Rye seeds rescued from 146-year-old shipwreck could revive crop in Michigan
EAST LANSING, MI – A Michigan distilling company dedicated to agritourism and storytelling in its whiskey went to the depths of Lake Huron in the hopes of resurrecting an old rye variety.
Mammoth Distilling and Michigan State University are teaming up to bring back what’s now known as Bentley rye, according to an article from MSU Today.
Rescued from the 1878 shipwreck of the wooden schooner James R. Bentley – one of a few privately-owned shipwrecks in Michigan waters after the owner won a court case with the state – the rye rested in near-freezing water for 146 years, the report said. On Sept. 17, two divers went 160 feet to the bottom of Lake Huron and extracted seeds using a special tube. The seeds were put on ice and rushed to MSU where Eric Olson, an expert in wheat breeding and genetics, tried to get them to germinate.
A tube full of rye seeds extracted from the James R. Bentley shipwreck sits on ice. The wooden schooner wrecked in 1878, and has rested under 160 feet of water for 146 years. Seeds were salvaged from the privately owned Lake Huron shipwreck on Sept. 17, 2024.Nick Schrader | Michigan State University
They didn’t germinate. But that’s not the end of the story.
“The seeds aren’t dead at all,” Olson told MSU Today.
Olson is now working to extract DNA from the seeds, which will allow him to compare them to modern rye varieties, determine its origin, sequence the chromosomes and transfer them into a modern rye variety, essentially reviving this historic rye, the report said.
Eric Olson, an associate professor and expert in wheat breeding and genetics at Michigan State University, holds tube full of rye seeds extracted from the James R. Bentley shipwreck. The wooden schooner wrecked in 1878, and has rested under 160 feet of water for 146 years.Jonah Brown | Michigan State University
The goal is to use the Bentley seeds to create a new variety of rye for distillers, something that could inspire a Michigan rye trail in the vein of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Chad Munger, owner of Mammoth Distilling, told MSU Today.
“The Michigan Rye Trail will be more than just visiting distilleries all over the state that are making Michigan rye whiskey,” Munger told MSU Today. “We want people to know where their grain came from — and that’s proudly grown in Michigan.”
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