Hanging in: Sutton couple will move into trailer on their land if Matanuska claims home

SUTTON — Ed and Val Musial haven’t given up the ship, so to speak. Despite the relentless rushing of the Matanuska River past their small, single-story home just north of Sutton, the couple remains steadfast against moving.

The Musials homesteaded the property back in the 1950s, cleared it and built their current home a couple of years later. Like many property owners along the Matanuska, they’ve watched the river claim parts of their land over the years. Ed and Val, 94 and 90-years-old, respectively, became inundated by media outlets over the Fourth of July holiday.

Incessant rain during the previous three weeks combined with glacier meltwater resulted in a marked rise in the Matanuska, resulting in slow but steady bank erosion. That erosion, which claimed an unoccupied log home just down the Glenn Highway, was inching its way toward the Musial home and garage.

Over Independence Day, the river bank had encroached to within several feet of the couple’s home. The walk along the backside of the house was a few feet from the river’s edge. The slate gray water had claimed a part of a garden retaining wall. As of Thursday afternoon, the bank had eroded under that walkway and the garden—not to mention the retaining wall—was gone.

Val Musial said the water level has receded from its high mark of several weeks ago.

“I can see my drain line again,” Val said referring to the plastic pipe jutting out of the glacial bank. “That’s what I use to gauge if the water is going up or down.”

She and Ed don’t dare venture out their back door for fear of the walk—the last guardian before the home’s block foundation—giving way. Despite the threat, Val Musial was busy preparing lunch as she talked to the Frontiersman for an update. Val said the outpouring of support the couple received after word of their plight got out has been phenomenal.

“People have been just great. I’ve had so many (visitors),” Val said. “Someone came over and volunteered to mow our (very large) yard. It took them two days. I forgot how pretty my yard was.”

Musial said she and Ed used to take walk-behind mowers and keep up on ground maintenance.

“We had two of them and they broke down last fall,” Val said. “I took them to the scrap metal guy. Ed said we were through mowing until they fixed the river.”

Val said people from as far as Anchorage have contacted the couple with offers. She said they included everything from helping pack boxes to bringing in construction dump trucks to haul large rock to help shore up the ever-eroding bank.

“The man from Rufus Trucking (in Anchorage) gave me his number and told me whenever I need help, just call him,” Val said.

Musual said she and Ed are considering putting some type of natural riprap up to slow the river’s tug at the bank. She said the couple was supposed to be meeting with US Army Corp of Engineers officials out of Anchorage sometime Thursday afternoon.

“We can do that. But we need more than gravel. We can put rocks in there,” Val said.

The couple is on record stating they have no desire to move and just want the house to remain in place as long as they are around.

Val said they considered moving the home.

“They told us they would have to jackhammer the fireplace. Then we have to connect our water and sewer and move the electrical line,” Val said. “Ed doesn’t collect Social Security and has never taken a penny from the PFD. All he has is his labor pension.”

She said by the time the couple paid for all the needed work to move the house and garage, it just didn’t make sense. Val said they have resolved to live in a trailer on their land if the river wins the battle.

“Ed is going to be 95 in November. I’m 90. I don’t think we have very much longer to live,” Val said. “We just want to stay in our home.”

Contact reporter Chris Ford at 352-2270 or chris.ford@frontiersman.com