A typical Colony scene.
The 1935 Matanuska Colony Project, developed near present-day Palmer, Alaska, was part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal for America, an unprecedented series of economic programs designed to provide aid to people reeling from the Great Depression. Nearly one hundred new communities were designed and developed by Roosevelt’s planners, but the largest, most expensive, and most audacious of them all was to build a government-sponsored farming community in Alaska’s Matanuska Valley.
A Northern Light Media website presents the detailed history of the Colony, as written in the 2016 book by Helen Hegener, “A Mighty Nice Place,” The History of the 1935 Matanuska Colony Project. The site combines the history of the Matanuska Valley and the government’s Colony Project with the remarkable photographs of A.R.R.C. photographer Willis T. Geisman, who was charged with documenting every aspect of the venture and recording the events surrounding the Matanuska Colony Project.
The site currently presents the first six chapters of the book, from ‘A History of the Land,’ to ‘Bound for Alaska,’ when the 200 families departed for their new northern homes. Click here to visit the website.
The History of the 1935 Matanuska Colony Project
“A Mighty Nice Place,” The History of the 1935 Matanuska Colony Project, by Helen Hegener, shares the complete history of the planning and establishment of the Matanuska Colony. Published in November, 2016 by Northern Light Media. 276 pages, 120 photos, 6″ x 9″ b/w format. $24.95 plus $5.00 First Class shipping.
$29.95
Northern Light Media 