Word: matanuska
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Thus last week the status and spirit of the New Deal relief colony in Alaska's Matanuska Valley was reported by colonists' telegrams to President Roosevelt, Relief Administrator Hopkins, Senators Couzens, La Follette and Schall, Governor...
...Alaska. Though Mr. Hopkins replied enthusiastically. Nurse Hoffman soon lost heart. But his small seed had fallen on fertile ground. From New Deal minds, notably that of Assistant FERAdministrator Lawrence Westbrook, there shortly sprang full-blown a scheme for transplanting Depression-broken Northwestern farm families wholesale to fertile Matanuska Valley. At a stroke the Government would wipe out all their pasts of failure and despair, give them everything they needed for a clean new start in life...
...Army transport St. Mihiel at Seward, Alaska last week trudged the second & final contingent of Depression-whipped U. S. farmers who had taken up the Government's offer of a new life in Matanuska Valley (TIME, May 6; LETTERS, May 27). Leaving their wives & children behind for a few days, 136 men swung aboard day coaches, rode all night to Palmer. There they lined up with their 67 predecessors, shuffled past the colony's genial Chief Don Irwin, dipping their hands into his hat. A slip of paper told each man which 40 acres, barring swaps, failure...
Arriving at Matanuska Valley, 125 mi. inland from Seward, each transplanted family will get a 40-acre tract, a log cabin, livestock and farm equipment. They will have 30 years to pay the Government $3,000, with 3% interest, the first payment due in four years. The cabins will have built-in furniture, running water. A physician, dentist and Red Cross nurse will be in attendance. Warmed by 20 hr. per day of summer sunlight and wet by heavy rains, Matanuska loam yields whopping crops. The Japanese Current keeps winter temperatures well above those of northern Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin...
Chief of the colony will be Don L. Irwin, general manager of the newly formed Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corp. A lanky, pleasant Kansas State Agricultural College graduate, he was a successful Wyoming rancher until the Government sent him to head its Agricultural Experiment Station in Matanuska Valley three years ago. Of his Utopian project, Chief Irwin said last week: "Almost the first job will be to clear out the mosquitoes. They are the chief handicap...