For years,the American chestnut tree dominated the eastern half of the United States.
The American chestnut tree made up over 60% of the eastern hardwood forest when the first settlers arrived in North America. The trees grew rapidly and attained large sizes. Because of their many attributes, Chestnut trees became an essential part of the economy and ecosystem.

The impressive chestnut tree of the 19th century was a late-flowering, reliable, and productive tree. It was unaffected by seasonal frosts and was the single most important food source for a wide variety of wildlife from bears to birds.

Throughout the eastern United States people in rural communities harvested the nuts from the trees as a cash crop and also feed the nuts livestock. The straight-grain and highly rot resistant wood of the chestnut was ideal for fence poss, railroad ties, barn beams and home construction. The wood was good to use for outdoor lumber as it contained large amounts of tannic acid, which kept the wood from rotting for a long time.

At the turn of the 20th century imported trees brought with it the introduction of Cryphonectria parasitica, the causal agent of chestnut blight. This disease wiped out the American chestnut tree in just a few decades. Since the devastation of the tree, there has been essentially no American chestnut lumber sold in the United States. The bulk of the annual 20-million-pound nut crop now comes from introduced chestnut species or imported nuts. Today most chestnut wood is reclaimed lumber.