The Roswell and Elizabeth Garst Farmstead Historic District is a

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

in Guthrie County,

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, near the city of Coon Rapids. It is significant as the home of farmer and

hybrid corn Heterosis, hybrid vigor, or outbreeding enhancement is the improved or increased function of any biological quality in a hybrid offspring. An offspring is heterotic if its traits are enhanced as a result of mixing the genetic contributions of ...

populizer Roswell Garst. During the 1930s and 1940s, Garst played an active role in the conversion of old-style family farms to modern agribusiness. He was a key marketer of

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

seed corn, which greatly increased corn yields per acre. Further, he espoused the use of

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

and other chemical

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

s to renew soil so that fields need not be left fallow in order for the soil to replenish, allowing farmers to grow more acres of corn. Additionally, he embraced the use of

cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell w ...

from corncobs left after processing seed corn as cattle feed. (82 pages, with exterior and interior photos) The farm is also famous as site of a

visit Visit refer as go to see and spend time with socially. Visit may refer to: *State visit, a formal visit by a head of state to a foreign country *Conjugal visit, in which a prisoner is permitted to spend several hours or days in private with a visit ...

on September 23, 1959, by

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

premier

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

.Stephen J. Frese, “Comrade Khrushchev and Farmer Garst: East-West Encounters Foster Agricultural Exchange.” ''The History Teacher'' 38#1 (2004), pp. 37–65
online
The visit was not their first meeting, and it was by Khrushchev's request. Garst's farm had been visited by Soviet officials first in 1955, as an unofficial extra when they were on an organized tour of smaller farms. The Garst farm, with its use of hybrid corn and other agricultural innovations, was the only large size farm at all comparable to the scale of Soviet collective farms that the official was able to visit, and that was only by getting away from the official tour. Subsequently, Garst visited the Soviet Union to sell hybrid corn there and spread information about modern American farming methods. He met Khrushchev, and they found they had much in common. Three years later, a group of Soviet officials were sent to spend three months at the farm, participating in all of its activities.Fursenko, Aleksandr and Timothy Naftali. ''Khrushchev's Cold War: The Inside Story of an American Adversary''. Paperback ed. New York: Norton, 2007. . When Khrushchev visited America in 1959, he was adamant that his visit include a trip to Garst's farm in Iowa. After the conclusion of the visit,

Llewellyn Thompson Llewellyn E. "Tommy" Thompson Jr. (August 24, 1904 – February 6, 1972) was an American diplomat. He served in Sri Lanka, Austria, and for a lengthy period in the Soviet Union, where his tenure saw some of the most significant events of the Cold ...

, then the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, stated that the visit to the Garst farm was one of the most significant parts of Khrushchev's journey to the United States. This visit, combined with plummeting yields from Soviet agriculture, helped to lead Khrushchev to attempt an overhaul of the Soviet agricultural system. The main building is a -story farmhouse. It includes 11 other contributing buildings, 3 contributing structures and one contributing site. The farm was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on August 12, 2009 and the listing was announced as the featured listing in the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

's weekly list of August 21, 2009. Currently the main house of the Roswell and Elizabeth Garst Farmstead Historic District is the office for the

Whiterock Conservancy Whiterock Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) land trust located in west-central Iowa that stewards over 4,000 acres of contiguous land located in the Middle Raccoon River watershed, and an additional 1,000 non-contiguous land located in the Brushy and M ...

. The site is located at 1390 Highway 141 in the northwestern corner of Guthrie County.

References

External links

Whiterock Conservancy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garst, Roswell and Elizabeth, Farmstead Historic District Buildings and structures in Guthrie County, Iowa Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Historic districts in Guthrie County, Iowa Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Nature reserves in Iowa Protected areas of Guthrie County, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Guthrie County, Iowa