Tex-Al Drive, the beginning

Last year’s road bond issue including Tex-Al Drive recalled the beginning of the road to those who built well over a half mile of it. In 1970, Joy and Michael Foster and Bill France purchased 40 acres off Wasilla Fishhook Road. The property was raw forested land with no road to it. The Fosters and France divided the acreage into four lots. The Fosters took the north 20 acres further divided it into one 10 acre and two five acre lots. In 1971, seven years after Mat-Su Borough was formed, they began to develop their land.

The first task was to check out available maps of the area. At a State Land Office in Palmer they discovered a seismic line was near one of the section line markers they must find. The marker was up the hill from Wasilla Fishhook Road across from its intersection with Welch Road. The starting point to locate the marker was a guess using the seismic line and Welch Road intersection with Fishhook as landmarks. The new road would run east from Wasilla Fishhook. Section Line markers were hiding in the brush and weeds among the birch and spruce trees. The hunt for the hidden markers started at the edge of the seismic line clearance up the hill from Wasilla-Fishhook Road. A few hours of walking circles along an easterly path discovered the first section line marker. . A section line marker was 2-inch pipe sticking out of the ground a foot or so with a cap on top.

Once the marker was found, Bill France’s with his builder’s transit along with Joy and Michael plotted the center line of the road, adjusting for the variable of true north versus magnetic north. The true east line of sight was established using tall marker stakes to get above the brush and terrain. A view shot from the top of a hill easterly downward gave them the search area for the second section line marker. It was at the corner of their property and the corner of what would become the Tex-Al Drive and Steen Road intersection. Lamar and Nancy Steen and Ralph and Sharon Kilborn extended Tex-Al Drive beyond the Foster’s garden drive-way to the intersection of what became Steen Road.

Neal Brown and his D8 Cat built the new road east from Wasilla-Fishhook Road, scraping off the top soil, brush and trees down to gravel and leveling it some. The Fosters named the road Tex-Al Drive (Texas-Alaska). Both Joy and Michael have family in Texas. The Fosters moved a house trailer onto the land and established a commercial green house and truck farm operation.

It was adventurous living. During breakup Tex-Al drive became a lake. Joy drove the Foster’s children, Pasha and Shannon, to the school bus stop at Wasilla Fishhook Road. To get past the lake the girls were put in the bucket loader on the front of a tractor and driven to the bus stop.

The Fosters took care of a horse named Flicka for her owner. Sometimes, Joy rode Flicka easterly, past the garden drive-way and on to moose trails through the woods. She rode to Jimmy and Pia Contini’s farm on Palmer Fishhook Road where she learned a lot about green-housing and gardening in Alaska.

A 1977 greenhouse fire set the Fosters off in a different direction. Joy Foster, now Joy Goodyear, still gardens a little when she is able and has plenty of recollections of life along the beginning of Tex-Al Drive.