June 8th, 1935, down Cook Inlet, Mt. Augustine was dramatically spewing ash and lava. Meanwhile in the Valley, clouds of road dust accompanied the ongoing eruption of the town of Palmer. The Anchorage Times, advertising a special excursion train to Palmer for a baseball game Sunday, had advised spectators to pack lunch with them due to lack of facilities – then carried ads for two new cafes opened in Palmer just that weekend.
Arville Schaleben’s summary of the Matanuska project thus far for the Sunday edition of the Milwaukee Journal reveled in the excitement of how fast things were happening in the early summer of 1935.
“A City Booms as of Yore in Alaska Wilds,” Milwaukee Journal, June 9, 1935
“A City in the Making – Matanuska Valley Project.” Hewitt’s photo from the PMHA Fredericks collection.
Schaleben undercounts the population for dramatic effect – besides Feltons, there were at least the Snodgrasses just across the tracks, John Bugge immediately to the west of the ARRC camp, and the Smith family in what’s now North Palmer, not to mention all the other homesteaders just out of town.
Clipping from Arville Schaleben, “A City Booms as of Yore in Alaska Wilds,” Milwaukee Journal, June 9, 1935
The women and children of the Wisconsin/Michigan contingent arriving in Palmer May 24th. Photo from the PMHA Wimmer collection.
“Colonists’ first meal prepared by the Construction Division, 6 p.m. May 10th. Photo from the official ARRC album, Mary Nan Gamble collection, Alaska State Library.
Ad for Ed’s new café, Anchorage Times, June 8th 1935
Building a corduroy bridge across a gully, early summer 1935.
Photo from the ARRC album. “Road construction.”
The railroad tracks are somewhere behind the massive piles of supplies for the Colony. View from near the commissary, summer 1935, from the PMHA Odsather collection.
“Dumping gravel on roads near Palmer.” From the ARRC album. Old Palmer depot faintly visible at north end of road.
A caterpillar hauling a wagon of freight in downtown Palmer, taken mid-July or August 1935. The pile of pipes is in the railroad right-of-way.
Photo from the PMHA Wimmer collection.
