The petition was submitted by Clayton W. Byers and Lucian W. Dressel, representing the local wine industry, to the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on October 16, 1978.

[2] The area around the present day city of Augusta was founded in 1836 by Leonard Harold, a follower of Daniel Boone, as a riverboat landing along the Missouri.

The town was originally named Mount Pleasant with the riverboat landing known as Augusta Bend.

In the later parts of the 19th and early 20th century, the production volume from the area helped the Missouri wine industry compete with Ohio for market share east of the Rocky Mountains.

[6] The advent of Prohibition had a dramatic effect on the area causing the closure of local wineries and the uprooting of vineyards.