‘Loretto Spruce’ (Picea josefii): The Tree That May Not Exist
A retired U.S. Forest Service wood technologist named Forrest N. Easley spent about fifteen months looking at a sliver of the Loretto staircase under magnification and concluded it matched no spruce on record. He gave the unknown a name — “Loretto Spruce,” Picea josefii — and that name is the whole problem: it points to a tree nobody has found growing anywhere.
The sample and the fifteen months
Easley examined the wood with a hand lens and a compound microscope at magnifications from 50× to 450×, comparing its cell structure against known species over roughly fifteen months in the late 1990s.
He worked from the features that actually separate one conifer from another: the resin-canal pattern, the ray structure, the look of a tangential split surface. His conclusion was specific — the wood is a spruce, but not one he could match to any catalogued Picea.
What “Picea josefii” actually claims
Two separate claims hide inside the famous “extinct species” line, and they are not equally strong. The first — that the wood is a spruce, genus Picea — is the settled part; the microscopic structure supports it and is not in dispute.
The second — that it is a distinct, unnamed species — is Easley’s, and it rests on his reading of a single small sample. The species name Picea josefii (for St. Joseph) is a proposal, not a botanical acceptance: a valid new species needs a designated type specimen and corroboration, and a chip of a staircase tread is not that.
The fight over whether a chip can name a species
This is where the wood debate gets sharp. Snopes argued the sample was simply too small to firmly establish a brand-new species or pin down an origin.
The National Catholic Register (John Clark) countered that Easley held small samples to be sufficient under magnification, since the diagnostic features sit at the cellular level.
Both points can stand: a trained eye can identify wood to genus from very little, and declaring a new species from one undated chip is a much heavier lift than identifying a genus. So the honest verdict is split — spruce, yes; new species, unproven.
If the tree is real, where is it?
A species needs a home, and this one has none on record. The wood is not native to the Santa Fe area, which is part of what drew attention in the first place.
The live theories — an Alaskan or far-northern spruce, or timber shipped from France by the builder — are covered alongside the other claims on our wood-type page.
None is documented. “Picea josefii” may simply be an ordinary spruce grown in unusual conditions, read as unique by one careful observer working without a comparison stand of the right provenance.
So is “Loretto Spruce” a real thing?
As a botanical species: not established. As a name for a genuine open question — why a careful technologist couldn’t match this particular spruce to any known one — it is doing real work.
The wood is a spruce; the species is unconfirmed; and “extinct” is a stretch the evidence doesn’t reach, since you cannot call extinct a species that was never shown to exist.
Keep exploring
- What wood is the staircase made of? (the full truth-table)
- Debunked or miracle? Every claim vs the evidence
- Who built it — and did he ship the wood?
- Back to the Loretto Chapel staircase overview
Researched & fact-checked by the Loretto Volunteers Editorial Team
Loretto Volunteers is an independent research project documenting the history, architecture, and enduring mystery of the Loretto Chapel staircase. We work from primary and archival sources and show our evidence. Last reviewed: June 2026.