https://www.oregonlive.com/new.....spots.html
This article from the Oregonian describes people gathering chestnuts here in the Portland area. It sure would be nice for more large parks to have chestnut trees for people to gather. I remember eating them in Italy in the early 1980's. Pretty yummy. Some people even sing Christmas songs about them.
JohnS
PDX OR
Yes, these large trees belong in city parks or in greenspaces, rather than in 3-foot wide parking strips, where most of the chestnut trees in this SE Portland neighborhood are located.
On the other hand, they do distract the squirrels for some weeks, relieving pressure on other edible crops.
I seem to remember a commercial chestnut orchard on 99w over around McMinnville. It was composed of Collosal and Collosal seedlings. Very large nuts with no convoluted pellicle like many European chestnuts tend to have. The seedlings looked just as nice as the grafted ones.