Nonagenarian remembers early days

Dec. 1, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Doris Dearborn, who will turn 91 in January, remembers arriving at the experimental farm on Trunk Road in 1950.

&#8220It was pretty cold,” Dearborn said from her home on Trunk Road, just up from where she and her family first roosted in the Valley.

Her husband, Curtis, drove the whole way from Geneva, N.Y., pulling a tarp-covered two-wheel trailer behind the family car.

&#8220The twins were 7 or 8 years old, Jay was almost 2 and the baby was 2 months old,” Dearborn said. &#8220Guess what I did the whole way up.”

There was no snow on the ground here when the family arrived just before Thanksgiving, but they'd driven through snow and temperatures down to 20 below on the two-week drive north. They took their time, and tried to make it a pleasant trip to their new life in Alaska.

&#8220We even stopped so the kids could see a movie in Canada,” she said.

Dearborn grew up on a farm in New Hampshire, just outside Laconia, so she'd been digging in dirt and planting things her whole life, and she'd traveled with her husband when he was first in the U.S. Army.

&#8220He was a major and had a Ph.D. from Cornell,” she said. &#8220So he was Dr. Major or a major doctor.”

He came to the Palmer experimental station in May or June of that year, scouting out the Valley to see if it was suitable for raising a family.

&#8220This intrigued him here,” she said. &#8220He was an outdoor

person.”

The Dearborns lived in the brown house at the experimental station for about 10 years, then built their own home and greenhouse.

With five or six other families living at the station, it was easy to make friends, Dearborn said. The Dearborn children blended with the other children and took up skating, skiing and sledding at the station, she said.

&#8220We even put up an outdoor light for the flooded skating rink,” she said.

Describing her home in Alaska to her family back East wasn't difficult.

&#8220I could see mountains from our house in New Hampshire,” she said. &#8220And Geneva was in the Catskills. There were a few more mountains here, and it was colder.”

The notorious Valley winds weren't unusual for the family.

&#8220My husband was brought up on top of a hill,” she said. &#8220I don't mind 50 mph winds, but when it gets up to 70 and 80, I don't like that.”

The seismic activity in the area was a new experience, though.

&#8220We kind of like the little earthquakes,” she said.

With a nine-man tent, the Dearborns camped around the state, north past Fairbanks, around Tok and down the Kenai Peninsula.

&#8220All the family enjoyed hunting and fishing and plants,” Dearborn said.

They made wild game a major part of their diet, with a freezer full of moose, caribou and fish, she said.

&#8220You could dipnet the Knik,” she said. &#8220We had a bathtub full of fish.”

Sometimes, Dearborn would go with her husband as he traveled for work, visiting rural Alaska.

&#8220We went to Unalakleet and Nome,” she said. &#8220We have the fondest memory of Nome. It was sunny and 70 degrees.”

Her four children did well in school, with the twins graduating as salutatorian and valedictorian.

&#8220There were good schools for the kids,” she said. &#8220And very nice teachers. I had no

complaints.”

Three children live Outside now, but Dearborn shares her plant-filled home with her son, Jay, who takes care of the greenhouse.

&#8220The house is always full of plants,” she said. &#8220I plant and transplant for the greenhouse right here in the kitchen.”

Although she had to give up driving a couple of years ago, Dearborn keeps up the exercise with the help of a wheeled walker.

&#8220I try to go around the house 25 to 26 times,” she said. &#8220At 100 steps each time, I figure that's about a half mile.”

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.