Wolf River Apple Tree

The story of the Wolf River Apple starts with William A. Springer, a lumberman from Quebec who moved his family from Canada to Wisconsin in about 1856 after a brief stay in New York state. They settled in Little River, Wisconsin, where he helped to rebuild a dam and reconstruct a sawmill.

There are accounts that reference Springer buying a bushel of Apples on the shore of Lake Erie on his way from Canada to Wisconsin. But it appears from the historical account that he was a nurseryman in search of a farm when migrating from New York to Little River, Wisconsin in 1849.

In 1852, he and his family settled in Fremont, Wisconsin on what would become known as Springer Point on the Wolf River. As a major land owner of the region, Springer cleared property and sold land as recorded in many of the Waupaca county land records of the time.

At the same time, he sold lumber and ran the only nursery in this part of Wisconsin. He is credited with developing several cold hardy apple varieties, such as Addie and Mary, as well as the Wolf River, which fruited after he had sold off the Springer Point property in 1874 to Henry Rifen.

Rifen recognized this Alexander-like apple and noticed that it was an exceptionally large apple. He promptly named it after the nearby waterway. He introduced the new variety, Wolf River, for sale through Springers Nursery in 1878.

Springer remained a farmer and nurseryman and moved to another 260 acre location in 1874 and continued to run a 10 acre nursery, specializing in hybridizing cold hardy apples varieties.