A barrel made of black tupelo wood in the background from the Beetlebung cafe. (Beetlebung at Martha's Vineyard, 2014)

Black gum trees have quite the reputation at Martha’s Vineyard. A popular café located there takes one of it’s nicknames in pride.

The first settlers on the island situated themselves to farm sheep, however whale fishing took the market interest. Islanders were taught how to fish whales by Native Wampanoag tribesmen as well as boil down their carcasses. This yielded oil for lanterns that lasted longer than candles. Sperm whale oil did not emit any odor, as well.

As the demand for this oil increased, Islanders needed more boxes for storage and export. They harvested local woods to make tools for construction. One tool was called the “beetle,” a wood mallet that hammered in wood stoppers better known as “bungs” into boxes and barrels. The tree from which they retrieved the wood – the black gum tree – was thus dubbed the “beetlebung.”

This nickname is so commonly used even today at Martha’s Vineyard that upon asking locals what the species name of the black tree was, no one can answer, as they all know it as the “beetlebung.”