American Chestnut

Castanea dentata

City Park

The American chestnut tree was once the king of eastern forests. Its hard, durable wood was used for everything from split-rail fences to furniture. Its sweet nuts were prized by both wildlife and people.

The American chestnut is missing from eastern forests now. A fungus deadly to the trees was brought to the United States on Asian chestnut trees around 1904. Spread on the wind, the chestnut blight forever changed eastern forests. Even persistent chestnut sprouts, springing from roots of long-dead giants, become infected and die before they can bear fruit. Large American chestnut trees are now found only in mid-west or west coast states where they are isolated from the blight spores.

The western-most tree is the largest of the three American chestnuts in City Park, even though it lost a major limb to a falling ponderosa pine tree in 1990. In 1991 it was declared the Idaho state champion. In 2000 it measured 139 inches in circumference and 117 feet in height.