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Directions to the Arboretum
Click for important announcement
concerning the High Plains
Arboretum
Note: The land for
the High Plains Arboretum
was only just recently
transferred to the City of
Cheyenne. A 20 year master
plan is in place to fully
develop this site as a
public arboretum.
The site is currently a
long-neglected woody plant
research station. The
Cheyenne Urban Forestry
divisions and the Cheyenne
Botanic Gardens are
currently working to
preserve, the existing
plants along with help from
the Friends of the High
Plains Arboretum and Friends
of the Cheyenne Botanic
Gardens.
As funding is identified
(both private and public) we
will soon be proceeding on
restoring and enhancing this
historic site. Please be
patient as we take steps to
save this important site.
Visitation is allowed during
daylight hours except during
hunting season. While it is
a beautiful site,
interpretation is sparse. We
ask that if you do visit
please do not remove ANY
plant material without first
contacting
Shane Smith, Director of
the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens
for information about how to
acquire a permit to do so.
History of the
Cheyenne High Plains
Horticulture Research
Station
The Beginnings . . .
On March 19, 1928,
Congress authorized the Secretary of
Agriculture to establish the Central Great
Plains Field Station at or near Cheyenne,
Wyoming. This completed a trio of Great
Plains field stations at which extensive
shelterbelt research was conducted under dry
land. conditions .
The other two were the
Northern Great Plains Field Station in
Mandan, North Dakota, and the Southern Great
Plains Field Station in Woodward, Oklahoma.
In 1930 the name of the Station was changed
to the Cheyenne Horticulture Field Station
and was directed to work on fruits,
vegetables, windbreaks and various
ornamental plants. The general objective was
to aid in development of horticulture in the
region (Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South
Dakota and Wyoming).
 This station still
exists in its original location on a
2,140-acre plot that was leased from the
City of Cheyenne for 199 years at $1 per
year. Its buildings include a greenhouse, a
number of quaint wood framed houses which
are still used for staff housing,
laboratories, storage areas and office
space.
The station is
located five miles northwest of Cheyenne at
an elevation of 6,200 feet. In fact, this is
one of the more harsh growing climates of
both the
 Central Great Plains as well as the
United States as a whole. This is
exemplified by the fact that Cheyenne,
Wyoming, has the
designation of having the
highest incidence of hailstorms in the
nation (averaging 10 per year), is the
fourth windiest city in the nation (13 mph
daily average) and is an arid location
(receiving only 14.4 inches of moisture per
year.
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL . . .
Because of
 its low rainfall and altitude,
Cheyenne has a low humidity climate which
adds to the desiccation of plants along with
the fact that Cheyenne has little in the way
of winter snow cover. The soil is less than
desired, with a coarse texture, mostly
alkaline, and generally exhibit a low water
holding capacity. It was thought that if a
plant survived in Cheyenne, it would have an
incredibly wide range of adaptability.
Anyone who crossed
the Plains of western Nebraska, Kansas,
eastern
 Wyoming or Colorado in the early
thirties would have understood why a
horticultural research station was so
important to the region. Besides being a
tough climate in which to homestead, the
1930’s brought devastation as the drought
and the dustbowl took hold. This area was
among the last of the United States to be
settled.
At the time of the Station’s
founding, there was a clear need for
techniques that enable people to
successfully produce their own food crops
utilizing the newly discovered benefits of
windbreaks for protection from the winds.
There was also a need for woody and
herbaceous ornamentals for beauty, shade and
protection from the elements and creating
greenery around the homesteads. Remember,
Cheyenne was a stark place. In 1876, nine
years after the town of Cheyenne was
established, Mrs. Nannie Steel reported that
that there were only twelve trees in
Cheyenne. Cheyenne now has a healthy
urban forest, centered in an arid, treeless,
windy landscape.
The
Legacy of the Cheyenne Horticultural Field
Station
The late
Gene Howard, one
of the more notable superintendents of the
station, once remarked, "Back in those
days, you were lucky to see fresh fruit,
except for maybe in your stocking at
Christmas." Howard, along with other
horticultural pioneers who worked at the
station, proved that it is possible to grow
things in the harsh, arid, varying climate
that before often frustrated local
gardeners.
