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HELP TELL THE STORY OF AMERICAN CHESTNUT TREES IN KENTUCKY
Do you have a family story about chestnuts? Would you share it? 😃
Mark Neikirk, a retired journalist (The Kentucky Post/The Cincinnati Post) is researching a book on the conservation history along the Sheltowee Trace Trail.
The Sheltowee Trace is Kentucky's "long trail" and stretches about 354 miles from north of Morehead and south into Tennessee through the Big South Fork.
Mark will include a chapter on the American chestnut, as it was an important species along the higher ridges through which the trail passes. Indeed, some of the significant restoration efforts of the Kentucky chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation are near the Sheltowee Trace Trail. So the story continues. 🌳🌳🌳
He is currently focusing on the history of this tree in Kentucky, looking for firsthand recollections and/or records related to these topics:
1) Remembrances of chestnuts (fully alive pre-1950 or dead "ghost trees" standing in the forest after the blight began its death march).
2) Remembrances of family use of chestnuts (building, eating, trading).
3) Recipes using chestnuts, especially any that predate 1930. These may be from "grandma's" handwritten recipe collection or perhaps found in a local cookbook or a local newspaper clipping.
4) General store records proving that chestnuts were taken in trade by local grocers -- or a famiy recipe from such a trade.
5) Family letters or other family documents about chestnuts.
Mark is especially interested in stories from these counties, through which the trail passes or borders: Rowen, Menifee, Wolfe, Powell, Lee, Jackson, Laurel, Pulaski, Estill, Madison, Bath, Owsley, Clark and McCreary. Also, any Tennesee counties in the Big South Fork.
You can email Mark at: moc.liamg@1mkrikien Attach any records or write your recollections with a brief description. He can follow-up with a phone call. Call or TEXT Mark: Cell 859-801-3838.
If you don't have a memory or record to share but have a friend or neighbor who does, please ask that person to consider sharing his or hers with Mark.
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JOIN US Kentucky Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation
"See the World" "Make New Friends" 😃 🐸 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳
support.tacf.org/membership Choose Kentucky Chapter
We found seven wild American Chestnuts on this hike on Sheltowee Trace Trail, Red River Gorge, July 9th, and added to our "TreeSnap" data base. ... met a new Forest Friend along the way. .... and earned a beautiful panoramic view of a section of The Gorge, paid for by a challenging climb to the top. 😎
COME ON OUT .... The Sheltowee Trace Trail is 340 miles long. Lots of sections to hike and meet new friends.
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Chestnut Blight is "Mean and Ugly" !!!
Photo taken June 25, 2026 in The Regional Hybrid Chestnut Orchard in partnership between TACF/Eastern KY University/Kentucky Chapter of TACF.
Tree # 2144 is an ugly example of what the Chestnut Blight, "Cryphonectria parasitica" does to American Chestnut and most hybrid American Chestnut trees. This tree was planted 9 1/2 years ago, as a greenhouse potted seedling.
The Chestnut Blight is an airborne fungus, that came over from Asia and was first identified in New York in 1904. It's spores are carried by wind and birds. This blight "is all around us". It's spores enter through cracks or wounds in the bark and then feed on the green cambial layer that is just under the outer hard bark, until the tree is girdled and dies.
This airborne fungus killed an estimated 4 billion full American Chestnut trees. Fortunately, this fungus does not live in the soil, and the chestnut roots survive to resprout and grow, until the Blight again catches up to those sprouts.
TACF has been breeding hybrid American Chestnuts since 1983, breeding in some amount Chinese genes to gain some "Blight Resistance".
3,550 hybrid seedlings, from a variety of parentages, have been planted in this TACF/EKU Partnership Orchard, beginning April 2016. We have been cutting out the weaker trees every year, to get down last year, to the 296 "Better" trees (8.3%).
Leaf samples were then taken on May 22, 2025, to be "Genomically Tested" to determine the degree of blight resistance of each of those trees. Good News: 77 of those Hybrid Americans were found to have 50% Blight Resistance or higher (on a scale where Americans have 0% resistance, and Chinese have close to 100% resistance) That's 2.2% of the 3,550 trees planted. Even better, 37, or 1.0%, of the trees originally planted, were found to have 60% or higher Blight Resistance !!! 😃
Third and Fourth photos show a few of those 'BEST' trees in this hybrid orchard, some of which will be used in the next generation of "Recurrent Genomic Selection" breeding: * * * * * * SHORT VIDEO: tacf.org/tree-breeding/
The Kentucky Chapter Invites You to JOIN US: 🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳
support.tacf.org/membership Choose the Kentucky Chapter.......
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So much respect for dedication.