Missouri Rhineland
The Missouri Rhineland (German: Missouri Rheinland) is a German cultural region of Missouri that extends from west of St. Louis to slightly east of Jefferson City, located mostly in the Missouri River Valley on both sides of the river. Dutzow, the first permanent German settlement in Missouri, was founded in 1832 by an immigrant from Lübeck, the "Baron" Johann Wilhelm von Bock. The area was named by Rhinelanders who noticed its similarities in soil and topography to the Rhineland region of Europe, a wine-growing area around the Rhine river. Rhinelanders settled the region, along with other Germans; by 1860, nearly half of all settlers in Missouri Rhineland were from Koblenz, capital of the Rhine Province.[1][2]
Not to be confused with Rhineland, Missouri.
The Rhenish Germans resided in the Missouri Rhineland: St.Louis, Kansas City, and the towns: Gasconade, Franklin, Lincoln, Montgomery, Osage, Cole, Moniteau, Morgan, Pettis, Benton, Westphalia, Osage, Deepwater, Henry.[3] The German settlers of Hermann, known as "Deutschheim" came from the Rhineland through Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[4]
In the 1800s, nearly half of all Germans in Missouri Rhineland owned real estate, and were the highest employed group in the region, besides the Missouri French; they were artisans, and enjoyed a high success in their artisan trades.[2]
The soils of the Missouri River valley and surrounding areas are mainly rocky residual soils left after the carbonate (mainly limestone) bedrock weathered away to impurities of clayey soil and chert fragments. Farther to the north, glacial deposits and wind-deposited loess, a silty soil also associated with the glaciers, are intermingled with the residual soils.
While the soil could support other crops, the steep slopes of these areas were better used for viticulture. German settlers established the first wineries in the mid-19th century. Italian immigrants later established their own vineyards, especially near Rolla in Phelps County. By 1920, Missouri was the second-largest wine-producing state in the nation. Then came Prohibition, which ruined the industry.
In the 1960s, local winemakers began to rebuild, part of a movement in states across the country. In 1980, an area around Augusta, Missouri, was designated by the federal government as the first American Viticultural Area (AVA), and one around Hermann, Missouri, was designated an AVA in 1983. Much of the region of the Missouri Rhineland from Augusta to Jefferson City along the Missouri River is part of the larger Ozark Mountain AVA.