M Agic W Ley the Story of St. Joseph Academy and the Blossoming

M a g i c W l e y The Story of St. Joseph Academy and the Blossoming of Yakima By Ellis Lucia Magic W ley The Story of St. Joseph Academy and the Blossoming of Yakima By Ellis Lucia Books by Ellis Lucia: MAGIC VALLEY CORNERSTONE THE BIG WOODS OWYHEE TRAILS THIS LAND AROUND US MR. FOOTBALL: AMOS ALONZO STAGG CONSCIENCE OF A CITY THE SAGA OF BEN HOLLADAY KLONDIKE KATE TOUGH MEN, TOUGH COUNTRY HEAD RIG THE BIG BLOW DON'T CALL IT OR-E-GAWN WILD WATER SEA WALL Included in anthologies: LEGENDS AND TALES OF THE OLD WEST BITS OF SILVER TRAILS OF THE IRON HORSE © by Sisters of Providence Cover photo: The Ahtanum Mission, site of the Yakima Valley's first apple 1511 Third Avenue orchard established in 1872 by two Seattle, W ashington 98101 Jesuit priests, Fathers Caruana and Grassi. Visitors may still see a dozen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced of the early apple trees blossoming and in any form or by any means, except for quoting bearing fruit at the site of the restored brief passages for a review, without permission from the Publisher. Published 1976 at Seattle, W ashington - I I Magic W ley The Story of St. Joseph Academy and the Blossoming of Yakima By Ellis Lucia r ach spring the ancient tribal lands desolate Yakima Valley to a special kind of wL Jof the Yakima Indians along the east treasure, far greater and more durable than ern slopes of the mighty Cascade Mountains the precious metals miners sought to extract become a sight to behold as thousands of from the earth. The vision of a few and an fruit trees burst into bloom. unlikely set of circumstances, in the face of The tangy air of this exceedingly rich overwhelming odds, made this ignored valley, known as the nation's fruit basket, valley bloom eventually as did no other is heavy with the heady wine scent of the place. Some Oblate missionaries from far- blossoms, blended with the hum of swarm off France, a pair of very resolute Jesuit ing bees providing orchestration for the priests, a handful of devout nuns and their many varieties of songbirds. People drive frontier-hardened Mother Superior from hundreds of miles to tour the acres upon Fort Vancouver, an amazing Yakima Indian, acres of orchards in what is considered an a scattering of extremely loyal French Ca unforgettable experience. And later in the nadian Catholic families wise to the ways year, when the leaves are taking color, the of farming, and a romantic young British valley bustles with workers picking, sort woman determined her sweetheart wouldn't ing and boxing thousands of tons of apples forget her —all played important roles in for shipment around the world. one of the West's great adventures which The growing of this pioneer fruit of the was unfolding a century ago ... American frontier blazed trails for the once The “parent apple tree," having come from England as seed around Cape Horn, still bears fruit near restored Fort Vancouver, Washington. From this patriarch, cuttings were taken for the Fort's own orchard and later, those in the Yakima Valley. 3 Indians guided the Sisters of Providence on rugged begging tou to mining camps and diggings of eastern Oregbn, Idaho and Montar Although unidentified, that might be Mother Joseph on the rigI 4 aily the sternwheeler fleet of the mission going through yearly begging tours Oregon Steam Navigation Com to the gold camps, and now a proposal to pany churned the broad waters of constructthe and operate a sizable hospital D Columbia River from Portland and Vanin Portland. Therefore, she wasn't enthusi couver, ranging far inland, down to the sea, astic about Father Caruana's idea. Catholic and up the many tributaries carrying pas- families of the valley were few in number. engers, freight, mail, livestock, produce and How many other youngsters would attend? the world's goods to the back country Moreover, from all she'd heard, the Yakima towns, mines, ranches, stagecoach stops Valley was a wild, raw land, undeveloped and little crossroads settlements. This was and fraught with dangers from renegade the way of life in the Oregon Country of Indians. She would need to give this much the mid-nineteenth century. The steam thought and prayer before reaching a boats and the rivers tied the Pacific North decision—and then holding to it. west into a single package, for their skippers So Father Caruana was going back boasted they could run "anywhere it's empty-handed to his rustic little mission to damp'.' But there were pockets beyond the continue badgering the Western Mother reach of the traffic patterns; the thinly- House and its powerful Mother Superior populated Yakima Valley with its remote