#Longleaf January 13

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

If you live in North Carolina especially east of I-95 you often see LONGLEAF Pine Trees.

In fact the North Carolina General Assembly in 1957 adopted a State of NC “State Toast”. The toast begins with the following line:

Here’s to the land of the LONG LEAF Pine

Much of North Carolina’s past was shaped by the longleaf pine.

Its importance to the state has occurred on many economic fronts including turpentine, logging, and even golf resorts. The trees are valuable for several factors including the fact that LONGLEAF pines naturally grows straighter, tapers less, and produces a stronger, heavier wood than loblolly pine.

LONGLEAF pine forests once occupied over 90 million acres in the South. There is a 1971 book I found online by Dr. E.L Little Jr. called Atlas of United States Trees that included a map showing the Historic Range of the LONGLEAF Pine.

By the late 1990s, roughly three million acres remained, with many of the remaining acres in an unhealthy state due to the exclusion of fire. That has led to a number of conversation measures including one I read about called the Long Leaf Alliance.

There was a period of time where people from around the world craved products that came from North Carolina’s LONGLEAF pine trees. The LONGLEAF pine could be used to produce tar, pitch, and turpentine. These products became known as naval stores.

Here is a brief overview of each product.

Tar is a dark, thick, sticky liquid produced by burning pine branches and logs very slowly in kilns. Seamen painted coats of tar on riggings that held masts and sails in place. It was also used on land, as axle grease, to preserve fence posts, and to cover wounds on livestock to help them heal. You may have smelled it when you passed a new road being laid down.

Pitch is produced by boiling tar to concentrate it. It was painted on the sides and bottoms of wooden ships to make them watertight. At room temperature, pitch is nearly solid, much like modern caulk, which has similar uses. When heated, it flows like a liquid and can be used as a paint.

Turpentine is distilled from a gum that living pine trees secrete to protect wounds in their trunks. It was not much used in the colonial period, but by the nineteenth century it was used in manufacturing paint and a variety of other goods as well as for medicinal purposes. You may have used this colorless but strong-smelling fluid used as a thinner for oil-based paints.

For all of us that live in North Carolina let’s all toast the LONG LEAF Pine.