93.3 KWTO Keeping Watch Over the Ozarks
The new exhibit in Springfield’s Discovery Center showcases how a Missouri scientist saved the European wine industry.
Hermann Jaeger came to the U.S. from Switzerland in 1864 and started a vineyard in Neosho. In the 1870’s European grape vines began do die due to a rare bug infestation.
Jaeger, in Missouri, created more than 100 varieties of grapes and sent his rootstocks all over Europe, saving the industry.
As understand it, he later went missing and was never found.