Ninety years ago today, on May 11th, 1935, the Minnesota colonists woke up in Palmer for the first time, bright morning sunlight coming through their white canvas tents. Ray Rebarchek recalled “everything was going full tilt. Babies were crying, hammers were pounding, people were calling back and forth, as if it were the middle of the day. The feverish activity was contagious…”
Meanwhile in Matanuska – which had started the week as the biggest town east of Wasilla and south of the coal mines, and ended it as the railroad stop before you get to Palmer – the American Legion was gearing up for a big Saturday night dance to meet the newcomers, and had invited all of Anchorage.
Matanuska in the 1930s, as seen from the railroad tracks just south of the depot. The dance hall is the tall peaked roof to the far right. The building had previously been the mess hall at the Eska Coal Mine until the American Legion bought it from the railroad and moved it to Matanuska.
Dance hall identified by Jim Fox; history of hall from p. 42 of “The Colorful Matanuska Valley” by Don Irwin.
This photo and others by the Civilian Conservation Corps are held at UAF and available online at https://vilda.alaska.edu/…/collec/mode/exact/conn/and
Anchorage Times article from May 13, 1935