a Great Place to Call Home

For thousands of years, the riches of the Matanuska River valley sustained settlement in this area. Copper River Ahtna native people found the Matanuska River Valley rich in game and fish and a natural trade route between tidewater and interior Alaska, and a network of trails came through Palmer connecting numerous Athabascan villages. Those same routes were later used by prospectors, traders, and trappers. Prospectors went into the mountains to look for gold and minerals, and early trading posts were established on the shores of Knik Arm and the Matanuska River to supply the area. The development of large mines such as the Independence Mine brought more economic activity and a growing population. A government expedition in 1898 found coal reserves east of Palmer, and the Matanuska coal fields helped generate construction of the Alaska Railroad in 1915. By 1917 the Alaska Railroad was built through Palmer to the Matanuska coal fields; besides hauling coal, it expanded markets for homesteaders' crops and in 1935 brought colonists to Palmer. The 1935 Matanuska Colony Project, one of 104 New Deal community projects of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, brought 201 families from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan to Palmer to build a new community dedicated to a cooperative agricultural enterprise. This project helped settle the area and establish agriculture to support the growing population, and Palmer emerged as a strong community that remains the heart of agriculture in Alaska.

Palmer, Alaska · United States