GROWING CONCERN

MAT-SU — Three-quarters of a century after colonization, the Matanuska Valley is still a growing concern.

The area’s agriculture roots delve deeply, predating the 1935 Colonists who first traveled to the Valley to literally carve out a new life, said Gerry Keeling, director of the Colony House Museum in Palmer. Homesteaders had tried to make a go of it in the area as early as 1914, but it was the first wave of newcomers that arrived as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal that kick-started what has become Alaska’s breadbasket.

The 204 families were assigned 40-acre plots — and in some cases 80 acres — to farm, she said. And of those roughly 8,160 acres, less than 2 percent were cleared before the families arrived.

“I read recently that of the land that had been surveyed out into the … tracts that only 175 total acres had been cleared,” she said. “So, a lot of that land had been tree-covered. There’s a lot of truth to that” notion the farmers literally carved out their futures.

Despite Alaska’s short growing season, the Colonists soon learned that the mild summers and long days of sunlight are a winning combination, she said. They grew a “wide variety” of crops, including potatoes, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, green peas and, of course, cabbage.

Long before the Alaska State Fair Giant Cabbage Weight-Off became the international spectacle it is today, growers were fascinated with the friendly competition involved in producing the heftiest heads.

Max Sherrod, an original member of the Colony who first came up to Alaska as a nurse before delving into agriculture, may be considered by some the father of giant cabbage growing. He won $2 at the first Matanuska Valley Fair in 1936 when he weighed in with a prize-winning 23-pound cabbage.

That wouldn’t hold a candle to today’s giants. In 2009, Wasilla dentist Steve Hubacek smashed the world record and claimed a $2,000 prize by weighing in with a massive 127-pound cabbage.

Those first settlers “never would have dreamed of what has evolved over the years,” Keeling said. “I remember seeing a celery stalk once that was over 60 pounds. It looked like a small shrub.”

The Colonists had a fan in Col. Otto F. Ohlson, head of the Alaska Railroad, who offered a cash prize to the first farmer who could produce either a 25-pound or 50-pound cabbage. Again, it was Sherrod who stepped up to the challenge. Sherrod’s passion for agriculture is remembered by his grandson, Bradley Lewis, who is a third-generation Valley farmer. And those early prize-winning efforts may have had a little help, he said.

“What might have helped (Sherrod) was, somehow, he was able to obtain a few of those OS Cross seeds,” Lewis said, referring to a specific variety of large cabbage. “He might have been the first to get some of those seeds.”

The climate is also ideal, Lewis said, adding that he can only imagine the hardships those first farmers faced in clearing and planting their first crops.

“They went through all the hard stuff, that’s for sure,” he said. “They laid the foundation and all the groundwork. I guess I’ll call myself a third-generation Alaska farmer, and obviously I’ve got it a lot easier than they did.”

With a rich history in the Matanuska Valley, agriculture is still an important industry today, Lewis said, but he has concerns about its future.

“You know, in some ways I am concerned,” he said. “I would say the two biggest concerns I have are land that is disappearing to development and also fewer and fewer new generations of folks continuing to farm. For example, I have two sons and they — probably rightly so — have chosen engineering fields, so I’ll be the last Lewis to farm.”

The legacy of those first Colony farmers is all across the Valley and state, Keeling said.

“I would say it’s a multiple legacy,” she said. “It certainly played an enormous role in clearing the land, but it also brought family infrastructure to the area.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

Editor’s note: This year marks the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Depression Era Colonists to the Valley. This is the third in a summer-long series recognizing the anniversary, published each Friday.