Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/128

 120 EXCERPTS AND NOTES. THE OLDEST SEEDLING APPLE TREE IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The present intense interest in the development of the apple growing industry in the Pacific Northwest tends to invest the oldest apple trees of this region with something of a halo. The tender care with which the now historic tree in the reserva- tion at Vancouver, Washington, will be fostered is but an admirable instance of the correct the ever-enhancing worth of memorials. The romantic story associated with the bearing of the seeds for the Vancouver apple trees from London to the Columbia lends a charm to this lone survivor ; but if our interest is in the lineal ancestry of a great and growing industry ought we not to erect a monument about half a mile north of Milwaukie to the memory of Henderson Luelling where he and his son Alfred planted the seven hundred or more grafted fruit trees known as the "Traveling Nursery," which they brought across the plains from Henry County, Iowa, in 1847? The story of the identification of the Vancouver tree as it appeared in The Morning Oregonian of January 22, 1911, is as follows : "Vancouver Barracks, Wash., Jan. 21. The discovery this week of the oldest apple tree in the Northwest, which has borne fruit for more than eighty years, has aroused much interest, and hundreds have visited the post just to see the tree with a remarkable record. "Colonel George K. McGunnegle, commander of the post, as soon as he was convinced by A. A. Quarnberg, district fruit inspector, that this tree was planted eighty-five years ago, gave orders to have it preserved. A suitable fence around the base of the tree will be built, and a stone monument, with a short history of its remarkable record, will be placed in the en- closure. Relic hunters who desire a piece of the tree will be severely punished if caught marring the oldest inhabitant of any apple orchard in the Northwest.