Pinus latahensis was first described by Edward W. Berry in 1929 based on a compression fossil recovered from shale outcrops in the Republic, Washington area.

[1] When published the holotype specimen's type locality at Republic was misidentified as being an extension of the younger Latah Formation, located around the Spokane region, which was then considered to be of Late Miocene age.

[5] Since then the fossil-bearing strata of the Klondike Mountain Formation have been radiometrically dated, to give a current estimate of the Ypresian, the mid stage of the early Eocene,49.4 ± .5 million years ago.

[9] The highlands likely had a mesic upper microthermal to lower mesothermal climate, in which winter temperatures rarely dropped low enough for snow, and which were seasonably equitable.

[1] Specimen USNM P38082 of the Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History collection is the designated species holotype,[12] though Berry did not list it as such in the type description.

Based on the erroneous assumption that the shales of Republic were part of the Latah formation Berry chose the species specific epithet latahensis.

Based on the assumption that the Klondike Mountain Formation was of Oligocene age, he placed several Ruby Basin fossils into a revised definition of P. monticolensis.

[3] Three years later Jack Wolfe (1964) also briefly discussed P. latahensis this time in reference to Miocene fossils found of the Fingerrock Wash Flora of Southwestern Nevada.