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  • From: Betty Mayfield <bmayfield@opusnet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] old apple trees
  • Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:15:03 -0700

To the list,

By coincidence, this article on old apples trees appeared in this morning's edition of the Portland Oregonian.

Betty Mayfield
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Oregonian, April 8, 2009

Our apple tree's older than yours
A faulty news release lets Vancouver's mayor indulge in a teachable moment

by Allan Brettman

VANCOUVER -- It wasn't quite "Dewey Defeats Truman," but the headline was an eye-grabber nonetheless.

The Oregon Travel Information Council issued a news release heralding an event today for the "Oldest Apple Tree in the Western United States."

The Dosch Yellow Bellflower Apple tree that the news release refers to is located in Southwest Portland [on the Dosch Estate].

Southwest Portland?

Uh, don't think so.

Because as every Clark County [Wash.] schoolchild knows, the oldest apple tree in the Pacific Northwest, if not the entire western United States, is located in Old Apple Tree Park, 112 Columbia Way, a stone's throw from the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

A spokesman for the Travel Information Council conceded the point Tuesday that Vancouver's was the oldest, adding, "I didn't write that press release."

An innocent mistake. No harm, no foul. But before carrying on as you were, Vancouver Mayor Royce E. Pollard, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and substitute high school teacher, graciously seized this teachable moment for the benefit of Oregonians.

Yes, graciously.

You see, there was a time when Pollard would have taken this opportunity to shift his weight to his back leg and taken a mighty swing with his Louisville Slugger at his neighbor across the river.

That or smash a Portland coffee mug to smithereens as he did years back to make a point.

Not now. For we are talking about trees -- fruit trees, at that.

"They might want to clarify they have the oldest apple tree in Oregon," Pollard said, praising the accomplishment and adding that he wished the very best for today's ceremony.

Core samples taken from Vancouver's apple tree dates it to 1825 or 1826, consistent with the Hudson's Bay Co.'s records of importing apple seeds, according to Greg Shine, chief ranger at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

Albert Kelly, a minister from Kentucky, planted the Dosch tree about 25 years later, in 1850, from a graft, according to the Home Orchard Society.

Marian Dunlap, a charter member of the society since its creation in 1976, will give a speech today recounting the Dosch tree's lengthy history.

At today's ceremony, the tree becomes an Oregon Heritage Tree. It is scheduled to become a Portland Heritage Tree later this year.

While Oregon officials backed away from the headline's claim, they stuck to a superlative contained further in the text of that news release: "In 1976, the Home Orchard Society determined the tree to be the oldest, living, grafted-standard-fruit-variety apple tree in the Western United States."




  • [NAFEX] old apple trees, Betty Mayfield, 04/08/2009

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