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This is a story of loggers
in the early 1950’s finding fermented Chestnut tree sap. [They called
it Chestnut Liquor]. This was related to the GATACF by Mr. Julian
Whitaker on June 10, 2005, and he first heard it in 1991. Julian
says that one of the loggers is still alive (now 86) and remembers
this episode in his life vividly.
In the 1940’s and
1950’s, in an area of the Southern Appalachian mountains,
particularly Fannin County, Georgia, adjacent to the Rich Mountain
Wilderness Area, some events occurred that make for quite a story in
our American chestnut legacy.
Living American
chestnut trees were very abundant in this area at the start of the
l9th century. However, by the 1940’s and 1950’s the high elevations
were littered with dead Chestnut trees. In 1963, I (Julian)
personally saw these dead trees and was awed by their size, and
humbled by the tremendous quantity.
In 1991 an elderly
Gentleman (a former logger) from this area told me this story while
sitting on my front porch looking at the beautiful mountains.
“I made a good living
for several years in the 1950s harvesting wormy chestnut logs up
there. [pointing to the big mountains] Me and my younger brother
would walk up the mountain leading a team of oxen. [later we used
horses]. Both of us were young men and lived at home supporting
mother. [His father was deceased] We would start up the path, and
when we got far enough away where mother could not see us; we would
retrieve our one quart tomato cans that we had hid on a tree limb.
The open ends of the cans had a wire loop which we hung on the Oxen
collar. The cans were what we used to catch the Chestnut Liquor. One
of us led the team of Oxen and the other carried the crosscut saw. It
would take us from two to three hours to walk up the mountain to
where the Chestnut logs were located. Mother would pack us a lunch of
sausage/biscuit and sweet tater packed in a burlap bag. We hung this
also on the oxen collar. Many of the Chestnut trees were too big for
our sawmill; also the steers could not pull a big cut down the
mountain.”
“When we were ready to
cut the log, we placed our tomato cans close by. Some of these trees
were hollow. They had been laying here for many years and the "sap"
inside the hollow had fermented into what we call Chestnut Liquor.
As we sawed the log we were always ready to catch the
Liquor in the tomato cans. Many times when we were not fast enough
with the cans I have watched my brother quickly put his lips on the
saw notch and drink it straight from the tree. I was always worried
that brother would drink too much, and we would have to stay
overnight with the Chestnut logs. When this happened mother would
give us a talking to that lasted for days. She could always tell when
we had found the special "hollow" log.”
Interviews with other
elderly loggers in this area reveal the same story about drinking
Chestnut Liquor. They said it did not taste very good, but it would
certainly make you drunk. Times were hard then. TVA was just starting
to run electric power into the mountains. The Feds were closing down
many of the moonshine stills. A good drink was hard to come by, and
chestnut liquor was free.
Julian is a chair maker
and an instructor of American Windsor Chair building. He is also
interested in constructing a chair from reclaimed American chestnut
wood. For more information, please contact him at the following
address.
Julian Whitaker
87 Foxtrot Lane
Cherry Log, Georgia, 30522
jwhitchairsgtds.net |
