Press release:
WNC’s Crowning Glory- The Culture of the Chestnut
(HENDERSONVILLE, NC, February 11, 2016) – The chestnut played a central role in Western North Carolina’s ecosystem, in its economic system and on its dinner table. The Center for Cultural Preservation in conjunction with the American Chestnut Foundation will present “WNC’s Crowning Glory — The Culture of the Chestnut” to celebrate the importance of the chestnut tree in our mountains and efforts to bring it back to its full glory today.
More than a century ago, a quarter of all the trees in the Southern Appalachian Forest were chestnuts and the Cherokee relied on them for thousands of years as a staple in their diet. The chestnut was a primary source of hard mast for hundreds of species of wild animals. Some old stories tell a time when bears ate so many that they could barely run through the forest. And then in dramatic fashion, the chestnut disappeared not only as a result of the ravaging Asian blight but due to industrial logging that disseminated its numbers.
Historian Anne Rogers from Western Carolina University will discuss the chestnut’s role in Cherokee culture, Gordon McKinney will discuss its importance in mountain culture and how logging contributed to its demise and Tom Saielli of the American Chestnut Foundation will discuss plans and programs to bring it back to our forests today. Come for the great discussion but also for the tasty chestnut bread!
“WNC’s Crowning Glory- The Culture of the Chestnut” will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 23 at Blue Ridge Community College’s Thomas Auditorium. There is a 5 dollar suggested donation for admission.
The chestnut program will be followed on Wednesday, March 30 with a special performance by David Holt and Josh Goforth titled “From One Generation to the Next — A Mountain Music Concert Featuring David Holt and Josh Goforth”. For more information about these programs or any of the Center’s upcoming events go to saveculture.org or call the Center at (828) 692-8062. This program is being run in collaboration with the American Chestnut Foundation and the North Carolina Humanities Council’s Road Scholar Program.
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