CNN — An apple tree thought to be the oldest in the Pacific Northwest has died at an impressive 194 years of age.
The Old Apple Tree in Vancouver, Washington, was planted in 1826 when fur traders of the Hudson’s Bay Company settled in the area. It was considered the mother tree of the region’s bustling apple industry and produced a green apple that was bitter to the taste, but great for baking.
“While we knew this day would come, we hoped it was still years away,” Charles Ray, urban forester for the City of Vancouver, said.
About five years ago, a team of experts caring for the tree noticed that the cambium layer — the growing part of the trunk — was starting to die back, Ray said. That led to the creation of a spiral crack in the trunk, which eventually hollowed out over the years.
The tree finally died in June.
“The tree itself has taken on its own persona. It’s a living organism, just like us, and it’s been faced with a lifetime of challenges,” Ray said. “It stood there for generations and witnessed the world change around it.”
The Old Apple Tree weathered storms and the construction of railways and highways in its vicinity, becoming a beloved community landmark.
“Local schools would take trips to the tree, it has touched generations of people throughout the Northwest, and probably around the nation,” Ray said.
The tree is a well-known celebrity among heritage apple experts, who are interested in preserving and studying ancient kinds of apples originally planted by early settlers.
“When anybody speaks of the oldest apple tree in the Northwest, everybody knows it was that apple tree,” David Benscoter, a retired FBI agent who now runs “The Lost Apple Project” said. “I’m sure people never thought it could reach that age.”
In 1984, a public park was built around the tree, and since, every October the city has held a festival to celebrate it. This year’s edition was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Sunday, members of the Vancouver community held a memorial for the tree on Facebook, sharing stories and memories.
Rooted in history
Legend has it that The Old Apple Tree came to Vancouver as a seed, transported by a British naval officer.
Royal Navy Lieutenant Aemilius Simpson received the seeds at a dinner in London before departing for the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur trading outpost in the Pacific Northwest.
“A young woman that was there with him, as she was bidding him farewell, slipped a few apple seeds from her dessert into his jacket pocket, and suggested that he plant those when he reached the Northwest,” said Brad Richardson, executive director at the Clark County Historical Museum.
After arriving at Fort Vancouver, Simpson handed the seeds to Chief Factor John McLoughlin, who oversaw the establishment of local orchards and gardens for sustenance.
Notably, the tree is not located within the perimeter of the historic Fort Vancouver’s orchard, but about half a mile away from it, in what would have been the living quarters for workers on the Fort. Specifically, it’s possible that the tree initially grew in the yard of a house where John Johnson, a British cooper, lived with his wife, according to a history of the Old Apple Tree written by National Parks Service archaeologist Robert Cromwell.
Later on, the Fort became a US Army base, and among those who served there was Ulysses S. Grant.
That’s not the only time in its long life that the Old Apple Tree had a brush with a president.
Richardson said that in 1934, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, visiting the area, was presented with a pie baked with apples from the tree. The pie was baked by Ms. Fay Peabody, the “official apple pie baker” of Oregon and Washington, according to news reports of the time.
A descendant of the Old Apple Tree was planted near the Clark County Historical Museum in the 1950s, according to Richardson.
“It’ll dump a whole bunch of these green apples all over our walk every year,” Richardson said. “It produces very prolifically.”
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