The Apple Trees That Sailed From England in a Sea Captain's Cabin
Seeds saved from a farewell dinner in 1833 were planted at Fort Nisqually and grew into the finest apple trees north of the Columbia. Now an editor wants Tacoma to move them to a park before the squirrels of Rosston are their only company.
Puyallup Commerce: The Washington State Historical society is doing very valuable work, and has much more to do. Among other things demanding its attention should be the removal to one of the public parks in Tacoma of those two old historic apple trees now growing at Fort Nisqually. These trees are the finest apple trees planted in the Northwest, at least north of the Columbia.
The seed from which they sprang was brought from England in a Hudson's Bay ship to Vancouver on the Columbia. On November 1, 1834, it was planted in a hot bed by Archie McDonald, nicknamed Sleepy McDonald, and the following spring the twigs were transplanted to the ground where they now stand at old Fort Nisqually. McDonald was one of the chief clerks of the Hudson's Bay Company, and was sent from Vancouver by the good Dr. McLoughlin to found Fort Nisqually.
In England in 1833 the captain of an English ship was given a grand dinner on the eve of his departure for the wild wilderness of the Northwest. In eating an apple a lady carefully saved its seeds, presented them to the captain and requested him to have them planted in the new world. These were the seeds planted at old Fort Nisqually.
The two trees they produced stand about a mile off the main road between Tacoma and Olympia, the location of Nisqually having been changed from its original site to what is now the hospitable home of the Huggins boys, where Sequalitchew creek murmurs over the pebbles before it enters its steep canyon above the ruins of the old L. F. Thompson sawmill. The trees bloom beautifully every springtime and bear their seedling fruit, which relic hunters pluck before it ripens.
These historic trees should be carefully transplanted to a public park, where they would be regarded with interest for years to come. The land on which they stand is now owned by Commodore Frank Ross, who would doubtless freely consent to removing such interesting relics to a public park.
The place where they now are is platted as Rosston, but as the population consists only of red squirrels and chipmunks, the natives would have no objection.
It is hoped that the State Historical society will confer with Mr. Ross on the subject.
“In eating an apple a lady carefully saved its seeds, presented them to the captain and requested him to have them planted in the new world.”
Fort Nisqually is now a living-history museum inside Point Defiance Park — the descendant of the very removal this editor was agitating for. The old trees at the Sequalitchew Creek site are long gone, but the impulse to save a seedling as a civic heirloom is alive every time Olympia argues over a heritage tree or a threatened old building.
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