Page museum lures winter visitors

Jan. 28, 2007

By Russell Stigall

Frontiersman

WASILLA - Open winters and free on Fridays, the Dorothy G. Page Museum encourages Mat-Su residents to learn about Wasilla's rich past.

It has been four years since visitors could while away a winter day perusing the exhibits at the Dorothy Page.

&#8220The winter opening is going very well,” museum Registrar Scott Neel said. Fifty people came in during January, with last Friday drawing the largest single-day crowd: eight visitors.

The healthy Friday numbers were helped by the museum's free Friday admission for Mat-Su residents (with identification). The offer started in October, and runs at least through the summer.

&#8220We'll probably need a full year to see how it goes,” Neel said. &#8220But it is doing what we wanted it to do, which is bring in locals who haven't been in before.”

A new traveling exhibit is set to arrive at the museum in April. The exhibit is called Alaska Positive, and features Alaska photos from primarily Alaska photographers. A well-known photographer from New Mexico selected the prints.

The exhibit is large and will cover the entire traveling exhibit area. Acquired through the Alaska State Museum, Alaska Positive will be at the Dorothy G. Page until September.

In addition to its new winter opening and the upcoming exhibit, the museum has undergone recent updates to its exterior.

Last year, contractor George Greeno affixed new roofs to two of the museum's buildings and restored the outside of another. The restoration left the building's appearance intact.

&#8220The work was needed to protect the building and artifacts,” Neel said.

The Dorothy Page Museum building began life in 1931 as a community hall.

It was the center for social functions, dances, political meetings and basketball games until the structure began to deteriorate in the 1960s.

After repairs, the building was founded as the Dorothy G. Page Museum in 1967, Wasilla's first museum.

The museum's namesake was Dorothy Page, who lived in Alaska from 1960 to her death in 1989. Page is known as the mother of the Iditarod.

She worked with Joe Redington Sr. to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United States' purchase of Alaska with &#8220a spectacular dog race to wake Alaskans up to what mushers and their dogs had done for Alaska,” according to the museum's Web site.

Page also helped form both the Iditarod Trail Committee and the Mushers Hall of Fame. Page was picked as honorary musher for Iditarod 25.

During his first year as registrar, Neel installed an updated exhibit on the Iditarod, &#8220The last great race on Earth.”

The exhibit includes panels on Page, Redington, the history of the trail's tuberculosis serum run of 1925, and a listing of past Iditarod winners.

Coming soon is an exhibit by museum aide Margaret Rogers on the controversy of moving the capital from Juneau to Willow.

&#8220She'll go into why it keeps making an appearance every two years,” Neel said.

Rogers will hang her exhibit in the capitol cabin in Wasilla's historic town site.

Besides the main museum building, the site has seven other buildings: the capitol cabin, the original school house, the Herning-Teeland-Mead house, better known as the Teeland House; the city sauna, the Shorty Gustafson barn, a blacksmith shop, the Walter Trensch cabin and the Paddy Marion cabin.

Like its community hall beginnings, the museum's buildings play host to many current day social functions.

As the museum's only winter staff member, Neel is in process of setting up for the annual Parent Teacher Student Association art show, and an Iditarod-theme show featuring local artists.

Fran Seager-Boss, Mat-Su archaeologist and cultural resource specialist, gives lectures at the museum once a year in April for archaeology month. After the lectures, attendees can help Seager-Boss with an excavation.

Regular museum admission is $3 for adults, $2.50 for seniors, and kids up to 13 get in for free.

For more information, interested people can contact Scott Neel at 373-9071 or

museum@ci.wasilla.ak.us

Contact Russell Stigall at 352-2267 or russell.stigall@frontiersman.com