Actually the Cheyenne Station was a precursor, or considered as, a USDA station and there were many many tomato varieties that were propagated and stored there and as I recall none of them were specifically associated with the region.

So what you're probably asking about are v arieties that were stored there and they wouldn't be varieties that were necessarily associated with the Cheyenne area.

All the tomato varieties were transferred to the Ames, IA USDA station when the Cheyenne station was closed but I don't remember the year. So you might wanto to contact the Ames, IA station to see what information they might have in terms of data that was transferred at the same time as the seeds.

I can tell you that the current record for waking up old seed occurred with one variety when the folks in iA tested the viability of the very old seeds that were transferred and they were able to wake up seeds for that one variety that were 50 yo and had been sitting in just a file drawer for all that time in Cheyenne. Nothing special was done back then in terms of what we know today about proper storage of tomato seeds. I once had a paper with the results of the viability tests that were done but through all the moves I've made that paper didn't follow me.( smile)

So I'd contact the Ames USDA station first for information and then if they have no information on what was transferred re seeds I'd contact the major back up USDA station for All tomato varieties which is in Fort Collins, Colorado. And the Ames station actually could do that for you and that would be much better than you as an individual doing so.

With regard to the two varieties seen in the Gleckler 1958 catalog why don't you contact Adam at Gleckler's, I've linked to it below, b/c last year Adam, the grandson of the founder started the business again, they had stopped in 1994, with his father as a mentor and it's possible that they might still have some of those old varieties still around. No promises, but a possibility.

Actually Adam now lists many many tomato varieties, many of them rare and/or hard to get that were provided by some wonderful folks at another message site and we'll be doing the same again this year.

Hope the above helps.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Gleckler's

I think mrs_b means varieties that were developed for that area at that station which did happen.

First, I doubt contacting Ames will do much good. Their material was sent either to Ft Collins or Geneva.

There are records of work at this station. I have read some. If you haven't tried the university itself you should. Stations were required to file at least yearly reports with the land grant that did their funding. Often these may be on microfiche. A few universities have scanned these and made them available online usually through their special collections. It's been my experience that when one contacts a Hort Dept you generally get a "huh?". SO contact the library (probably special collections) or the main state ag extension office and ask someone who knows about archival/historical field station reports.

I have come across Cheyenne mentioned in various literature. Usually these are research notes or letters of correspondence between researchers that mention Cheyenne. The "pedigree" sections of the Reports of The Tomato Genetics Cooperative would be a place to look through. That's no longer easy since they took down the html format and went to pdf. One can search pdf's but for some reason these searches miss things. It would be better to go through each year and look through that section. Also, in earlier reports are lists of members. Search that for the people listed at Cheyenne. Then search for their work.

Older ASHS journals might also list variety releases. You will need an ag library to access journals that old. Check in "HortScience" and "Journal of the American Horticultural Society"

Last, I don't know how I came across it, but while searching through ARS I came across a link that did list all the varieties held at Cheyenne before they got transferred. This was fairly recent because I used that list to find old varieties that had been changed when they went to Geneva (reassigned new idents). It is very typical of the government to leave up web page files on servers but to provide no links to them from main sources. What I recall was access to a page that hadn't been updated in years and it had the link. I didnt bookmark it unfortunately.

Another research station that did lots of work in an area that may be similarly adapted is Utah. They did lots of work with cold adapted. You can start finding out about them by looking up "Loren Blood" (I think I spelled that right). They are also listed in the early pedigree reports.

I think mrs_b means varieties that were developed for that area at that station which did happen.
First, I doubt contacting Ames will do much good. Their material was sent either to Ft Collins or Geneva.

*****

Yes, I assumed that mrs b was referring to same with the varieties she mentioned. But I knew there were other varieties there as well from that paper I once had that I lost having to do with the attempts at germination of the varieties transferred from Cheyenne to Ames.

I would have thought that the records from Cheyenne would have been transferred to Ames as well as the seeds, but maybe they did forward them to Fort COllins and maybe that's where they did the viability tests.

And now that I think of it I'm pretty sure I was sent that paper by the person who was head of USDA collections at Fort Collins although I can't remember his name now.