The many
accomplishments from this station are truly
amazing. Some of the results include:
- The development of
cold hardy strawberries
(Ft. Laramie and Ogallala),
both of which are still
widely sold throughout the
Rocky Mountain region.
- The release of cold
hardy raspberry varieties
that bear mainly on
first-year wood, thus there
was no need to worry about
winter desiccation and
survival of 1st year canes
(most raspberries only set
fruit on 2nd year old canes
which requires they survive
a winter).
- Researched the
Guayule plant as a
possible source of rubber
during World War II.
- Tested over 800
different varieties of apple
trees. When asked about this
research, Howard commented,
"We harvested 105,000 pounds
of apples in 1958, now
that's a lot of apples."
There was also testing of
crabapples, plums, pears and
sour cherries.
- Tested apple stocks
resistant to chlorosis
in alkaline soils.
- Surveyed a number of
edible native fruits
and determined their vitamin
C content.
- Discovered, adapted
suitable currants,
gooseberries, sour
cherries and domestic
plums.
- Over 45 introductions of
the “Cheyenne Hardy Mum
series” were developed
(most were named after
historic
Wyoming people and
places). Gene Howard said,
“The Station had over two
acres of mums in full bloom
on or around September 20th.
Thousands of people would
turn out each year during
our open house just to see
those mums.”
- Researched and released
varieties of garden phlox,
geraniums, pumpkins,
tomatoes, raspberries and
carnations.
- Released the “Pink Lady
Euonymus,” a shrub bearing
striking yellowish leaves,
pink stems and bright red
berries. Pink Lady was
collected in the late 1920’s
by USDA staffer, P.H.
Dorsett, from a stone wall
of a canal surrounding the
Temple of Heaven in Beijing,
China.
- From a Balkans
Expedition in Sarajevo,
Bosnia, the Station released
the Cheyenne Privet.
- Tested potato, tomato
and root crops along with
frost hardy crops such as
beets, cabbage, carrots,
cauliflower, kale, parsnips,
turnips and more.
--By 1962 the Station
had tested:
- 1,300
varieties of woody
ornamental plants
including over 100
different types of hedge
materials
- 200 species of
trees and shrubs for dry
land wind breaks with
over 250 cooperative
plantings in various parts
of the region served by the
station.
- 2000 fruit varieties
- 8,000 vegetable
varieties
The project began
by outlining common goals.
All participants agreed that the
arboretum
bears local, national and international
significance on history and horticulture.
They saw the
arboretum
as endangered and felt that something needed
to be done to preserve and protect the
resource.
One
of the first accomplishments of the group
was to propose the naming of the
arboretum
to help enable the public differentiate the
treasure of the
arboretum
from the activities of High Plains
Grasslands Research Station.
The
ARS representatives were agreeable to the
proposed new name, the “High
Plains
Arboretum.”
The group calls
themselves the “Friends
of the High Plains
Arboretum.”
This group is a sub-committee of the
Friends of the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens.
The
mission of the group includes preserving
plants currently at the
arboretum.
The group hopes to investigate funding
sources to preserve the plants that are
left. Not satisfied to simply be a “meeting”
type of group, they have also planned to
help the
arboretum
with a hands-on approach by holding pruning
work days and inventorying the collection.
The group’s long term goals are to enhance
the
arboretum’s
collection and perhaps once again initiate
variety testing and development.
An
educational component for the public and
youth has also been discussed. It is
anticipated that the work of the newly
organized group will be ongoing for years to
come. The group recognizes that it must
eventually work towards securing funds to
save what is left of this treasure at the
High Plains
Arboretum
and then to move on to the loftier goals.
 The late Gene Howard, circa 1990's
(see right). Gene was
the last director of the Cheyenne
Horticulture Station.
Click Here for
more about Gene Howard
This paper was edited
by
Shane
Smith, Director of
the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens. Resources
included articles written about the
Cheyenne Horticulture Station by
Scott Skogerboe
and
Susan Allen of
McIntyre's Garden
Center (both used with permission). In
addition, much of the data in this article
came from the publication “The
Development of Horticulture on the Northern
Great Plains” By W.H. Alderman for the
Great Plains Region American Society for
Horticultural Science, 1962; This
publication included a chapter about the
High Plains Horticulture Station by Dr. A.
C. Hildreth, Superintendent of the Station
(1930-1959) .
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