The term antique is tossed around frequently. It seems like anything that is old is considered to be an antique, from furniture to art to cars to views of life. Exactly how old something has to be to be considered an antique is debated vigorously and it should be no surprise that experts and the [...]
Trees are some of the oldest known living organism on the planet. Surviving on this planet for 385 million years, only a handful of organisms live longer lives, mostly sponges, coral, and bacteria. Trees have survived nearly every disaster this planet has seen and there are trees on this planet that have been alive for [...]
There have been many scourges to strike this planet from the Bubonic Plague to the AIDS epidemic but humans are not the only living things that have been affected. A fungal blight wiped out nearly every chestnut tree in North America in the early 20th century and it has prevented re-population of the species even [...]
There are many things in modern life that we cannot live without now like electrical power, the telephone or the internet. Despite all of the technology that goes into that there is still an old world piece of technology that makes it all possible, the wooden pole. We know them as utility poles and thanks [...]
The chestnut tree was once one of the most common trees in the United States. Towns and cities have named streets for trees like the maple, the walnut and the chestnut was no different. Chestnut Hill is the name of prominent neighborhoods in both Philadelphia and Boston. The tree anchored whatever ecosystem they were a [...]
The chestnut tree is one of the most useful and beautiful trees the world has ever known. Their nuts can be used as a food source or ground into flour to make pancakes or bread and their wood was used in some of the most exquisite buildings and furniture throughout the world. The tree was [...]
The American Chestnut (castenea dentate) has been one of the most important trees in American history and one of the finest trees in the world. It is a deciduous tree in the beech family and before the 20th century existed all throughout the eastern United States. Alas in the early 1900s fungal blight from imported [...]
