McCoy Museum hosts Benscoter apple program

David Benscoter continues hunting for extinct apples in Whitman County.

Benscoter, who lives in Chattaroy, spoke to a crowd which packed the McCoy Museum in Oakesdale Saturday.

“I’m finding potentially lost apples of Whitman County,” he told the audience.

He made the presentation courtesy of the Friends of the Oakesdale Historical Society.

He began his presentation by describing how apples, which originated in the Middle East, migrated from the East Coast to Whitman County. He said Penawawa became an important port for apples in Whitman County, not only because apples could grow well there, but because supplies transported by river boat landed at Penawawa. From there, stage coaches carried nursery items, which included apple trees for the supply line, all over eastern Washington.

Thousands of acres of apple trees were planted in Spokane and Whitman counties. Orchard companies sold parts of orchards for profit, but when the apple industry disintegrated in this area, mainly because of water supply problems and poor soil, the apple industry moved to central Washington where the soil was more apple-tree friendly and trees could be irrigated.

In 1899, a large apple orchard was started in Diamond. This orchard grew five kinds of winter apples. These types stored well over the winter.

“When people came to Whitman County, they wanted named varieties,” he said.

Among the original orchards, Benscoter said, there was Kelly Orchards near Oakesdale, an orchard owned by William Doty near Pullman and another orchard owned by Charles Moys from the Almota area.

Benscoter said by 1904, 39 commercial orchards were listed in Whitman County. By 1915, there were 240,000 apple trees in the county. He also shared two photographs of Colfax in the early 1900s with apple trees dotting the hill on the west side of town.

During his presentation, Benscoter showed several varieties of apples, including the Fall Jeneting, an apple that was thought to be extinct in Whitman County until he re-discovered it.

Benscoter noted another person may have rediscovered the variety a year before he did, so he said that discovery is still questionable.

This unusually shaped Jeneting, considered one of the best in the 1800s for both canning and cooking, was lost since the early 1900s. Benscoter rediscovered the apple last fall. He had three of these apples that he presented to the audience to examine. The apples were small and had ridges on the skins.

Several people spoke up telling Benscoter that they knew of old apple orchards around the area, so the presentation turned into conversations about apples in the county.

“I’m going to keep looking this fall for old trees,” he told the audience.