Carolinas Chapter President Doug Gillis crafted the frame and posts for an orchard sign installed outside TACF’s Asheville office on April 19, 2022 (pictured above). The wood Doug used is wormy chestnut from the Harris Dairy Farm in Barnardsville, NC. When timber on 435 acres of this nearly 800-acre farm was selectively cut in the late 1950s, William Parlier of Lenoir, NC purchased the lumber from Doug’s uncle, Charles Harris. There was an estimated 1.5 million board feet of harvestable wood on the farm, and some of that wood was fallen chestnut logs.
Chestnut wood paneling lines the walls in the den of the Gillis’ home in Raleigh, NC.
Doug’s father, Glen Gillis, purchased approximately 500 board feet of wormy chestnut wood from Mr. Parlier. The chestnut wood had been sawn into ¾ inch thick paneling and planned smooth on one side. In 1960, Doug helped his father install the paneling in the den of our home (pictured, right) located in the Chestnut Hills subdivision in Raleigh, NC. The paneling varies in size, ranging from six to eight inches on average, up to 20 inches wide. In 2010, after the passing of Doug’s mother, Doug sold the home to a contractor for a teardown and rebuild project. Doug salvaged the wormy chestnut wood before closing the sale and currently has the wood stored in the basement of his home in Charlotte, NC.