Crested Wheatgrass: Early History in the United States

The first known introduction of crested wheatgrass into North America was made in 1898 by N.E. Hansen of the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station from the Valuiki Experiment Station about 150 miles north of what is now Volgograd, U.S.S.R. This introduction did not become generally distributed or used. The second introduction received on an exchange basis from the same U.S.S.R. experiment station in 1906 was planted and increased at experiment stations in Newell, S.D., and Mandan, N.D. These increases were responsible for the early distribution and establishment of crested wheatgrass in the United States. The cultivar Fairway distributed in Canada from the University of Saskatchewan in the late 1920's came from one of the accessions of the second introduction first planted at Newell, S.D. Crested wheatgrass has become the most successful and the most widely used introduced grass in the semiard and arid region of western United States.