On a run through Carkeek Park 25 years ago, Daphne Lewis noticed an apple tree in the underbrush.

The tree caught her interest and lead her to investigate the area. To Lewis' surprise, she discovered a number of trees in the vicinity that comprise the historic Piper Orchard.

At the time, Lewis, a member of the Western Cascade Fruit Society, was also working with retired microbiology professor Paul Donaldson, who had moved back to Seattle from the south with his wife.

Donaldson hired Lewis to help uncover the orchard because of her experience in reconstructing old landscapes.

It took them and several volunteers to do the job. The volunteers, which would come to be known as Friends of Piper Orchard, uncovered more than 30 surviving fruit varieties on the one-and one-half acres of cleared of overgrowth, said Joan Ritzenthaler, current volunteer with historic Piper Orchard.

Piper’s Orchard was planted in 1889. Then after becoming a part of Carkeek Park, in the 1930's, it succumbed to blackberry growth, said Ritzenthaler.

The orchard was planted on the Piper Family Homestead sometime after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. Andrew W. Piper had run the Puget Sound Candy Factory, which burned down before they moved to what was then the outskirts of Seattle with his wife Minna (Hausman), according to the Friends of Piper’s Orchard Web site.

Donaldson, one of the original volunteers in the rediscovery of Piper Orchard, was in his late 60s at the time the group started its efforts and is now one of five remaining at the age of 93.

“There were about eight or 10 people from the Western Cascade Fruit Society who were joined by other residents in this area that started working on finding more apple trees,” Donaldson said. “So one thing led to another and we eventually exhumed about 30 trees in an area of about an acre and a half.”

Donaldson explained that at the time they had discovered the orchard, they notified the Seattle Parks Department for permission to excavate the area. However, the department began to worry about possible damage to the trees, delaying the work of Donaldson and his friends.

“Eventually the parks department decided it was a good thing and gave us more support,” Donaldson said. “The supervisor of Carkeek Park bought us some orchard grass to plant in between trees and the parks department brought in a mower now and then.”

Now, Donaldson said he doesn’t go down to the more than 100-year-old orchard much because of its steep embankment.

“I have a little problem with my balance these days,” he said.

In collaboration with Carkeek Park’s 80th Anniversary this year, Friends of Piper Orchard will be hosting its third annual Piper’s Festival of Fruit on Sept. 19 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Carkeek Environmental Learning Center.

For more information call 684-0877.