The 1935 Matanuska Colony Project

The 1935 Matanuska Colony Project, subtitled The Remarkable History of a New Deal Experiment in Alaska, by Helen Hegener, was published in 2014. Two years later this book was combined with The Matanuska Colony Album to produce the comprehensive single volume “A Mighty Nice Place:” The History of the 1935 Matanuska Colony Project.

In 1935 the U.S. Government transported 200 families from the Great Depression-stricken 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 Matanuska Colony Project.

“When the settlers arrive, each will be assigned 40 acres of land. In rehabilitating the families, the government intends to spend $3,000 on each group, and the ‘pioneers’ must agree to liquidate the government advance over 30 years.”

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.

This book tells their story. 

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