Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On August 12, 2009, the Garst Farm near Coon Rapids officially gained listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Site of the infamous Iowa visit of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the property today serves as the office for the Whiterock Conservancy.
After graduating from Coon Rapids High School in 1915, Roswell Garst spent several years attending different colleges throughout the Midwest. In 1921, Garst found himself back in Iowa working the family farm. While founding the Garst Land Company in Des Moines in 1926, he met future US Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President Henry A. Wallace. The two worked together to pioneer and sell hybrid corn seed across the late 1920s.
By 1930, Garst got involved with Wallace’s Pioneer Hi-Bred full-time, growing seed stock and selling for the company. In 1931, Garst went in with Charlie Thomas to form the Garst & Thomas Hi-Bred Corn Company. Garst also experimented with the benefits of fertilizer, becoming a vocal proponent of nitrogen application to supplement hi-bred corn growth.
By the onset of the Cold War, Garst gained a reputation as a seed innovator, fertilizer evangelist, and supporter of global grain exports. In 1959, Garst met Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev while in the USSR and invited him to Coon Rapids. In September 1959, Khrushchev arrived and created one of the most notorious spectacles in Iowa’s history. Garst pelted reporters with silage when the press closed in on the Soviet Premier.
Today, the Roswell and Elizabeth Garst Farmstead Historic District is part of the larger Whiterock Conservancy. The land trust covers over 4,000 acres in the Middle Raccoon River Watershed and largely serves conservation and recreational purposes. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar
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