History Night: ‘They Arrived on the Train’

PALMER — Palmer historian Pat Durand categories Alaskan history, particularly here in the Mat-Su Valley, into two periods: “BC: before the colony” and “AA: after arrival.”

He presented a historic “photo journey” titled, “They Arrived on the Train, Living along the Right of Way – Matanuska to Palmer 1916-1940” at the Palmer Historical Society’s first History Night after the summer break, Wednesday at the Palmer Moose Lodge.

“It’s fun. We spend evenings at home with my grandsons doing this. It’s imagining the experience of the time; how did we get there?” Durand said.

Durand flicked through several black and white and sepia-toned photos he obtained through the state’s digital archives which are in the public domain and are available to anyone. Using his slideshow with hand-picked photos from the archive, he lectured though the major milestones of the Alaska Railroads birth and interconnected fate with the emerging waves of settlers, answering questions throughput and connecting with the history buffs and living remnants of history around him, the colony kids and grandkids, often asking the crowd questions like, “remember this? Or, “has anyone heard of this?”

“Pat has an incredible memory and storytelling ability,” Palmer Historical Society president, Sheri Hamming said.

He said if anyone in the room wanted to “kill the next 3 years of your life looking at these things,” it was an easy thing to do since there’s such an expansive library and it’s “addicting” once you start looking really close at an old photo, seeing a whole story within and tied to it.

“This was all developed and took place before the colony,” Durand said.

He showed several old shots family photos on original homesteads across the Mat-Su, many shots with train tracks in the frame. Prior to colonization, most of the life in Alaska, the Mat-Su included, was very much tied to the tracks and most major posts, towns and settlements were often close to a train station.

“All these places, you could step off the train and be in their front yard,” Durand said. “Everything was referenced as a mile post on the railroad or how far it was from the experimental station,” Durand said.

The first railroad building put up north of Anchorage was at the (now historic) Matanuska town site, according to Durand. He said that Matanuska was developed by the railroad. The first train in the Mat-Su Valley arrived at Matanuska junction sept, 27, 1916; this was 19 years before the colonial farmers chased their New Deal to Palmer.

In 1916, Palmer didn’t exist and was just the name of the post office. As the town we know as Palmer started to develop, it went thorough cycle of names before Palmer finally won out. Before the iconic Palmer Train Depot became the center of town with the long retired Engine #1 on display- Wasilla, Moose Creek were established by the railroad after successfully breaking into the Mat-Su.

Now a shell of its former self, and just a few old houses at the bottom of a hill off the Old Glenn Highway, the once lively Matanuska even had a restaurant at the end of the train station.

“My idea here was just to share the wealth of information that’s available in that photography, if you have an interest digging in it,” Durand said. “And I enjoy sharing it with you all.”

The public is welcome to hear more stories like Durand’s from other Palmer Historical Society members. They hold History Night events every third Wednesday of the month and attendance is free. For more information, visit www.palmerhistoricalsociety.org.