At any rate I think contacting Glecklers as I suggested might help with those two varieties from the 1958 catalog.

And yes, his name is Loren Blood and there is, or was, quite a bit of info about him and his varieties on the net. I think I still might have one of those pedigree charts in my faves with so many of his varieties, but it could be that that was two computers ago and I didn't get the hard drive transferred from the 1st to the 2nd but did for the 2nd to the 3rd. ( smile)

Carolyn

Thank you both for your replies and information. My apologies for the lack of clarity in my post.

 [T]here were many many tomato varieties that were propagated and stored there and as I recall none of them were specifically associated with the region.

So what you're probably asking about are v arieties that were stored there and they wouldn't be varieties that were necessarily associated with the Cheyenne area.

Well, no. Not exactly.

I think mrs_b means varieties that were developed for that area at that station which did happen.

Yes, mulio. Your wording is much clearer and more succinct than mine was. Thank you.

If you haven't tried the university itself you should.

Of course! After all the time I spent in the basement of UWÂs library! IÂm really kicking myself. I had come up against a brick wall with the National Ag Library. Thanks to both of you, I have a wealth of direction now. I'm looking forward to moving this little winter project ahead bit by bit. It's nice, too, that Fort Collins is just across the border from us :)

P.S. IÂll drop GlecklerÂs a note about Colorado Red. Thank you for the tip Carolyn. I have Alpine on order from Glenn Drowns, so I think I have the seed for that one covered.

Thank you again!

I did find out some info.

The lines

• Wyoming No1

• Wyoming No2

were released and info about them referred to the "narrative in Cheyenne Horticultural Field Station Notes". That is what you should look for at Unv Wyoming library/Ag extension.

The station's mission changed in 1974. About 400+ tomato lines were transferred to Geneva. Apparently many were duplicates of other lines already in the system. I found this out by backtracking the descriptors list at Geneva to references to Cheyenne which called up a list of all lines submitted by them to Geneva.

I did find that "Alpine" was credited to (Dr) Le Roy Powers and (Dr?) Donald H. Scott.

It was developed from backrossing a line called 'Denmark' (which had uniform green shoulders and late blight resistance) to a L. pimpinellifollium line with fusarium resistance. Then that line was crossed with 'Early Baltimore' to make "Alpine".

You might also look into varieties developed at Fort Collins. In the papers I saw there was much cooperative work between Fort Collins, Utah and Cheyenne (high altitude and dryland adaptation).

A line called "Kenosha' was developed for higher altitudes at Ft Collins by crossing 'Loran Blood' x 'Alpine'. That researchers name was R.L. Foskett (@ Fort Collins). That info mentioned Alpine was "probably cold tolerant - altitude 6200 Ft." (note the correct spelling of Loran Blood)

I also find a 1953 reference to a GW Bohn doing work with "Denmark, Uniform Globe, Oxheart, and Ponderosa following crosses of these varieties with fusarium resistant ~ L. pimpinellifolium. (Seed in storage at Cheyenne, Wyoming)". His references mostly pull up the Torrey Hort Field Station in La Jolla, Ca. From other reference it was possible he may have done work at Cheyenne before going to Torrey (might have been a grad or post doc position).

You might consider contacting "Friends of the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens" who have been trying to preserve some of the plants (woody trees and shrubs mostly) that languished after funding was cut. They probably know where to find or have some info you seek.

One more thing

reference to

'Highlander'
American Vegetable Grower 1/66, p.26. Burells 1971 cat.,p65

These were available in the USDA collection.

Alpine
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1227984

Colorado Red
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1227995

And darn if I didn't find those pedigrees I was mentioning above and Alpine and Loren Blood varieties are there as well.

So for those who might be interested in where some of the varieties we have still today and many still grow came from the link below might be interesting.

As for me, I've spent three hours trying to find two varieties that were sent to me recently and no luck, although I did find some stuff I'd forgotten about. Penta Sigh.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Pedigrees of some oldies

You could try the archives at Fort Collins.

Here is a link that might be useful: CSU Library Archives.

You all are amazing. I've been fooling with chasing down history for the last few months and getting no where. I can hardly wait for Monday (Gee, that sounds terrible.) so I can get started again.

