Kenai to Palmer, AK

This is the Church of 1,000 Logs in Palmer, built by the "Matanuska Colonists" who settled in Palmer in 1935. A government program created over 100 colonies late in the depression era, most of them in the US South. This settlement in Palmer was the only one in Alaska and the colonists all came from Northern MN, MI and WI (mostly Scandanavian, the government thought that they were best suited for the Alaska climate). Each was given 40 acres of land, a house and some out-buildings. They were to farm the land to see if would support agriculture and eventually pay back the government $3,000.

7/12/10 Monday. Travel day two of two from Kenai to Palmer was again a beautiful day. All of the highways we traveled today had been previously traveled (Kenai Spur, Seward and Glenn), so we made no stops on the way except along side of the Turnagain Bay, just South of Anchorage, were we stopped for lunch. Dinner was stone soup served by the hosts (every person provided a can of their favorite beans to the host who prepared the soup), followed by peach cobbler cooked in dutch ovens. After dinner, the owner of the campground gave a one-hour presentation of the "Matanuska Colonists" who settled Palmer in 1935. Palmer sits in a valley surrounded by two mountain ranges, averaging only 20-30 inches of snow each winter. Summer temperatures average in the 60's and winter in the 20's.

7/13/10 Tuesday: Today we took a bus tour, driving through some of the farm area where the Matanuska Colonists settled. We saw several of the original homes that the government built for the settlers and the type and extent of the agriculture in the area. We then went to the Visitors Center which included a beautiful flower garden with many different kinds of flowers. The reason crops and flowers do so well here is the length of the summer daylight hours (18 hours/day in the summer). We then went to the Colony House Museum, one of the actual original dwellings in the settlement. Following, we were then given a wonderful lunch at the Inn Cafe. Next, we walked over to the United Protestant Church, built in 1937 by the settlers (pictured above...the Church of 1,000 Logs, more pictures to follow in the email). Finally we went to The Musk Ox Farm which will be covered in another blog. Dinner was on our own and the evening ended with a campfire and smores.