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| The Ed! (pic taken in April, 2010) |
On Thursday, July 12th, we departed Healy and drove to Wasilla to the
Alaska Trails RV Park, a giant gravel parking lot though appropriately priced. And the area in which the park is located looked a bit sketchy. Yikes. In any case, we set up camp, grabbed the electronic paperweight and headed out. We found the grimy, yet tasty,
Senor Taco where we had lunch. We raced over to
Alaska Computer Geeks in Anchorage, almost an hour farther south, to drop off the brick.
Not to break with tradition, we quickly located several thrift stores, both in Anchorage and on our way back to the RV. With the rain coming down, we huddled in the coach while playing cards, having dinner and watching movies.
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| The 12th birthday of The Ed! |
On Friday, July 13th (the 12th birthday of The Ed!), we drove east to Palmer, Alaska, to attend the
Friday Fling in downtown, an arts and crafts fair and farmers' market all rolled into one. The Friday Fling was well attended, though we declined to purchase any of the overpriced vegetables (green beans for $9.99/pound!!!).
We crossed the street to the
Palmer Visitor Center and Museum where we found a small exhibit outlining the town's unique history. The town was established in 1935 as the
Matanuska Colony during the Great Depression when FDR's New Deal moved 203 farm families from the northern portions of hard hit Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota, thus providing an improved economic lot for the families, an agricultural supply point for the government in case of war and development to the interior of Alaska. We found a huge garden with vegetables and flowers galore near the visitor center and admired the handiwork (and envied the talent) of the dedicated gardeners who work there.
We walked around the town square where various signs pointed out some of the historic buildings and their original uses, such as the
Colony Inn Cafe which once served as a dormitory for teachers and nurses. We ate lunch there, each enjoying a filling cup of chowder, slice of quiche and salad.
We crossed the street to the
Colony House Museum and chatted for a couple of hours with the son of an original colony couple who came to the Matanuska Valley with all 11 of their children. The guide mentioned that 40% of the original colonists remained after the first 4 years (the other 60% were replacement families by that point) and that many of the original buildings remain in Palmer.
This museum is housed in an original cabin built by laborers from California during the Depression. The house was purchased by the
Colony Historical Society in the late 1990s and lovingly restored to its original condition. The home has been decorated with period specific furnishings donated by Colony residents. With a $250 allotment in 1935, each family selected their entire furniture suite from the Sears Catalog. Our guide mentioned that many families ended up with very similar furniture as their neighbors. Ha! Everything from the Sears catalog couch and chair set to the tin can spices in the kitchen cabinets lend a homey 1935 air to the place.
We walked all over the tiny house and peeked in each of the rooms, carefully decorated to show their function. The slim back porch held the 'washing machine' and a cream separator, and the bedrooms housed all the trappings of a modern life for a young family during the Depression.
The simple layout of the cabin, one of 5 available designed by a Washington, DC architect, offered a living room, adjoining dining room, kitchen, laundry area, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom on the 1st floor, and another small bedroom and storage space on the 2nd floor. Each family was given, by lottery, a 40 acre plot of land on which to build their cabin, a 32'x32' barn, a chicken coop and other small outbuildings, though many considered the acreage too small for farming and the lone barn design inadequate for raising livestock. Many families built onto the original structures or modified the floorplans to better suit their needs.
The relocation to Palmer was one of a hundred such projects by FDR to reinvigorate the stagnant economy, but the
Matanuska Colony was followed (and heavily criticized) by many in the lower 48. The colonists' relocation -- over rail, then sea, then rail again -- to the valley was documented by the press extensively at the time. One reporter from Wisconsin even traveled with the families to their destination and stayed on for several months in the same tent camp while the houses were being constructed, sending regular dispatches back to his newspaper.
Despite the good intentions and grand plans, many of the families bristled at the government's bureaucracy such as the insistence that the houses be constructed only by the California laborers (though some families pitched in and built their own homes), and the seemingly innumerable ways the government invented to increase the colonists' indebtedness. Amazingly, all the families moved into their cabins by the end of November 1935.
