»v
Princeton Seminary
concert at United
Protestant Church
next Friday at eight
o'clock.
VOL. THREE—NO. 42
Balley Wrontiergman ·
PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE MATANUSKA VALLEY
PALMER. ALASKA. FRIDAY. JUNE 30. 1950
Malanuska Valley
Sportsmen's annual
fish fry will be held
on July 16.
PRICE 10c
s
Palmer Is Fastest-Growing Town In 3rd Division
Fledging Preachers
Plan a Concert
Here Next Friday
The Princeton Theological Sem
inary Choir will present a concert
at the United Protestant Church
in Palmer next Friday evening,
Mrs. Victor Alfsen announced to
day. The concert, which begins at
eight o’clock, is presented under
the sponsorship of Dr. J. Earl
Jackman of the Presbyterian
board of national missions.
This will be the fifth annual
summer tour made by the choir.
The singers are 23 men students,
all of them taking theological
training at the New Jersey Sem
inary. This tour has brought them
across the states, into Canada
and up the Alaska Highway to
the Interior.
This summer’s concert engage
ments include Alaskan stops at
Seward, Tok Junction, Fairbanks,
Ladd Field, Palmer, Anchorage
and many towns in southeastern
Alaska. In addition, the men have
presented concerts in nine states
and in Canada, prior to their
appearance in Alaska.
The choir has completed tours
in Cuba, Mexico and Canada, in
other summers. During the school
year, the men sing at least three
times each Sunday at churches
in the Princeton area. It is esti
mated that they have presented
more than 800 concerts in church
es and schools.
The choir’s program ranges
from sixteenth century music to
modern works, many of which
have been written or arranged
for the Princeton group.
J
W". '.
Burnetts Tell Plons for
Highway Roadhouse
Another of Palmer’s new busi
nesses, now in the process of con
struction, is the roadhouse and
night club planned by Mr. and
Mrs. Glen Burnett and Mrs. Gert
l'ude Edmonds. Mr. Burnett, who
is doing the major portion of the
construction work, poured the
footings for the structure yester
day.
The club, which is not yet
named, will be located in the flats
at the foot of Bailey Hill, beneath
the Albrecht home. Original plans
for the 30x40 building will in
clude a restaurant and bar, and
living quarters for the Burnett
family.
Later, Mr. Burnett said, he
planned to construct cabins.
Completion date is not quite
certain, but the partners hope to
have the structure finished and
the business in operation by Sept.
1, in time for fair visitors. Mr.
Burnett will be in charge of the
bar, and Mrs. Burnett and Mrs.
Edmonds will manage the res
taurant.
A little later in the summer,
the Burnett-Edmonds combine
will sponsor a contest to name the
roadhouse. Detailed plans will be
announced at that time.
' Comes to Alaska
To Seek Minnesotans
Seeking transplanted Minneso
tans was Mrs. Kathryn Gorman
of the St. Paul Pioneer Post-Dis
patch, when she visited the Valley
on Wednesday of this week. Mrs.
Gorman plans to do a series of
feature stories on Minnesota fam
ilies living in the Valley now.
. . ....::
Alaskan scouls from Nome, Fairbanks, Palmer, Anchorage, Seward, Cordova, Ml. Edgecumbe.
Sitka, Douglas, Juneau and Ketchikan are shown disembarking at Seattle June 19 from the
Alaska Steamship Company steamer Alaska, en route to the National Jamboree at Valley
Forge, Pennsylvania. Valley Scoutmoster Victor Alfsen and Star Scout Harry Campbell, Jr.,
are somewhere in the line above.—(Alaska Steamship Co. mat.)
Chamber Plans Banquet July 12
For Members Of Field Committee
Although no quorum was pres
ent, plans were made at last
week’s Chamber of Commerce
meeting for the entertainment of
the Alaska field committee, when
it meets here in early July. Com
mittee members are scheduled to
begin arriving here on July 10,
and will be in session here
through July 12. Membership of
this committee is comprised of
all Department of Interior agen
cies in Alaska.
It was decided that the group
will be invited to be guests of the
Chamber at a banquet planned
for the evening of July 12. At
tendance at the affair will be lim
ited to 50. Chamber members
must procure tickets in order to
attend. The banquet will begin
at 7 p.m., and will be held in the
basement of St. John’s Lutheran
Church. It will be served by the
Ladies Aid of St. John’s.
Following the banquet, there
will be an evening of planned en
tertainment for the guests. Plan
ning committee for the evening
School Plans May
Be Ready Next Week
It is expected that plans for the
•wing to be constructed at Pal
mer School this summer will be
completed by the architect early
next week, superintendent Wil
liam T. Zahradnicek said today.
