Chief Joseph Lodgepole Pine                PI-nus kon-TOR-ta lat-i-FO-le-a

• Conifer, evergreen tree, semi-dwarf, ovoid form, yellow (golden) in winter, medium green in summer; grows about 4-8 inches (10-20 cm) a year depending on the site.
• Sun.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 5  The tree was found, and later introduced, by Doug Willis of Sandy, Oregon while hunting in the Wallowa Mountains of northeastern Oregon.
• The Wallowa Valley was the summer home of the Nes Perce.  Chief Joseph (1840-1904) was a political leader, not a war chief, of a band of Nes Perce that lived in the Valley.  In 1877 he became famous as a leader of the Nez Perce in fighting a defensive war against U.S. Army forces over more than three and a half months and some 1400 miles, from Idaho to northen Montana.  The band of some 1000 consisted of men, women and children, of which less than a quarter were fighting men, was forced to surrender just 40 miles from safe haven in Canadia.  He had hoped to join the Sioux chief Sitting Bull in Canada.  Chief Joseph's father, who had been converted to Chistianity 1839, was also known as Chief Joseph, now commonly referred to a Old Chief Joseph.  Chief Joseph (sometimes known as Young Joseph) succeeded his father as leader of the Wallowa band.(Wallowa County Chieftain)
• Silverton, Oregon: The Oregon Garden, Conifer Garden