A few were growing when the first European colonists came here in the late 1600s. Three of the trees, which we use to create our Chesapeake Pieces,  were listed in the Maryland Big Tree Registry and one, a swamp chestnut oak that shaded the grounds and graveyard of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Kent County, MD, was the largest known representative of its species in the country: a U.S. Champion Tree.