Matanuska Colony Project

Matanuska Colony Project. Palmer. , HISTORICAL BACKGROUND , The Matanuska Colony Project created headline news around the world. It was a story of hope in the 1930s Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt promised to build new communities and put people to work through his New Deal programs. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was created to help impoverished families get a fresh start in new communities., The Federal Government chose Palmer as the site for the Matanuska Colony Project. The City of Palmer was named after George Palmer, an early prospector and operator who ran a small trading post on the Matanuska River in the 1880s., THE JOURNEY , Parting from friends and family in early May, the colonists embarked upon a long train journey toward an unknown future. The government paid their travel expenses and each family's personal goods up to 2,000 pounds., Newspapers followed the colonists from departure to arrival in Alaska. In San Francisco, the Minnesotans were greeted as celebrities and entertained before their departure for Alaska on the St Mihiel, an army troop ship. Two weeks later, experiencing the same popular reaction in Seattle, the second group of Wisconsin and Michigan families departed for the last leg in their journey to Alaska., COLONY PROJECT , The Matanuska Colony was one of 100 resettlement programs. Familiar with cold temperatures and snow, 200 families with 500 children were selected from the Upper Great Lakes region. Because most were of Scandinavian descent from norther Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan (an additional family came from Oklahoma) they were considered most likely to succeed in Alaska., [Limited photo captions; center photos to right, below FDR, read] , . The Robert Usher family is ready to start. Their household belongings are loaded into the Welfare truck, but the dogs are not pleased with the idea of getting into their crate., . The Thomas Snyder family of Arcadia packing to leave. Billy would like to take his pet lamb. Tom Snyder swapped his manure pile for the Marlin rifle seen at the left., [Most of remaining photos have no captions, or are not legible in photo]