Our tour guide regaled us with tales of life in the Colony and how the anniversary of the settlement is celebrated regularly, with hundreds of original family members and their descendants in attendance. He also mentioned the efforts to retain the original farmland to be preserved as such, as well as about his own contributions as key fundraiser for a film that documented this unusual government experiment.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the
museum and learning about the unlikely history of the town. On our way out of Palmer we found, naturally, a couple more thrift stores in which to wander around. We ended the day with a long bout of laundry followed by celebratory ice cream and cookies. Finally, the sky began to clear, if only little, and yet the drizzle and 60 degree temperatures continue. What an interesting day!
Not to break with tradition, we quickly located several thrift stores, both in Anchorage and on our way back to the RV. With the rain coming down, we huddled in the coach while playing cards, having dinner and watching movies.
We crossed the street to the Palmer Visitor Center and Museum where we found a small exhibit outlining the town's unique history. The town was established in 1935 as the Matanuska Colony during the Great Depression when FDR's New Deal moved 203 farm families from the northern portions of hard hit Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota, thus providing an improved economic lot for the families, an agricultural supply point for the government in case of war and development to the interior of Alaska. We found a huge garden with vegetables and flowers galore near the visitor center and admired the handiwork (and envied the talent) of the dedicated gardeners who work there.
We crossed the street to the Colony House Museum and chatted for a couple of hours with the son of an original colony couple who came to the Matanuska Valley with all 11 of their children. The guide mentioned that 40% of the original colonists remained after the first 4 years (the other 60% were replacement families by that point) and that many of the original buildings remain in Palmer.
This museum is housed in an original cabin built by laborers from California during the Depression. The house was purchased by the Colony Historical Society in the late 1990s and lovingly restored to its original condition. The home has been decorated with period specific furnishings donated by Colony residents. With a $250 allotment in 1935, each family selected their entire furniture suite from the Sears Catalog. Our guide mentioned that many families ended up with very similar furniture as their neighbors. Ha! Everything from the Sears catalog couch and chair set to the tin can spices in the kitchen cabinets lend a homey 1935 air to the place.
We walked all over the tiny house and peeked in each of the rooms, carefully decorated to show their function. The slim back porch held the 'washing machine' and a cream separator, and the bedrooms housed all the trappings of a modern life for a young family during the Depression.
The simple layout of the cabin, one of 5 available designed by a Washington, DC architect, offered a living room, adjoining dining room, kitchen, laundry area, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom on the 1st floor, and another small bedroom and storage space on the 2nd floor. Each family was given, by lottery, a 40 acre plot of land on which to build their cabin, a 32'x32' barn, a chicken coop and other small outbuildings, though many considered the acreage too small for farming and the lone barn design inadequate for raising livestock. Many families built onto the original structures or modified the floorplans to better suit their needs. 
The relocation to Palmer was one of a hundred such projects by FDR to reinvigorate the stagnant economy, but the Matanuska Colony was followed (and heavily criticized) by many in the lower 48. The colonists' relocation -- over rail, then sea, then rail again -- to the valley was documented by the press extensively at the time. One reporter from Wisconsin even traveled with the families to their destination and stayed on for several months in the same tent camp while the houses were being constructed, sending regular dispatches back to his newspaper.
Despite the good intentions and grand plans, many of the families bristled at the government's bureaucracy such as the insistence that the houses be constructed only by the California laborers (though some families pitched in and built their own homes), and the seemingly innumerable ways the government invented to increase the colonists' indebtedness. Amazingly, all the families moved into their cabins by the end of November 1935.
Our tour guide regaled us with tales of life in the Colony and how the anniversary of the settlement is celebrated regularly, with hundreds of original family members and their descendants in attendance. He also mentioned the efforts to retain the original farmland to be preserved as such, as well as about his own contributions as key fundraiser for a film that documented this unusual government experiment.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the museum and learning about the unlikely history of the town. On our way out of Palmer we found, naturally, a couple more thrift stores in which to wander around. We ended the day with a long bout of laundry followed by celebratory ice cream and cookies. Finally, the sky began to clear, if only little, and yet the drizzle and 60 degree temperatures continue. What an interesting day!
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