Genetic testing determined that the apples produced are unique and distantly related to the 500-year-old French Reinette variety.

[1] The tree is believed to have been planted at Fort Vancouver in 1826 by British Royal Navy officer Lieutenant Aemilius Simpson from seeds obtained at a dinner party in London prior to his departure to the Pacific Northwest for the Hudson's Bay Company.

[2] It was "credited with starting the apple industry in Washington state" and survived several floods and the construction of nearby roads and railroads.

[6][7] The apple tree, which had been in ailing health for some time, died in June 2020 at the age of 194.

[8] Although the tree's trunk was "declared dead", the root system remains alive.