On June 6th 1935, tempers flared at the camp council meeting in the tent city of Palmer, and one gets the impression that reporter Arville Schaleben would have been eating popcorn and laughing at the spectacle had he not had his hands full writing.
Even though families were gradually moving to outlying camps to be closer to their farm tracts, the central camp in Palmer was still largest, and still held all the families assigned to Camp 10 as there was not a road yet out to the Butte.
Hewitt’s photo from the PMHA general collection. “Colonists making themselves ‘to home.’ Matanuska Valley Project.”
“Law in Alaska Colony is the Law of the Gun” was the headline in the Milwaukee Journal on June 7th, 1935.
M.D. Snodgrass, first director of the Matanuska Experiment Station, with hogs.
Photo from the PMHA Snodgrass collection.
Aerial view of Palmer, taken later July or August 1935, showing the M.D. Snodgrass farm midway up on the right. Snodgrass Hill in present-day Palmer is the one that still has cows on it.
Photo from the PMHA Miller collection. “Palmer in the summer of 1935. Talkeetna Mtns and Matanuska River in background.”
Besides M.D. Snodgrass’s hogs, John Bugge’s sow was also notorious for jumping her fence and running around town.
Photo from the PMHA Anton Anderson collection.
And more hogs were on the way!
Clipping from the (Juneau) Alaska Empire, June 7th 1935.