Saving an American Treasure

Every year we mail seed with improved blight resistance to OCF Members

Join Today

UPDATE:  We’ve finished mailing seed for members who joined before January 1, 2023. Anyone who made a donation or buys an annual seed membership after 1/1/2023 will be placed at the top of the list to receive seed at the end of this year (winter 2023).

registration open!

2023 Annual Meeting

December 1, 2023

Havana, Arkansas

Chinquapin Wood Trench Bowls

By OCF Vice President A.J. Hendershott 

Trench bowls, also called trenchers, are a traditional craft that can be traced to historic folk craft of the late 1500s on through the early 1900s.  Native Americans made similar wooden bowls with stone axes and adzes and burned away the depression with coals and scrapers..

Pollinator Research

University of Arkansas, Hobbs State Park, and the OCF

Chinquapin Longbow

OCF Vice President A. J. Hendershott has been hand making wood bows since 1997. In this article, he describes in detail how he turned the wood of a drought killed Ozark chinquapin into a beautiful longbow. 

Planting Instructions

Ozark chinquapin planting guide and growing instructions

Tips and tricks to protect your Ozark chinquapin nut crop from animal predation

Schoolhouse Memories of the Ozark Chinquapin & Hully Gully

In this article, read interviews from people who remember Ozark chinquapin and the childhood game “Hully Gully” 

Chinquapin "worms": Preserving Ozark Chinquapin nuts

Learn how to identify chestnut weevils, know if your seed are infested, how to kill them, tips, tricks and more

Medicinal Uses of Ozark Chinquapin 

For over 15 years we’ve been working to recover the imperiled Ozark chinquapin, but in times past, the tree was used to help people recover from ailments of their own…

Chinquapin Barrels and The Cooper

The Ozark chinquapin was historically utilized in a variety of ways for its wood..

Ozark Chinquapin Native Range

Updated native range map for Castanea ozarkensis

Chinquapin Spelling Bee

The history and meaning behind the name of this iconic tree

About Ozark Chinquapin

Background and history

The Ozark chinquapin (Castanea ozarkensis) is a drought tolerant hardwood tree that inhabits rocky upper slopes and ridges..

Chinquapin Necklaces

Tree Trip

Looking for Ozark chinquapin along the Buffalo River

Learning Links

Your number one resource for information about the Ozark chinquapin

OCF Embroidered Hats 

Available in 9 colors

National Geographic Article 

The Ozark chinquapin story

Journalist and photographer with OCF president and founder Steve Bost

annual Membership

Join or renew Annual Seed Membershp

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If you want to help us you can get involved by becoming a member.  Every year we ship members seed taken from trees on our tests plots showing levels of blight resistance.

Chinquapin Library –Updated!

Newspaper articles from 1887-1970 talking about the trees

Screenshot_20181204-113117_Yahoo Mail

An interesting glimpse into the cultural and economic significance of the Ozark chinquapin tree

Our Mission and Vision

The Ozark Chinquapin Foundation (OCF) is a non-profit organization of outdoors-men and women with a vision of restoring the Ozark Chinquapin to its historic native range.  Through our efforts, and those of hundreds of volunteers over the last decade, we are attempting to establish a viable seed base through research and the manual cross-pollination of surviving trees. Our goal is to develop a 100 % pure Ozark Chinquapin that is blight resistant, and distribute the seeds to everyone interested in helping. 

Join The Ozark Chinquapin Foundation

If you are interested in joining our efforts and obtaining seed, we welcome your help and support! Membership in the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation is $30.00 per year.  If you would like to give a donation with your annual membership you can do that typing in a custom amount or choosing one of the options on the form. 

Seed from the Ozark Chinquapin are still very rare and seed with resistance even rarer. However, every year we are able to ship seed with better resistance than the year before. Every year we mail our annual members seed collected from our research test plots. There is no guarantee these seed are blight resistant. However, the parent trees these seed were collected from are large (11″ – 21″ Dia.) 100% pure Ozark Chinquapin trees that exhibit varying levels of resistance.

Members will have their seed shipped in January-March 2023  in order of membership received. With your membership you get 3-5 rare seed depending on availability, growing instructions, updates on restoration progress and the first opportunity at resistant seed as they become available from research test plots.

Thank You for your help and support!

New Updates!