Snider family honored at ceremony

WASILLA — Gerrit “Heinie” and Alice Snider owned quite a bit of what has since grown up to become downtown Wasilla.

“They did so much for our community,” Mayor Verne Rupright said Wednesday at a ceremony dedicating part of Wonderland Park in their honor. “The Snider family ought to be very proud of their forbearers.”

In the 1930s, the Sniders donated a 30-acre parcel for a small airstrip in Wasilla. That airport closed in 1993 and the state transferred the old Wasilla airstrip to the city of Wasilla in 1996 for public purposes, according to a resolution adopted by the Wasilla City Council Sept. 26, 2011.

“Whereas, Mr. Snider’s most generous and forward thinking donation to the future generations of Wasilla has added immeasurable value to the families and visitors of our wonderful city, the name of Snider deserves the respect, appreciation, and honor of recognition and acknowledgement,” the resolution says.

The resolution concludes by announcing a name change for the existing Iditapark Complex property, to the “Gerrit “Heinie” Snider Memorial Homestead Property.”

Despite the howling winds, numerous members of the Snider clan gathered around the plaque Wednesday with Rupright to take photos and celebrate the name change honoring their family.

The city also commissioned brass reliefs of both Sniders from Palmer artist Pat Garley.

In addition to donating the airstrip, the Sniders also were instrumental in getting the city’s first library built. Heine Snider wrote about the library in papers at the Wasilla Museum, which Rupright read from during his remarks.

“We read about the great warships that are built, the atom bomb, the hydrogen bomb and then we read that Russia has them, too. So, we live in darkness and in fear. If we only could find a book in the library that would give us, not just a past time, but would give us a feeling that all may be well. Is there such a book? Is there?” Snider wrote. “Yes! In the library of the British Museum is the Kodex Sanactacan, a Greek translation of the Bible — the most valuable of all manuscripts — and two of the oldest Bibles.”