This fast growth quickly lifts their growing tips above the level of most ground fires, and they add a thick bark that protects the tree from fire. In time, the trees become immune to all but the hottest fires. The old-growth longleaf pine was an impressive specimen, topping 120 feet on the better soils, its turn sometimes exceeding 3 feet in diameter. The original settlers, interested primarily in agriculture, largely bypassed the Sandhills region and its immense stands of longleaf pine. But slowly, people with other motives came looking for profits, and found the seemingly limitless treasure trove of the longleaf pine forests.
Naval stores refer to tree by-products used extensively in early ship building.
For hundreds of years, boat builders used pine pitch to waterproof the seams between the planks of their wooden ships. Sailors coated the rigging of sails with tar to protect the ropes from the corrosive salt air. They also used the tar to patch leaks. Turpentine and rosin were produced from the gummy resin contained in the living trees. The gum was collected every few weeks and taken to a distillery, where by heating it was separated into a clear liquid called turpentine and a darker solid called rosin.