valley Frontiersman
VOL. III.
PALMER, ALASKA SEPTEMBER 22, 1949
Volume 2
V
Eugene Marsh
Is Drowned
While Hunting
Eugene Marsh, Palmer resident
and an employe of the Co-Op
Garage for the past eight years,
drowned in an accident at Snow
shoe Lake last Friday.
Mr. Marsh had been given the
day off to go duck hunting. He
went to Snowshoe Lake and bor
rowed a kayak there to cross to
the other shore. He was unac
companied. Late Friday after
noon the kayak was found drift
ing, overturned, near shore.
There was no trace of its occu
pant.
The Tenth Rescue Squadron at
Fort Richardson was notified
and float planes flew to the lake
to begin dragging operations.
Until late Saturday afternoon
Palmer friends and relatives held
fast to the hope that Marsh,
who was a strong swimmer, had
reached the shore and was walk
ing in to the Pennington home
at the lake.
By Saturday evening, how
ever, friends had abandoned
hope. A large group drove to the
lake on Sunday, where Arthur
Marsh, the deceased’s father,
was awailting the recovery of his
son’s body. Friends, using the
Tenth Rescue equipment, recov
ered the body late that after
noon.
Mrs. Marsh and her mother
in-law, Mrs. Arthur Marsh, were
visiting in Spokane, Wash., at
the time of the tragedy. They
have since returned to Palmer.
Eugene Marsh was the father of
two small children, a three-year
old and an 18 - months - old
daughter. He was in his late
twenties at the time of his
death.
Funeral arrangements still
were pending at a late hour
Monday.
Kiwanis Is Official Now
A total of 89 Kiwanians and
guests from Anchorage and the
Matanuska Valley joined In a
Charter Night celebration and
banquet held at the Palmer Gym
last Saturday evening. Cecil Ro
lcy and John Gorsueh of An
chorage participated in the eve
ning’s program, as did Jack
Maze and Clyde King, Jr., of
Palmer.
Following the banquet and for
mal program, the evening con
PALMER S PROGRESS
FLIRTS WITH WEATHER
The men of the hour in the
Matanuska Valley these days are
the carpenters who are racing
the down-the-mountain advance
of winter. Work gangs on nine
different projects are pushing
toward completion, or have just
finished, construction or remod
eling in a number of new Palmer
businesses.
Among the firms who are
building, or who are renovating
and remodelling to meet greater
business needs, are Alaska Seed,
Inc., Anchorage Shopping Guide,
Inc., Matanuska Valley Gardens,
the creamery of the Matanuska
Valley Farmers Co-operating As
sociation, Palmer Photo Art,
Goodrich Machine Shop, Union
Oil, and the Agricultural Re
search Administration.
Also not to be forgotten is the
new Legion Hall, to be complet
ed as a basement this fall, and
added to when weather permits
next season.
Alaska Seed, Inc.
Latest evidence of progress in
Palmer is the gaping hole beside
the Steve Ward Bldg., which will
mark the future home of Alaska
See, Inc. Owner Ed Baldwin
plans an eventual two-story
building of blocks there, with a
concrete basement. The archi
tect’s plans call for a building 50
by 50 in size.
For the present, Mr. Baldwin
will be satisfied with a base
ment, which he hopes to have
completed, as well as the first
floor, by freeze-up. As soon as
he builds a roof over this base
ment, the new store will be
stocked with feed, so that Mr.
Baldwin can wield a hammer on
interior finishing work with one
hand and ring up sales on his
cash register with the other.
The Palmer store will be oper
ated as the Valley branch of
Alaska Seed, Inc.’s main store in
Anchorage. Locally, the stock
will include feed, seed, fertilizer,
farm equipment and tools. The
complete store is expected to be
ready by March 1, in time for
spring planting, Mr. Baldwin
said. He plans to handle the du
ties of store manager for a time.
Ultimate plans for the Palmer
store of Alaska Seed, Inc., call
for further construction and the
installation of a sharp-freeze
unit to process Matanuska Val
' (Continued on Page 3)
KARLA DUFF admiringly pats the glossy leaves of an
over-sized beefsteak begonia, one of a number of Duff
plants and flowers that helped her to walk home with first
prize in the recent flower show sponsored by Northland
Pioneer Grange. Mrs. Duff also displayed the begonia at
the'Fair’s flower show, together with the little red milking
stool on which it’s perched. Only the milking stool failed
to check in after the fair was over. Anybody seen it?
--fPhoto bv lav Maul.)_
MRS. IOLOFF
MISSING SINCE
RECENT FAIR
The partly-nude body of Mrs.
Margaret Toloff of Anchorage,
reported missing since Sunday,
Sept. 4, when she came to the
Valley to attend the Matanuska
Valley fair, was discovered lying
in a ditch beside a lane leading
to the John Springer farm last
Monday. Mr. Springer found the
body as he walked down the lane
toward the nearby faftu road,
which is about three miles from
Palmer.
Mr. Springer, after sighting
the body, called Mrs. Ed Blom,
who was berry-picking a short
distance away. Mrs. Blom hur
ried to the Paul Martin farm
where she phoned Mr. Bouwens.
The dead woman, identified
later Monday by her son-in-law,
Rex E. Gjertson, and a neighbor,
Mrs. Henry Smith of Anchorage,
had been heavily beaten about
the head. Preliminary investiga
tion by Deputy Marshall Bill
Bouwens disclosed a compound
fracture on the right side of the
head above the eye, abrasions on
the forehead and bruises and
scratches on her left wrist and
right knee. The entire left side
of her skull had been crushed
above the ear.
iContinued on Page 8>
Hospital Head
Resigns
Janet Mills, manager and tech
nician at the Valley Hospital,
this week resigned the position
she has so recently assumed.
Mrs. Mills said a combination of
circumstances, among them fail
ure to find adequate housing for
her family, forced the move.
The manager’s letter of resig
nation wass ubmitted to the hos
pital board last week. The effec
tive date was Nov. 13, but Mrs.
Mills asked that she be relieved
of her duties by Oct. 1, if it is
possible to do so. She plans to
return to the position she left in
the states, from which she took
an indefinite leave of absence.
James Wilson, president of the,
hospital board, said that the
group was in correspondence
with a possible successor to Mrs.
Mills. Whether that person would
accept the position, if offered,
was still unknown at press-time.