A Trip To Palmer, Alaska

Today we thought we'd go to Palmer, it's a farming town but it was established about 1916 as a railway station on the Matanuska branch of the Alaska Railroad..

In 1935 Palmer became the site of one of the most unusual experiments in American history. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, on of the many New Deal relief agencies created during Roosevelt's first year in office, planned an agriculture potential trial in Alaska. They picked 203 families from the northern counties of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota to join the colony.

The growing season in Alaska averages 100 to 118 days with long hours of sunlight, about 22+ hours per day and this helps them grow some prize vegetables. They have grown cabbage and lettuce about 50 to 60 pounds each.

As luck would have it, the rain came back and put a damper on most of our plans for today. However, we still got to take a few pictures which we hope you'll like.