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Message: [QUOTE="CONN78SEJ, post: 4011136, member: 10604"] Not sure where your bias to not give the American Chestnut it’s due comes from, but yes you are wrong. Oak was a very valuable shipbuilding wood, as it was the only species of plentiful wood that one could build a large ocean going ship out of back in colonial days. Of the large trees in the New World eastern forests, white oak was the hardest and most stable that could take and hold shipbuilding pegs, large boards, deck planking, etc. and keep everything together and withstand all the stresses of an ocean going voyage. Aside from shipbuilding and a few other specialized uses, American Chestnut was the building wood of choice from about 1820 on for everything from barns, homes, railroad ties, etc. Oak was also used if a specialized load beam, or expensive rock hard flooring was required. A problem that the very first American colonists had with using American Chestnut for building was it’s sheer size made very difficult to chop down and get the gigantic logs to the mill. Oak being a smaller tree was easier to fell and bring to the saw mill. Carley’s article which you dispute is not argumentative as you say, but is just stating historical facts, and is spot on once lumber harvesting became a little more mechanized and the huge trees could be economically brought to the saw mill. [/QUOTE]