Long before neon signs and roadside attractions became the norm on Route 66, another landmark lined Missouri’s stretch of the Mother Road each autumn: modest roadside stands offering clusters of purple Concord grapes. Drivers on the old two-lane highway would pull over at one of dozens of handwritten “GRAPES” signs that dotted the gravel shoulders in both directions. Their goal was to purchase the sweet fruit grown by families who had tended vines in the Ozark foothills since the early 1900s.
The story began when Italian immigrant families settled around the tiny communities of Rosati and St. James, both initially established in the 1840s. After trying and failing to grow grape varieties from Italy, the growers switched to cultivating Concord grapes, known both for their sweet-tart taste and their seeds. By the 1930s, more than 1,000 acres of grapes graced the landscape that came to be known as the “Little Italy of the Ozarks.”
