Pioneer woman

PALMER — Ida Stadler turned 100 years old this month. She didn't like living in Alaska when she moved here in 1945, but has since grown quite fond of the people who have helped her reach triple digits.

Ida Stadler was born in Watkins, Montana on March 10, 1918. She married her husband Emil and moved to Alaska in 1945.

"I didn't like it,” Stadler recalled. “The bedroom was a bit bigger than a clothes closet. We came up on the Denali boat that brought the GI's back from the war.”

Ida found work wherever she could, waiting tables and cooking at the co-op restaurant. When Emil found work at the mines, Ida followed to cook for the camp. Sometimes she would work in the kitchen from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. Together they worked at the Fern Mine and the Red Devil Mine on the Kuskokwim river for a year, the Jonesville and the Independence Mines. They rented a shack in Palmer for about six months while Emil built them a basement that would later become their home. Ida's father-in-law, a carpenter, came to help finish the house on Alaska Street.

Emil would later work as a groundskeeper at the Palmer Pioneer Home. Ida said he was proud of the hedge he put in all around the Pioneer Home property. It did not take long for Ida to take a liking to Alaska, once she got busy. Emil owned a plane and they would fly out to fish, climbing down into a fishing hole and limiting out every time. Ida said that they had some friends on the Kenai river, whom they would drive down to see and get some smoked salmon from.

Ida enjoyed fishing, but did not have the same love for hunting. While her husband would harvest a moose seemingly every year, he brought her along and asked her to shoot a moose one year. It did not go as planned.

"I went right up to that moose he wanted me to shoot and I aimed at the thing and he looked right at me and I couldn't shoot it," said Stadler. "I walked up to it and that moose said 'moo' and he looked at me and I said, ‘you're never going to get me to shoot that moose.’"

Ida also worked at Koslosky's grocery store and later, the bank. Her husband Emil died in 2006. They would walk down Chugach Street toward the river and the farm three times a week. Ida credits her active lifestyle for her long life. She never smoked, she claims she was not a big eater, although she does enjoy a cup of ice cream now and again. She takes a small sip of wine every night.

"Alaska's been good to us," said Ida.

Ida continues to be surrounded by friends and family at her Palmer assisted living home. She does her own laundry and cleans her own space and will frequently take walks down the halls to visit with others.

"I've had no trouble making friends with people here and I've had the best friends that I've had anywhere that I've ever lived,” said Ida. “There’s a lot of nice people around here."