Peek at the Past: As it appeared in the Aug. 30, 1973, Frontiersman

Fair nears halfway mark on way to record crowd

"Wall to wall people" was the way one Alaska State Fair board member described the midway last Sunday at the fairgrounds. Sunny skies pulled a record-breaking crowd of between 27,000 and 30,000 out of their houses and to the fair.

Fair officials have hopes of breaking the magical 100,000 total this year. The closest the fair has come to the 100,000 goal was 97,195, set last year.

One of the high points of the fair to date has been the thrilling grandstand show, the first such performance held on the Palmer grounds. The show will continue twice daily throughout the fair.

City industrial park grant up for review

The city of Palmer is scheduled Sept. 12 for a preapplication hearing on its $400,000 industrial park grant request, city manager Bill Curtis said.

Normally, he said, if a request gets past this hearing, it will be approved for funding. He said he was hoping for similar action with this grant.

The city proposes to use the 80 percent grant for sewer, water, road, power and railroad improvements on the 120-acre park site on the southern border of Palmer

In the classified section, you could have found some deals on real estate. A log cabin on two acres in downtown Talkeetna, with 330-feet of Main Street frontage, was priced at $11,500, or $9,000 in cash.

A two-bedroom home just minutes from Anchorage, with a small outbuilding as a garage, was listed at $12,500.

At Koslosky's, you could buy 10 pounds of Alaska-grown potatoes for $1.59, apples for 39 cents a pound and a two-pound bag of carrots for 39 cents. A bag of potato chips cost 69 cents.