After the plans have been okayed
by members of the school board,
they will be available for exam
ination by prospective bidders.
(Continued on Back Page)
i o i* .*ws
includes James Hurley, Jack
Maze and Viola Daniels.
M. D. Snodgrass, Chamber
member who had returned from a
six weeks’ trip Outside, sketched
highlights of his visit for fellow
members. He said he retraced the
route he followed 47 years ago,
when he first turned north. Ma
jor changes he found in the Kan
sas countryside, where he spent
much of his time; was the trend
away from small farms. “I found
less people living on the land, but
about the same amount of land
being farmed,” he said. ‘'The
farms all are being consolidated
into large holdings there.”
Commenting on the crop situa
tion Outside, Mr. Snodgrass said
he found crops “no farther along
in the states I visited, than they
are up here.”
Jack Daum, city editor of the
Fairbanks News-Miner, was a
guest at the luncheon. Mr. Daum
was in Palmer on an assignment
concerning the territorial airport
program.
Third Division
Population Count
RECORDING DISTRICTS
1940 1950
Name Pop’l. Pop’l.
Anchorage .4,726 31,561
Kodiak .2,094 5,895
Aleutian Islands 1,298 5,521
Seward . 1,525 2,653
Palmer .1,441 2,511
Bristol Bay . 993 1,612
Seldovia . 980 1,526
Cordova . 1,459 1,499
Unga Peninsula .. 1,141 1,018
Valdez. 924 910
Chitina . 742 803
Kvichak . 600 740
Whittier . 694
Wasilla . 548 576
Talkeetna . 365 417
Illiamna .. 399 366
McCarthy . 77 36
TOTAL ..19,312 58.338
INCORPORATED CITIES
Anchorage .3,495 11,060
Seward . 949 2,063
Kodiak . 864 1,635
Cordova . 938 1,141
Valdez. 529 560
Seldovia . 410 428
Unalaska . 298 171
King Cove . 151
LARGE UNINCORPORATED
AREAS
Eastchester . 3,078
Mountain View . 2,866
Spenard . 2,159
Palmer . 150 879
COMES DOWN FROM HILLS
WASILLA--Dan Grey, who has
been in the mountains all winter,
visited in Wasilla last Monday.
Mr. Grey lives on the Little Su
sitna River.
’RATE OF GROWTH
IS 586 PERCENT
OVER 1940 CENSUS
Palmer residents need take off
their hats to no one today. Un
official census returns show it to
be the fastest-growing town in
the entire Third Division. Those
same figures report that the Third
Division grew more rapidly in
the past 10 years than any other
Division in Alaska. And census
area supervisor Russell Westberg
of the Seattle office last week an
nounced in Anchorage that the
territory “undoubtedly” will show
a greater percentage of increase
in population than any of the
states.
Therefore Palmer is today the
fastest-growing town in the fast
est growing Division in the fast
est-growing territory or state un
der the American flag.
Anchorage, which has been
claiming the greatest percentage
of increase in the Division, is far
behind Palmer. Palmer’s rate of
growth is 586 percent, nearly
twice the 318 percent increase re
corded by Anchorage.
Palmer’s official census count
in 1940 was 150 persons. The
count today, as unofficially re
leased, is 879 individuals.
The Anchorage office of the
Bureau of the Census winds up its
affairs today. Assistant supervis
or Jim Brown released the tabu
lated figures printed below, as
one of his final acts in office.
Cost of the population count in
the Third Division was almost as
breathtaking as some of the cen
sus figures, Mr. Brown revealed.
The price of counting in the
Third Division ranged from a
minimum of $20 a day to a max
imum of $100 an hour. The esti
mated per-person cost is 50 cents
an individual.
Mr. Brown predicted the Thir
Division’s total population wca:
outreach its nearest Divisional
rival by more than 21,000 persons.
He pointed out that the political
implications in this figure are
legion, since legislative repre
sentation is based on population.
The entire population figure for
recording districts and incorporat
ed cities in 1940 and 1950 is re
produced below. Where no figure
appears in the 1940 column, a new
recording district is indicated for
this census.
A true population picture for
the entire Matanuska Valley can
not be obtained, since the Valley’s
total area was split into separate
recording districts. All of the
Palmer district, all of the Wasilla
district and apportion of the Tal
keetna district can be considered
within the geographic limits of
the Matanuska Valley.
School Office Will
31ose Next Monday
The office of Palmer School
will be closed all day on Mon
day, July 3, superintendent Wil
liam T. Zahradnicek announced
today.