Lucas County walnut trees go to war

The immediate question was, why are there no walnuts this fall on the two walnut trees in my neighborhood? I hadn't noticed until yesterday evening, when I set out to take a photo to illustrate a footnote to Lucas County's history --- the fact some 28,000 feet of native walnut timber were harvested near Chariton during September of 1944 as part of the nation's war effort.

Usually, fallen walnuts aggravate lawn mowers this time of year --- this year, not so much. 

A little research turned up something I'd not thought about before --- walnuts observe to greater or lesser degrees alternate bearing cycles: Heavy crops one year; light crops (or no nuts at all) during alternating years. So now I know.

Walnuts are native to the south of Iowa and pioneers found so many mature trees here along streams and elsewhere that it wasn't unusual to incorporate them casually into log cabins of that era. 

The deployment of Lucas County walnut logs, some of which may have been growing when those pioneers arrived in the late 1840s, was reported upon briefly on Page 1 of The Herald-Patriot of Thursday, Sept. 28, 1944:

"A scene reminiscent of World War I days was enacted at the railroad yards this week when several carloads of walnut logs  were loaded and shipped out. These walnut logs are to be made into gun stocks and will soon find their way to the fighting fronts. They will be made into stocks at the factory at Burlington and then will go to the arsenals. Nearly 28,000 feet of walnut timber was shipped out, nearly all having been grown on the Howard Copeland farm east of Chariton. The logs were cut and processed by Luther Miller of Cambria."

And, under another photograph, "Part of the 28,000 feet awaiting to be loaded. Several of these logs measure 24 inches across the small end. Experts estimate ages of many of these trees were from 75 to 100 years. In other words, a crop that is harvested about once a century."

The Copeland farm, located perhaps a mile east of Chariton on the road to lakes Ellis and Morris, had been a showplace from pioneer days. And it's not clear from these reports if the walnut trees harvested were native growth, or had been planted in those early days.

The paragraphs also suggest that other trees had been harvested for the 1917-1918 war effort --- but I've found no record of that.