We
got to Palmer, Alaska in time for their Pioneer Days. This is an
event with a parade and a show of the skills that brought the current residents
parents through their early years of homesteading the Palmer area after
World War II. Back then families from Minnesota and that area
were invited by the Federal Government to settle out here and farm.
It was hoped that the settlers would make something of the area and increase
the population. These people had it rough when they first got up
here. The promised homes had not been built so they were forced to
live in tents. There was only one doctor for the whole population
and bureaucracy in general had slowed things a good bit. The homes
that where supposed to have been waiting for these folks where finally
built with the onset of the first winter. I think they are justified
in their pride of having survived those early circumstances. There
were some beautifully restored tractors on display too. An antique
shop on the main street held lots of overpriced items and a strange candleholder
made from two Whitall Tatum No1’s glued together at the top.
But nothing more exciting than that. At thrift store a few
doors down, a fellow had some interesting stuff. A query about insulators
or phones brought out a Hemi-45 with the wire still attached. This
proved that it actually had been in use as far as this fellow was concerned.
He was charging appropriately. I declined.
When the festivities where over we drove on past King
Mountain and by the Matanuska Glacier. There were the poles with
glass and wire attached again. Where they still in use here!
In this day of satellite and fiber optics?! Eventually we ended up
at Copper Center. This is the oldest Roadhouse in Alaska that has
been continually owned by the same family. In case you haven’t heard
of a roadhouse, this is where a weary traveler stayed before there were
motels. This place had seen people pass by in wagons and then goods
delivered all over the interior by Model T truck [imagine driving across
the Alaska mainland in –30 degrees in one of those!]. Even today,
the couple that currently owns the site [he is the son of the family that
bought it ages ago] still provide food and lodging to the weary traveler
[albeit a little modernized from the days when the guests had to go outback
to use the outhouse]. One of the buildings on this site is the George
Ashby Memorial Museum. It houses memorabilia from Copper 
Center’s
history and an interesting scrapbook of telegrams from and to the local
populace. There is an insulator and information display covering
WAMCATS and the Gulkana to Fairbanks telegraph lines. It’s
interesting to note that George Ashby was the person who started the Copper
Center Telephone Co-op. The headquarters for this enterprise now
resides in Valdez, Alaska, and provides service to a wide area.
Valdez was our next stop for a few days. Our time was spent
with the curator of the museum looking through reference material on early
commo in Alaska. The people there are very helpful and have set up
some wonderful displays. In this case at the bottom you can see a
BROOKFIELD two wire groove insulator. Is it possible that the insulator
that I bought in Anchorage did come from the WAMCATS line?
www.alaska.net/~vldzmuse/exhibits.htm
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