Helen Hegener

The 1935 Matanuska Colony Project: the Remarkable History of a New Deal Experiment in Alaska Helen Hegener

In 1935 the U. S. Government transported 200 families from the Great Depression-stricken upper midwest to a valley of unparalleled beauty in Alaska, where they were given the chance to begin new lives as part of a federally-funded social experiment. The 1935 Matanuska Colony Project, subtitled ?The Remarkable History of a New Deal Experiment in Alaska," shares the enduring legacy of this all-but-forgotten chapter in American history, when the U. S. government took a direct hand in the lives of thousands of its citizens, offering Depression-distraught farm families an opportunity to start over in a far-off land with government financing and support. The Matanuska Colony was not the only government rural rehabilitation project; it was in fact only one of a multitude of complex, ambitious and controversial programs initiated under Franklin Roosevelt?s New Deal Federal Rural Development Program, and other resettlement projects included Dyess Colony, Arkansas; Arthurdale, West Virginia; the Phoenix Homesteads in Arizona; and similar colonies in over a dozen other states. Although fraught with inevitable bureaucratic entanglements, frustrating delays, and a variety of other distractions, the Matanuska Colony actually thrived for the most part, and nearly 200 families remained to raise their families and make their permanent homes in Alaska. Highways were built, the wide Matanuska and Knik Rivers were bridged, and the town of Palmer became the center of commerce and society in the Valley. By 1948, production from the Colony Project farms provided over half of the total Alaskan agricultural products sold. Today the Matanuska Valley draws worldwide attention for its colorful agricultural heritage and its uniquely orchestrated history. This book tells the story of that history.