“On the Coon Rapids, Iowa, farm or Roswell Garst,” announced the Universal-International televised news story, “Mr. K [Nikita Khrushchev] has one of the most jovial and folksy days of his visit”. Garst was already familiar to the Soviet Leader from his past trips to the USSR (and elsewhere around the world) teaching modern farming methods like hybrid seeds and mechanization, and when planning out his U.S. visit itinerary — the first visit for any leader of the USSR to America — Khrushchev specifically requested to meet with the farmer.

On this day, September 23, in 1959, dozens of people, including Nikita Khrushchev and his entourage and security personnel, as well as American officials, reporters and Garst and his farmers, came for a high-profile meeting in Garst’s corn fields.

Garst was looking forward to the visit as much as Khrushchev, and on the day of the meeting travelled up to Des Moines on his own to pick him up from the hotel. Not wanting to delay himself with the motorcade any longer, Khrushchev hopped in, with the politicians and security guards scrambling to follow. The two men delighted each other, spending the entire day on the field, with Khrushchev at one point stopping to point out a field where he thought the corn was planted too densely. At the end of the visit, Garst, Khrushchev and the rest of the entourage feasted on a corn-based dinner.