A person going by Sid made a post on the Orange Pippin website about an Arkansas Beauty tree he had. Said his maternal grandparents Mary and James Simpson won a gold medal in 1910 at the Watsonville Apple Festival. His Aunt Beatrice cut scions from their Santa Cruz Mountain ranch in 1945.
If anyone on here out that way knows of this tree, I’d love scions off it. I have a tree growing from the Ark Beauty tree David Benscoter found, but would like to add this one as well.
Who’s up for a scavenger hunt?
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I believe that property is now the site of a retirement community. To my memory there are no apple trees remaining.
But perhaps I’m wrong. By any chance was it in the Scotts Valley area?
Richard,
I really have no idea. He posted on Orange Pippin about growing this variety and the history behind it. One of my hobbies is bringing trees like this one home to Arkansas where I live.
That’s a screen shot of Sid’s description.
I identify with your enthusiasm to acquire fruits of Arkansas origin. What was termed the ‘Santa Cruz Mountains’ in 1945 extends roughly from Half Moon Bay southward, then east, then south again to east of Watsonville. There are State and National reserves within it but also intense development. It would be useful to consult a map.
Well, maybe I’ll get lucky and Sid or someone who knows him posts on this forum. I know he had a tree in Escalon not long ago. That would narrow it down considerably.
Escalon is a small town in California’s central valley. Perhaps it would be more fruitful to look there?
I’m thinking so. I contacted the extension service in that area, but they couldn’t help.
My son posted this on the NAFEX fb page as well.
Maybe someone close to Escalon will see one of these and be interested in chasing this down if it’s still alive.
I don’t think he has updated the tree profile since 2012.
They might not know of Escalon!
Stan and Calron live about 30 miles to the west. There’s a few more members in the general region that are 50+ miles away. Beyond that, the members in the “Bay area” (e.g. San Jose) are 90+ miles away.
Have you tried locating it on GRIN?
I found this article with Google:
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I actually received scions from David last year and have a really nice Arkansas Beauty tree from those now.
My intrest in this tree is how well it’s paper trail is, Sid states he still has the medal his grandparents won in 1910 with it.
I’d like to add it next to my present tree.
I’ve brought together what I’m quite certain is the largest collection of Arkansas originated varieties anywhere to go along with several newer types and we’ve added quite a few limbertwigs the last two years.
I even searched and found the Tull apple after tracking down the same Roy Wilson mentioned in Lee Calhoun’s book old southern apples.
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I was doing research on the apple tree I received from my grandmother last winter. My step grandfather had grown this tree from a scion, and it was very important to him. The only other detail I knew was that it happened to be an Arkansas Beauty. He unfortunately passed away on September 9th of 2019 and my grandma has had a hard time keeping the gophers away from her yard since. I relocated the tree to keep it alive since it meant so much to my grandpa. I searched Arkansas Beauty and was shocked to see the title of this thread. Sid was my grandpa and I am now in possession of this tree.
After losing a majority of it’s roots to gophers, and having been transplanted it is growing surprisingly well and it even managed to grow 4 apples this year. I harvested one already whoes stem was mostly broken off and started to brown. It had decent color to it and tasted as described. A very fine grain to it and subacid flesh. I would love to share scions with anyone who wants one. Theres isn’t a ton of growth on the tree that I can spare to prune, but by February I will have a better idea.
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I would love to have a few scions from it if possible. I’d like to compare your grandpaw’s tree with the one I have.
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Not sure if it went through, but I sent you a pm.
Definitely keep me in mind this winter for scions if you have any.
Thanks for checking in too.
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Arkansas Beauty Sid strain showing growth. I ended up grafting 5 trees in all of this variety.
Cannot thank you enough Andrew. 
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Internet archive has came through again. The Watsonville Apple Show was a much bigger event than I expected.
I’d say winning the gold medal was quite the accomplishment.
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