The apple detective is hard at work to solve the case of the lost Palouse apples.

In order to preserve the diversity and heritage of apple varieties, the WSU Department of Horticulture teamed up with David Benscoter, a retired federal investigator-turned-apple detective. They are working to rediscover apple varieties which have been lost in the Palouse for more than a century.

“Some people want to preserve apples for genetic diversity, but I’m in it to preserve history,” Benscoter said. “I would just like them to be available.”

Benscoter has been at work on this project for three years. Using his investigative skills, he examines the documentation on Whitman County apples from the turn of the 20th century.

Among his resources are plat maps, county fair records, and older citizens of the area whose families grew apples. He then ventures out to explore areas which he suspects may harbor survivors from those century-old orchards.

Once he has found a potential match for a lost apple variety, he compares it to paintings and descriptions from the time period in which they were grown. Before satisfactory pictures could be taken, the U.S. Department of Agriculture enlisted artists to create records of fruits, making identification easier.

With such a wide selection of apples, Benscoter requires some help. He sends his findings to professional apple identifiers in Portland for further testing. Of the six or seven candidates he has sent, only one apple, the Nero, has come back as a positive match.

There are many possible matches, Benscoter said, but as long as a single trait does not exactly match the records, it cannot be positively identified.

Steptoe Butte is his primary hunting ground. A lone mountain homesteaded by Robert Burns in 1888, much of the land was not suitable for wheat. Burns decided to plant apple trees where he could not plant wheat. Due to the lack of direct sunlight in that area, many of the trees are still alive and producing.

Burns, along with many Palouse farmers, was stricken by the Panic of 1893, the most serious economic crisis in the U.S. at that point. Farmers lost much of their east coast market and many lost their farms. Burns planted a wide range of apple varieties rather than focusing on the few which were most popular, accelerating his inability to sustain himself.

He lost the farm in 1899, but due to the broad selection of apples he left behind, Benscoter has been able to discover eight possible matches for the 10 lost Palouse apples.

For the next couple of years, Benscoter plans to focus his efforts on Steptoe Butte. He will be sending a second set of potential matches to the apple identifiers in Portland.

The next step after identification is to begin growing the apples. The Department of Horticulture is currently working on propagating five of the apple varieties which had been supposedly lost.

Two of these, the Nero and Fall Jeneting, have been positively identified. The remaining three are Red Canada, Arkansas Beauty, and Scarlet Cranberry, which are all considered possible matches.

“We’re trying a variety of methods to find out what works best,” said Nathan Tarlyn, researcher at the Department of Horticulture.

One of these methods is grafting parts of the lost apple trees, called scions, onto rootstocks, or tree stumps. Grafting is a horticultural technique of joining together tissues from different plants, which has been in use for thousands of years.

Another method, organogenesis, is a way of causing new plants to sprout from a plant’s leaves.

A third technique they are using is tissue culture. As in organogenesis, tissue from the plant is grown sterilely and separately from the plant.

Since all apple varieties grow best under different conditions, it is necessary to take different approaches in attempting to cultivate them.

In the coming years, WSU researchers plan to continue their efforts to propagate these and other lost apple varieties. Eventually, they hope that the apples will be grown in heritage orchards, such as the one at WSU.

“They’ll never make it to New York, but hopefully they’ll be grown locally,” Tarlyn said. He said there is a movement toward fresh, local produce and that the apples will likely be available at farmer’s markets.

Although the lost apples will most likely never have a large market, this does not decrease the practical benefit in preserving them. Whether they are widely coveted or not, the apples may have desirable traits aside from taste, such as disease and drought resistance, particularly since they have survived 125 years in subpar conditions.

“If nothing else, we want to save the heritage,” said Sonia Weatherly, undergraduate researcher. “Once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

Similar projects are underway across the country to preserve history, heritage, and genetic diversity of apple varieties.