Matanuska Colony Barn

My hopes of a mountain view were almost dashed by the moderate rain in the Matanuska Valley today. I have felt very anxious since I did not post a landscape yesterday. I began biting my nails when scintilla posted a very nice view of Pioneer Peak.

Farming in Alaska got it's kick-start in the mid 1930's. As part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, many farmland colonies were established in the Matanuska Valley.

The US government moved farm families from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, those struck hardest by the great depression of 1930, to a new land, in a fertile Alaskan valley with the melodic name of Matanuska.

The first of the over 200 families arrived at Palmer on May 10, 1935 to establish what became to be known as the Valley Colonies. Not all of the colony farm homesteads survived, but the Matanuska Valley became the farming heartland of Alaska.

Now still, the valley is the state's leading producer of potatoes, carrots, lettuce, cabbage and other vegetables, and has a reputation for producing record-size vegetables, especially cabbages that weight as much as 60 pounds and turnips that weight 5 to 10 pounds.

The small barn you see here is an original colony farm building and is characteristic of the design from that time. You can pick out the old colony farm homesteads by finding the barn. I found four of these today around Palmer. Here is another.


Matanuska Valley Colony Barn, Palmer, Alaska (google maps)