Great suggestion, mulio, on checking with the Botanic Gardens. It's staffed almost entirely with volunteers (or maybe only when I've stopped in), but the right one can be pretty helpful.

Thank you for posting the pedigrees Carolyn. I'm really enjoying studying them.

And thank you Trudi for the CSU Libraries link. Think I'll plan a visit one of these weekends. Too bad parking is so awful.

Regarding the USDA collection, if I understand correctly, it looks like the germplasms of Alpine and Colorado Red are available to people who are conducting research or education. I don't imagine my sentimental wish to grow these qualifies :) I would enjoy designing and executing an experiment though. Given my current space constraints, it might be tough to get a big enough n for any results to be meaningful. Will have to think...

Thank so very much to all!

That Colorado red has my attention since I live not far from where the Fort Lupton cannery was. Would like to try it for old time sake if any one comes up with any seed. Got a hunch that it might be close to Carolyn's break o day.
KennyP

Search these links...

http://cuke.hort.ncsu.edu/cucurbit/wehner/vegcult/tomatoai.html

http://cuke.hort.ncsu.edu/cucurbit/wehner/vegcult/tomatojr.html

http://cuke.hort.ncsu.edu/cucurbit/wehner/vegcult/tomatosz.html

I don't think these NCSU pages are complete but there is some info you can use.

T

mrs.b_in_wy,

Okay, you won't believe it but I think I found it!

Colorado Red Tomato
68 days. A new tomato produced and released by the Cheyenne Horticultural Field Station of Wyoming, in cooperation with the Fort Lupton Canning company, Colorado. It's development resulted from segregation generations and selections of the cross of Alpine X Cardinal. Critical selections for many years for earliness, resistance to sun scald, yield and quality was practiced. Medium size, semi-indeterminate vines have good foliage coverage. Medium size fruits have good red color and fleshy interior. Colorado Red is able to set fruit under cooler temperatures, such as experienced in higher altitudes, and is recommended as a canning variety for northern Colorado and in Wyoming. Pkt., 25c; ¼ oz., 40c; oz., $1.10; ¼ lb., $3.50; lb., $11.80
Originally listed in: 1958 Gleckler's Seed Catalog

Here is a link that might be useful: Colorado Red Tomato

Oops, got ahead if myself! I did find it listed at Seeds-by-size, but I know nothing about this company. Has anyone ordered from them? Seems a bit risky, but who knows! It's hard to believe that someone in the U.K. would have it and no one in the U.S. Hopefully you'll get good news from Glecker's.

Here is a link that might be useful: SEEDS-BY-SIZE TOMATO

Kenny - I'm glad you posted. It's nice to see there are other people who have the "for old time's sake" attitude :)

Thank you for the links Trudi. Alpine and Highlander showed up in them. Very nice. It's funny (to me) that the notes say Highlander is similar to Sheyenne (developed at Fargo?). I believe you sent some Sheyenne SASE seeds to my cousin for me a couple months ago, too.

Great detective work milehighgirl. Like I said, you're a fantastic enabler :) A member posted on the Pumpkins, Squash & Gourds forum a couple weeks ago who may or may not have ordered from Seeds-by-Size. Maybe he'll have some information.

Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: Looking for seeds......

Would just mention that it looks like seeds by size will take pay-pal. That pretty much gives a guarantee. They sure have lots of ones I never heard of. High priced tho. Pound is about $1.57

I thought I'd give an update of how this project has evolved.

I visited with Cheyenne Botanic Garden's director a while back. He was interested in a history-type garden and liked the idea of walking paths designed to follow the course of tomato pedigrees (like the ones Carolyn linked), with specimens of the appropriate variety planted at each intersection. Historical information (maybe about the Field Station, who was running the show at the time, the individual tomato variety, etc.) along the way could be incorporated.

The Botanic Garden controls 60-some acres at the Field Station, but it isn't irrigated. To make matters worse, the city had to trim its budget, and the Garden lost most or all of its funding this year. So, it sounds like that's the end of the plans for an irrigation system, this year anyway.

I did receive the Alpine seeds from Sand Hill and planted some last night. No response from Gleckler's, but I figure I'll keep working on collecting varieties and see if things look better next year.

Thanks again to all all who have been so helpful!