An air view of early colony-day Palmer. Taken in Fall of
1935 or Spring of 1936 from above Buggy s Hill looking
toward the school.
COLONISTS PLANNING
REUNIONS AT FAIR
Among early-day colonists who
will gather for Colony Day to be
held September 6 at the Valley
Fair will be the Vasanoja family,
who now live in Anchorage.
The Vasanojas made the trip
from Minnesota to Alaska aboard
the transport St. Mikiel. Their
five children have married and
settled in Alaska. Their son
Lawrence and two daughters,
Marilyn (Mrs. Lee Hartley) and
Marcella (Mrs. Bob Hartley) all
live in Palmer. One daughter,
Pearl (Mrs. George Kendall) lives
in Fairbanks while another,
Dorothy, (Mrs. Edwin Hilidre)
lives in Juneau.
Other Southeast Alaskans who
were closely identified with the
original colonists are Rev. Mer
rill Sulzman, now at Skagway
and Dr. Earl Albrecht, now Ter
ritorial Commissioner of Health
at Juneau. Father Sulzman was
the Catholic priest if> the valley
during the colony days. Dr. Al
brecht was summoned here as
colony doctor from Anchorage
where he was stationed with the
Alaska Railroad. He practiced in
Palmer from 1935 until he went
in to the Army Medical Corps in
1941.
It is estimated that about 80
families of the 200 who came to
Alaska in the first group of col
onists are still in the territory.
With their children and grand
children, they are expected to
number between 350 and 400
when they gather this weekend
at Palmer, where a replica of
their original tents will be set up
as registration headquarters.
CHURCH REPRESENTATIVES
MAKE PALMER VISIT
A. L. Zumwalt, representative
in charge of the Seventh Day
Adventist work in Alaska and C.
S. Joyce, member of the North
west District Office in Portland
w*'-'' valley visitors this week.
While in Palmer renewing ac
4■ H NEWS
Happy Hooligans
We met at the home of our
leader Mrs. McDonald, on Wed
nesday night. It was raining hard
i but five of our members were
present and one visitor.
We had a short business meet
[ ing to discuss our fair exhibits.
Then we adjourned so we could
j watch Vadney Bledsoe practice
: his demonstration for the Fair.
David Henry gave a demonstra
tion on how to make a chicken
waterer from a can and a shallow
pan. Lewis McDonald showed us
how to treat ringworm on live
stock and Elmer McDonold gave
his demonstration on selecting a
chicken to exhibit.
Reporter, Elmer McDonald
Beaters
Our meeting was held at the
j Brewster’s home. We had our
I meeting at five o’clock and had
j a pot-luck supper.
We invited our parents, sisters
and brothers. We brought our
sewing and showed it to our
parents. We played games and
had lots of fun. That was our
last meeting. Remember to bring
your things Friday.
Muriel Hanks, reporter
quaintances, the men announced
the removal of their headquarters
Anchorage. This will permit us
in Juneau to 637 “A” street in
more central field work control,
they said.
They announced future plans
of reactivating the local Seventh
Day Adventist Church and said
they plan to paint the present
structure very soon.
First Colony Paper
Printed on
Broken-down Press
Exploits of the late Jack All
man in the fourth estate at Pal
mer and Kodiak were being re
called in Juneau this week by
friends of the newspaperman and
author who died several months
ago
Jack was editor and publish
er of the first colony newspaper
in Palmer, the Matanuska Valley
Pioneer, which was printed on a
broken-down press and with a
font of type so shot by time that
it contained no letter “E\. So
the paper had to come out as
“THF MATANUSKA VALLFY
PIONFFR.”
After a new type font arrived
Jack told the story of Sourdough
Sam, a prospector who left the
valley in the spring of 1935 and
returned from the hills that fall.
That was the summer the govern
ment sent in the settlers. Sam
found a highway where not even
a trail had been, a seven-room
house over the spot where he had
killed a moose and other changes
such that he had a hard time
finding a familiar trading post
among all the new buildings
He bought a pint of whiskey and
sat in the corner drinking it un
til he got up nerve to ask the pro
prietor:
“Say Phil, what’s been going
on around here?”
“Going on? Why, nothing
much,” replied the storekeeper
with a straight face, “but the
Valley’s grown since you left
here ten years ago.” Sam didn’t
even stay to drink the rest of his
whiskey, according to Jack.
Probably one of the most in
Complete with 'Dobbin" is this picture of the colonist's
first commissary.
teresting of the contents which
will be revealed when a leaden
box buried under the flagpole in
front of the Palmer school is dug
up a hundred years hence will
be the complete file of Jack’s
newspaper.
Moving to Kodiak a few' years
later, Jack called the turn when
he wrote from there to the editor
of Adventure Magazine in 1939:
“Now I am in Kodiak, which
is due for a big boom as soon as
the government starts building
its Naval Air Base just six miles
from here. I may find time to
work some of the old Russian
color here into fiction. The place
is rife with it.
In his time, Jack lived in many
other places in Alaska, including,
Don L. Irwin, firs! general
manager of the colonization
project.
Skagway, Fairbanks, Excursion
Inlet and Juneau.
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