Golden Forest

I attended the local community association meeting on Monday where the speaker was a local historian with a wealth of knowledge about this area.  She brought along a map that showed the early colonial land grants.  The area where I live was called Golden Forest.  It's currently just that but not because of the chestnut trees which were the climax forest in the late 1700s.  The climax forest is now beech trees, but even they are not the reason it's golden.  It's the tulip poplars and the understory spice bushes that are so golden.  See ...