Oldest living Colonist celebrates century Sept. 6

PALMER — Guests celebrated Minnie Olson’s 100th birthday Aug. 31 in the Wineck Barn at the Alaska State Fair with birthday cake and memories.

The oldest living Colonist from the Palmer project lives in Kentucky now and will share in this Alaska celebration through photos, video and cards signed by old friends and well-wishers from around the world.

Filmmaker Joan Juster is host to twice-daily showings of “Alaska Far Away” in the Wineck Barn at the fair. And made a second film, “Where the Matanuska River Flows,” from the information they’d gathered from interviews with Colonists, Colonist children and their descendants.

It was Juster who organized the party at the Wineck Barn Wednesday in honor of Olson’s 100th birthday, which is Sept. 6. And she also put together a care package with the signed cards and photos from the gathering and sent it to Olson.

Walter and Minnie Olson came to the Palmer Colony from Minnesota in 1935.

“We’re sending her a virtual party,” Juster said. “A 100 is something many people don’t get to do.”

Juster and Paul Hill began working on the documentary since in 1994 when a trip to Alaska and a stay at Jim Fox’s house led to an intriguing conversation with his grandmother, Irene Benson, who was part of the Colony project.

Earl Wineck and Wayne Bouwens were among the guests at the party sharing stories about their lives and the early days of the Colony project.

“This just seemed like a great reason to get people together,” Juster said. “We’re losing them fast.”

The first Colonists got off the train in Palmer May 10, 1935, and the government project was over by 1939.

“These people have just been living their lives ever since,” Juster said.

But once a Colonist, always a Colonist, said Wineck, 84. It’s been part of his identity since he was 8 years old and moved to Palmer with his family, including father Ed Wineck, who built the barn and many others in the Butte area in the summer of 1936.

“This is our heritage right here,” Juster said. “And to have it here in the barn — how fabulous is that?”

While Alaska Far Away played on a TV screen in the front of the barn, Wineck told guests stories about milking cows in the barn as a boy and about how his dad decide to donate the barn to the fair.

“Dad was after me to fix up the barn,” Wineck said. “I told him I’d read in the paper the fair was looking for Colony buildings.”

So his father contacted the fair and eventually donated the barn.

Earl Wineck said he was working in Talkeetna and wasn’t there when his father guided crews through the process of cutting the barn into sections to transport from Track 175 in the Butte to the fairgrounds. He was there Aug. 28, 1977, for Ed Wineck Day at the Alaska State Fair.

“Alaska Far Away” plays Monday with showings at noon and 5 p.m.

For more information, visit alaskafaraway.com.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or at 352-2268.