July 5, 2014 - Palmer, Alaska (YRE-0648)

Today was a gorgeous sunny day in the upper 70's, so we drove up to Palmer to do the 10k YRE with Linda. Palmer, population 6,000, is located in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley 45 miles north of Anchorage.

Wikipedia provides part of the following history:

The first people to live in the Matanuska Valley, where Palmer is located, were the Dena'ina and Ahtna Athabaskans. They moved throughout the area, living a subsistence lifestyle and trading with other native groups. Their trade routes were along the Matanuska River. Russians came to Alaska in 1741 and brought the Russian Orthodox religious tradition to the indigenous peoples of the region. In the mid-1880s, an entrepreneur named George W. Palmer built a trading post on the Matanuska River, near present-day Palmer. 

In the late 19th century, the U.S. government began to take interest in the Matanuska coal fields located north of Palmer. This interest sparked financiers to consider constructing the Alaska Central Railroad in 1904. The advent of World War I created a need for high quality coal to fuel U.S. battleships, and by 1917 the US Navy had constructed rail from the port of Seward to the Chickaloon coal deposits. At the end of WWI, the U.S. Navy distributed land in the coal fields to war veterans and additional land was opened to homesteading. Farmers, miners and homesteaders began to populate the area. With railroad accessibility, new markets for agriculture began to open up for farmers in the Matanuska Valley.

In 1935, Palmer transformed from a mere whistle stop rail siding to a planned community with modern utilities and community services. Eleven million dollars was spent under FDR's New Deal to create the town of Palmer and relocate 203 families from the hard hit Iron Range region of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Families traveled by train and ship to Palmer, arriving in May 1935. Upon their arrival they were housed in a tent city during their first Alaskan summer. Each family drew lots for 40-acre tracts and their farming adventure began in earnest.

The failure rate was high, but many of their descendants still live in the area and there are still many operating farms in the Palmer area. (For those families who wished to leave, free transportation back home was provided. In the first two months, 25 families took up this offer. By 1939, some two-thirds of the original colonists had left.) "Colony Days" is celebrated every June to commemorate this resettlement.

In addition to an agrarian heritage, the colony families brought with them Midwest America's small-town values, institutional structures, and a well-planned city center reminiscent of their old hometowns in Minnesota. Many of the structures built are now in a nationally recognized historic district.

We started at the Palmer Museum of History and Art. It is small, but packed with interesting exhibits about the lives of the colonists. Shortly afterwards, we passed one of the original colony houses that has been restored and turned into a museum. We also passed the Church of 1000 Trees, a log-cabin style church finished in 1937. 

The Church of 1000 Trees

Pioneer Peak

We were treated to some spectacular views of the Chugach Mountains, and Pioneer Peak (6400 ft.) in particular. Upon returning to the Palmer Museum to complete the first loop, we saw the Agricultural Showcase Garden, which is part of the Museum. The garden contains a wide selection of flowers and vegetables that provide a glimpse of what can be grown under the midnight sun in Alaska. 

The Agricultural Showcase Garden

Sculptures of giant vegetables

The second loop took us to the historic Palmer Depot. Then we walked down a dirt road past some of the original structures from the Colony period.
 

The Depot

We walked past part of the downtown commercial area. There were some interesting shops and restaurants here. I would have liked to spend more time in this area, but we only walked here for two or three blocks. Then we walked quite a distance on a boring busy road. We passed a farm, but you couldn't really see anything. We walked a long distance past the airport, then we eventually passed several state office buildings, including the courthouse. At this point we had trouble following the directions, but we were very close to the Museum, so we just finished the walk and went to Turkey Red for a delightful lunch.

Walk Route: C+
This walk has a lot of potential. The Museum, Colony House, and downtown are charming and fun to visit. The long walk on Outer Springer Loop, with speeding traffic and no sidewalks was unpleasant and boring. It would have been nicer to turn right on the bike path about halfway along the north-south stretch of Cope Industrial Way and make up the distance by visiting the arboretum. 

The second loop was disappointing. More time in the downtown area and less time on E. Arctic Avenue would have been better. I really hope someone will try to work on the route. This could become a much nicer walk with a few changes.

Walk Instructions: D
We got lost/confused at step 5 and we got really confused at about step 50 and were not able to follow steps 50-56. Maybe if the route had been marked on the map . . . Step 25 says to stay on the left side, but there is no sidewalk there, while there is a sidewalk on the right side.
The map is not helpful. The route is not marked on the map. The street names are very hard to read and you can't always easily find street names on the map. Perhaps having one map for the first 6k and a second map for the last 4k would allow large enough maps to be able to clearly mark the route.