The night of June 4th, 1935, saw the first meeting of the Matanuska Colony council. “Alaska Colony Organizes; Big Problem is Garbage,” reported Arville Schaleben, the Milwaukee Journal reporter embedded with the Matanuska project, who watched the humble democratic proceedings like an eager baseball fan, sizing up the players. So far the council’s issues were small, but they wouldn’t stay that way for long.
Margaret Miller wrote of the meeting at Camp 7 to elect delegates for the council:
“Fredericks drew the ‘forty’ with house and barns, upon which our camp is located. We have camp meetings in their house. She served us coffee and cake the first meeting. She is a Minnesotan and has a decent stove to bake in. Most of us haven’t been able to bake good cakes in our cheap tin stoves – so the cake tasted unusually good.”
[The Minnesota relief agency purchased good stoves to outfit their delegation for Alaska; Wisconsin and Michigan did not.]
“In the evening the men of camp met first, and elected Mr. Bailey to represent them at the council meeting to be held Tuesday in Mr. Irwin’s office. (Mr. Irwin is our General Manager.) Then the women met, and elected me as their representative. It was a surprise to me – someway I’m always surprised if anyone seems to like me. I was pleased over the appointment – but have never felt I was a particularly good executive. I felt still more ‘shakey’ over my limited ability when we discovered at the meeting that these meetings were to be a part of the permanent arrangements – and that we as representatives were expected to be responsible to our respective camps for the work program and general welfare. I hope I don’t make a mess of it.”
Photo from the PMHA Bailey collection.
Excerpt from “Cheechako to Sourdough: Excerpts from a Colonist’s Diary” by Margaret Miller, from the PMHA Miller collection.
Clipping from Arville Schaleben “Alaska Colony Organizes; Big Problem is Garbage”, Milwaukee Journal, June 6, 1935.
Photo of Catherine Lemmon with her husband Gilford, from the MSB Sandbote collection
Photo of Frank Swanda and his fringed deerskin coat, from the MSB Sandbote collection
Photo of Mrs. Miller with her daughters, from the PMHA Miller collection.
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“Offices at Palmer, and sleeping quarters for officials.”
From the official ARRC photo album, Mary Nan Gamble collection, Alaska State Library. View of the present-day four-way stop in the middle of town, May 1935.
Photo of Camp 2 from the official ARRC album, Mary Nan Gamble collection, Alaska State Library
Photo of horses and garbage in camp
“Colonist taking horses to pasture.” From the ARRC photo album, taken on the road along the tracks, looking north towards present-day Blueberry Street. Commissary building visible on the left, and the original Palmer depot by the tracks.
Photo of Mrs. Erickson from the ARRC album.
“Photo of Mrs. Carl Erickson (Minn) shown in her neat kitchen in her tent home at Camp 8.”