After moving his family from Külsheim, Germany, to America in 1857, Wendelin Grimm brought with him a small bag of alfalfa seed from his own stock and planted it near this site in the spring of 1858. Although nearly all of the plants died in the first harsh Minnesota winter, Grimm collected seeds from the few that survived and replanted using only those seeds, repeating that selection process each spring for the next 20 years. His work produced the first winter-hardy alfalfa known to North America, and the plants developed on this farm became the source for nearly all alfalfa seed produced in the Northern U.S. and Canada during the first half of the 20th century. Grimm Alfalfa's value as a feed crop spurred the development of Minnesota's dairy industry, and Wendelin Grimm's work on this site later earned Carver County the nickname "Golden Buckle of the Dairy Belt."