Palmer, Alaska
When I imagine the beginnings of cities in Alaska, my mind gets highjacked by Jack London. Images of hard men with pickaxes slung over their shoulders trampling through the mud streets to the saloon are what spring to my mind. Flashes of ladies of the night, barking sled dogs, wind rattled windows and lurking nefarious characters tucked in the shadows between the flimsy wooden storefronts swirl through my head. The cold privations of mining shacks house the new community’s occupants in my thoughts. Never in my musings did I consider agriculture as the source of any settlement within this ice and snow-filled land. Until now.
Nestled in the fertile Matanuska-Susitna Valley- the Mat-Su to the locals- is the farm-town-proud community of Palmer, Alaska. I love it here, maybe because I was born and raised in an agricultural community too and recognize the pride that springs from growing things and harvesting the fruits of your labor. Yesterday, from Our Ramblin Van’s window, we watched a farmer till a field behind our campsite in perfect rows, making ready for this year’s plantings. We remarked at how satisfying that must feel, starting the morning with a flat patch of dirt and ending the day with a freshly tilled field full of potential. It’s an image and feeling I did not anticipate experiencing here in Alaska. Of course, the field was not always flat and ready for tilling, developing the agricultural landscape that has come to be known as the ‘breadbasket of Alaska’ was the literal groundbreaking work of the Matanuska Colony.
Now, when I think of colonists, again, my mind throws forth men in buckled shoes and women in caps and long dresses, oxen hitched to a single blade plow and horse hooves clopping along cobblestone streets in a newly sprung New England village. Not Alaska, until now.
Palmer was originally established in 1916 as the Alaska Railroad's branch line to the Chickaloon coal mines and that was about it. Nothing much happened here until 1935 when America was in the throes of the Great Depression. President Roosevelt’s New Deal birthed the concept of relocating struggling Americans to areas where they could become self-sufficient farmers. The Mat-Su Valley was identified as an ideal area due to its fertile soil and long summer daylight hours. The winters, however, were harsh and conversely cloaked in darkness for an equal number of hours in a day. The choice of inhabitants for this grand experiment then had to be made carefully. The government began accepting applications and conducting interviews amongst the hard-hit communities in the Iron Range of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ultimately, 203 families were selected from this region to become modern day colonists in the Mat-Su valley experiment. In one year, Palmer transformed from a mere whistle stop rail siding to a planned community with modern utilities and community services. Eleven million dollars from Federal Emergency Relief Administration was spent to create the town of Palmer. Families traveled by train and ship to Palmer, arriving in May 1935. Upon their arrival they were housed in a city tent during their first Alaskan summer. Each family drew lots for their own 40-acre land tract and their farming adventure began in earnest.
The government provided loans to cover their initial set up costs, which the settlers were expected to repay over time. Not all the colonists were able to make it through the first hard winter and left. Clearing trees, building homes, and adjusting to Alaska’s extreme weather proved difficult. Those who stayed laid the foundation for Palmer’s future and set up the community to mirror the types of towns they came from with Midwest America's small-town values, institutional structures, and a well-planned city center. Needless to say, they were eventually quite successful in their colonial farming experiment and the town of Palmer now stands as a mix of old and modern buildings with a strong community spirit amongst the townspeople.
Palmer pays homage to its agricultural roots today hosting a farmers’ market and acting as the site of the Alaska State Fair. Each year growers wait with bated breath for the results of the annual weigh-in of pumpkin, cabbage and all manner of vegetable entries to determine who grew the biggest ______ (fill in the blank). The records are unbelievable and include the record holding pumpkin grown by Mr. Dale Marshall in 2018 and weighing in at a behemoth 2,147-pounds, proving the wisdom of the new deal designers that this choice of Alaskan land was a great location for their colony. Hats off to them and to the farming colonists who built this community. Palmer is a great town for a lot of reasons including the magnificent mountains surrounding it, but my favorite thing about Palmer is its story.
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