I received the original seeds from Laina Coit of Simla Colorado in 2001.
Her account of their discovery and subsequent cultivation is as follows:
"The corn was found by Grey Antelope, a poker buddy of my friend's
father. He found it in a cave in the Four Corners region and said all
indications pointed to the seed being around 500 years old. My friend's
mother grew the corn until she died. It had been a dozen years since her
mother's last crop when my friend shared her last seed with me. She planted
hers at her house near 24th and Newton St. in Denver, I planted mine in
Simla. Just before the ears were ripe enough to bear viable seed, all her
corn plants were destroyed. It was either children in the corn or raccoons.
That was my first ever attempt to grow corn; I had twelve plants and got at
least one good ear from each."
Since I knew little about the scientific germination and growing of corn
from seed stock, and in view of the uniqueness of these seeds, I sought the
help of experienced people to cultivate them during the 2009 season with the
object of creating a pool of new seeds of this ancient and genetically
unadulterated strain for future agricultural and scientific use.
That has now been accomplished and the seeds proved viable.
During the 2010 growing season, another local Wray gardener planted
seeds from the original stock. Several plants were destroyed, but enough
survived to provide three medium-sized ears for 2010. During 2011 seeds
from the 2009 plantings yielded another three ears for my seed pool.
This has not been an intensive endeavor. Each year only about six
plants were cultivated - half of which I left with the growers.
I'm leaving all the seed on their respective cobs.
The 2012 "Synder" plot of three plants did not fair well for some
reason. Nothing was planted during 2013.
Here's the "long" story of the corn.