for another year. The families around and scattered homesteads was one of them. Ahtanum would be disappointed when he The valley was difficult to reach; a trip to returned without even a single nun for the "outside" was a major undertaking. the school. However, the priest was bring One particular week in 1872, Captain ing something else which he considered John Ainsworth's steamboats carried a dif important. In his luggage were some worth ferent kind of cargo. Leaning against the less appearing sticks that seemed passing rail was Father Joseph Caruana, bound up strange for anyone to carry anywhere. river from the mission headquarters ad Those sticks would prove as valuable jacent to Fort Vancouver where he'd been as Mother Lode gold and Comstock pleading with a stubborn Mother Joseph silver, for they were cuttings from the of the Sacred Heart to send some nuns to well-established apple orchard at Fort his outpost in the Yakima Valley to estab Vancouver. lish a school for the area's Catholic chil A short time later, Father Caruana and dren. His timing was bad. Mother Joseph Father Urban Grassi, both Jesuit priests, was hard-pressed keeping the Vancouver set out the valley's first apple orchard. The pair who had charge of this mission of logs new Hudson's Bay Company post of Fort and also St. Regis Mission at Kettle Falls Vancouver. These trees became the pioneer had discovered what other early mission ancestors for the eventually great apple aries learned: that the deep, rich volcanic industries of Washington and Oregon. That soil of the valley would grow most any it was fortunately a hearty line is evidenced thing if life-giving water could reach the today, for the oldest apple tree in the West, land. A trickle of water from a nearby or perhaps the nation, still bears fruit not creek produced wonders, as the priests far from where Mother Joseph established found, for the growing of agricultural crops the region's first Catholic mission for the was a life-sustaining function of all Sisters of Providence from Montreal. the missions. How that tree got there is one of the Therefore, the planting of these cut charming legends of the West. The young tings was an act of destiny, much in the fiancee of a British lieutenant, munching on same manner that the early fathers of the an apple at a farewell banquet in London, California missions helped pave the way placed its seeds in the pocket of her in for the Salinas Valley becoming the nation's tended to put in the ground in the far-off “salad bowl" and also a center for apple Oregon Country. and other fruit production, with one brand "Plant these and remember me'' she known as "mission apples!' The trees near whispered. She doubted that she would the Ahtanum Mission flourished; within a ever see him again, for the trip seemed few years they began bearing fruit in abun farther and more hazardous than going to dance which impressed homesteaders of the moon. the valley. Some ranchers, probably ob But Lieutenant Arthur Drake, upon taining cuttings from the mission, grew reaching Fort Vancouver, placed the seeds their own small family orchards near their in the rich river bottom land near the homes. Yet the growing of a few apple Hudson's Bay Company outpost. He staked trees held little significance of things to and watered the tiny shoots which in a come, for rain was scarce and the matter few years began bearing fruit, to the joy of water remained a vital factor. Other of other men at the fort who jeered when events intervened to hold back valley he first tended the little trees. And, in a growth for several decades, more than half happy ending, Drake's fiancee joined him a century beyond the time when the first seven years later to be married by Dr. John apple trees began developing at the then- McLoughlin, the fort's Chief Factor. 6 Fort Vancouver, Washington Territory, in 1854. Mother Joseph and four other Sisters of Providence arrived at Fort Vancouver, Territory of Washington on December 8, 1856. They had journeyed from the motherhouse of their community at Montreal, Quebec. 7 Certainly, acting on impulse, the young Not that pioneers shopping for a place lady never envisioned the start of what to settle down hadn't considered this area. became a multi-million dollar industry. Indeed, when the first large train of 36 Neither did Father Caruana and Father wagons and 146 pioneers cut through the Grassi in the Yakima Valley. Theirs was a Yakima Valley in 1853, it kept right on natural effort, something that made sense going toward Puget Sound. Nothing was in working for the survival of their mis there to hold the settlers, even a promise.

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