Ninety years ago, on April 23, 1935, the ship North Star left San Francisco loaded with workers and supplies bound for Palmer, to build a tent city for the 200 farm families soon to arrive from Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
The workers were hired off the rolls of California’s transient relief agency, though newspapers often called them CCC workers for the sake of brevity, and because readers were more familiar with the national Civilian Conservation Corps program. The transient workers would arrive in Palmer just days ahead of the Minnesota colonists.
Photos from the ARRC album, Alaska State Library, Mary Nan Gamble Collection
“Loading the North Star at San Francisco, April 20th”
from the ARRC album
“Pier 50, scene of activities prior to the departure of the North Star for Seward, Alaska”
from the ARRC album
