and preferred for a canoe. As one of the lightest of the hardwoods and one of the easiest to work, it would have been a natural choice of a dugout canoe builder.

Those with an interest in seeing a dugout built or in use, there are a series of educational videos produced by Gatehouse Media depicting the manufacture and use of dugout canoes called mishoonash by the Wampanoag. These are vitally important documentaries and I'm delighted they're available through YouTube.

Wampanoag Canoe

Log cabin of American chestnut built on shores of West Hill Pond[click for larger photo]
Log cabin built on shores of West Hill Pond circa 1927 of American chestnut


West Hill Pond, location of the discovery of the Pequot canoe is familiar to me, having grown up playing in its woods and on its waters. I was surprised to have never heard of this discovery. I can understand someone wanting a canoe on the lake. The waters are extremely clear both as a result of an extremely small watershed, and unique limnology which provides a strong basic buffering potential. Even today one can see the bottom at ten feet or more with excellent underwater visibility.

The Pond sports two Boy Scout Camps (Camp Sequassen and Camp Workcoeman) with beautiful facilities. Today's scouts can't wait until summer to ply its waters in their own canoes.

My grandmother had a log cabin of American chestnut built on West Hill Pond shortly after the blight, and our property has many American chestnut sprouts growing and even flowering right along the shore. Perhaps one of them was the “source” of the material for this canoe?

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Lucinda’s got a tree to introduce you to 🌳👋
Meet even more trees at tacf.org/meet-the-trees/
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8 CommentsComment on Facebook

This is D2-19-136 if you'd like to view it on our webpage!

Great video, keep them coming.

Great job guys!

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Reminder! TACF's 2025 American Chestnut Photo Contest is going on now, with a new, extended deadline!

The first-place winner will have their photo featured on the cover of a future issue of Chestnut magazine and receive a one-year TACF membership, along with a T-shirt and hat. The second-place winner will receive a T-shirt and sticker, and the third-place winner will receive a sticker. All winners will be recognized in a future issue of Chestnut.

Visit tacf.org/2025-photo-contest/ for all the details.
... See MoreSee Less

Reminder! TACFs 2025 American Chestnut Photo Contest is going on now, with a new, extended deadline! The first-place winner will have their photo featured on the cover of a future issue of Chestnut magazine and receive a one-year TACF membership, along with a T-shirt and hat. The second-place winner will receive a T-shirt and sticker, and the third-place winner will receive a sticker. All winners will be recognized in a future issue of Chestnut.Visit https://tacf.org/2025-photo-contest/ for all the details.

Celebrate the legacy of Rex Mann—forester, storyteller, and passionate champion for the American chestnut—with this limited edition Leave Tracks t-shirt.

Rex devoted his life to restoring forests and inspiring others to care for the land. Now, you can honor his memory and help carry his mission forward.

🌳 100% of the proceeds from every shirt go to The American Chestnut Foundation (THANK YOU!), supporting the work Rex believed in so deeply.

👉 Pre-order now through August 2: scottmann.com/store/Leave-Tracks-In-Honor-of-Rex-Mann-PREORDER-p768130686

Let’s keep walking the trail Rex helped blaze.
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Celebrate the legacy of Rex Mann—forester, storyteller, and passionate champion for the American chestnut—with this limited edition Leave Tracks t-shirt.Rex devoted his life to restoring forests and inspiring others to care for the land. Now, you can honor his memory and help carry his mission forward.🌳 100% of the proceeds from every shirt go to The American Chestnut Foundation (THANK YOU!), supporting the work Rex believed in so deeply.👉 Pre-order now through August 2: https://scottmann.com/store/Leave-Tracks-In-Honor-of-Rex-Mann-PREORDER-p768130686Let’s keep walking the trail Rex helped blaze.

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1 CommentComment on Facebook

Transgenic American Chestnuts are still a much better option. The product of this method will always be a hybrid and that should not be the goal.

One of the greatest ecological disasters the US has ever seen. Chestnut blight wiped out the American chestnut tree in less than 50 years.⁠
A tree that once made up nearly 25% of the eastern forests was reduced to a functionally extinct species.⁠

The Asian fungus Cryphonectria parasitica was accidentally introduced into the United States in the late 1800s. While a few diseased chestnuts were noted in the 1880s and 90s, it wasn't until 1904 that the pathogen was identified in New York City. From that point, the blight spread rapidly. By 1950 the entire range had been consumed.⁠

The fungus causes cankers that spread around the trunk of the tree, girdling it and killing everything above ground. Many root systems still survive today and continue to send up shoots, but these also eventually succumb to blight. Because American chestnuts rarely survive long enough to reproduce, the species is considered functionally extinct.⁠

The American Chestnut Foundation is working to develop blight-resistant American chestnuts that can be used to restore this iconic tree to its native range. Learn more at tacf.org/about-us (link in bio)
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145 CommentsComment on Facebook

I think I may have found an American Chestnut tucked away in a backyard

Incredibly important work…it was such a travesty for our forests!

The trees seem to still be intact outside their range in isolated areas. Theres a few large ones here in central Michigan on a peninsula and again on the Leelenau peninsula in the nw lower peninsula. I keep seeing people chime in about adult trees here and there. Seems like there's hope!

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