4/16/2011:
The history of the Russian thistle dates back to the 1870s in Dakota Territory. The Northwestern Magazine published an article in 1895 that attributed the importation of this plant to one Henry Schatz of Scotland, Dakota Territory. According to the article, Mr. Schatz found a single plant, the seed of which had mingled with flax seed he brought from the old country, but he failed to destroy it.
But the Yankton Press, quoted on this date in 1895, stated that the real source comes from seed intermingled with the household goods and machinery unloaded by European immigrants on the Yankton riverfront in 1874. As these thistles matured, their seeds quickly spread on the prairie winds.
Dakota Datebook written by Jim Davis
Source:
The Bismarck Daily Tribune April 16, 1895