Colony Days offers a look at Valley’s rich history

There will be a parade, games and numerous other events during Palmer’s Colony Days weekend that starts today. Ideally, what won’t be lost is why there is such a celebration each year. This event is more special this year because it marks the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the first Colonists from the northern Midwest to take a chance on farming in the then-remote Matanuska Valley.

They chose to leave their homes in the Lower 48 to try to make it here instead of weathering the storm of the Great Depression that was choking the nation, Wind-blown farms during the Depression forced many to move to California. That exodus spawned John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winner novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.”

When the Colonists arrived to the Territory of Alaska, things weren’t as bad as another book called the agricultural devastation, “Darkness at Noon,” but the environment was difficult.

Some farmers got the luck of the draw and were given plots close to the small community of Matanuska at a spot near the railroad to Anchorage. Others were handed plots farther into the woods. Farmers had to clear trees and build homes for their families that made the move.

There were deadly fires and diseases that killed children because there was no hospital to care for them. Not all of those colonists succeeded. Some threw in the towel and went back to a struggling, but familiar, place.

The ones who stayed and thrived through hardships are who we are celebrating this weekend.

One spot that should be on your list is a visit to the Palmer Visitor Center and Museum, where there will be information and photographs from the days of the mid-1930s. Visiting the Colony House Museum on Saturday and Sunday will give you a taste of what homes looked like when the families settled in to start new lives.

There will likely be some “Colony kids” at the Matanuska Colony reunion Saturday evening who can give first-person accounts of what it was like growing up true pioneers.

Yes, there will be many fun things to do like an egg toss and kararoke contests — and plenty to eat — but at some point, we should remember the sacrifices the Colony families made to help settle the area.

For a complete list of events, see Page A2. For more on the 75th anniversary of the Matanuska colonists, see today’s Valley Life section, page A9.