From the Living Museum
Colorado Orange
- Origin
- Florence, Fremont County, Colorado
- Era
- c. 1860s
- Type / use
- Dessert · Dual-purpose
History & Stories
Discovered by pioneer nurseryman Jesse Frazer in the 1860s as a chance seedling (or rootstock sprout) after he hauled trees from Missouri by ox-wagon. Nearly lost in the 20th century and actively rediscovered and propagated by the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project and other heritage groups. Medium-large golden-orange fruit noted historically as an outstanding long-keeper with rich flavor and late bloom. Unique as a true Western American pioneer variety with a dramatic near-extinction and recovery story — one of the most satisfying rediscoveries of recent decades.
Folklore & Name
Pioneer Colorado variety discovered by Jesse Frazer in the 1860s after he brought trees from Missouri by ox-wagon. Nearly lost and actively recovered by heritage groups in the 21st century. Name reflects both place and the golden-orange color.
Digging into the History
Below my own notes, here is what the old fruit books and today’s collections record about this apple, kept apart from the stories people tell.
What we know
Colorado Orange arose in Florence, Fremont County, Colorado. The Colorado Sun reports that Jesse "Uncle Jesse" Frazer hauled fruit trees from Missouri by ox wagon around 1859 and set them out where Florence now stands. Local accounts in the Florence Historical Archive agree that he left alone some shoots that came up from the roots of a tree that had died, and that this "became the Colorado Orange apple" 1. It gained notice in the big Cañon City orchards, and a 1916 orchard book said it "deserves wider planting. Rich gold yellow, blooms late, fine keeper" 1.
By the late 20th century it was thought lost. Jude and Addie Schuenemeyer, who run the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project, hunted for it for about twenty years. They found a candidate tree in a Cañon City orchard, confirmed it with DNA tests and with historic wax models in the Colorado State University archives, and took grafts in 2017. The old tree died a few years later 1,2.
What we think: stories & traditions
Lost to shiny red apples. Jude Schuenemeyer told NPR that it disappeared not because it was a poor apple but because it was "a yellowish-orange-ish-glowed apple at a time when America was going into monoculture where shiny, red apples were considered the only apples worth buying" 2. It was a winter keeper, eaten from Christmas onward as the flavour developed in the root cellar 2.
Sprouting from a dead tree. If the local story is right, the apple may have come from the rootstock of a grafted tree that died 1. Details vary between accounts, so treat it as local tradition.
Sources
- Sue McMillin, "A 20-year quest to bring back Colorado's rarest apple that was once thought lost," The Colorado Sun (13 October 2024). coloradosun.com/2024/10/13/colorado-orange-apple-return/
- NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, "The Rediscovery Of The Colorado Orange Apple" (29 December 2019). www.npr.org/2019/12/29/792146770/the-rediscovery-of-the-colorado-orange-apple
Curious about Colorado Orange?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.