The Matanuska Colony Barns: The Enduring Legacy of the 1935.

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. As part of each family's farmstead, a magnificent barn was raised, a sturdy square structure 32' by 32' and soaring 32' high. Today these Colony barns are an iconic reminder of what has been called the last great pioneering adventure in America. “Anyone who travels through the eastern part of Alaska’s dramatically beautiful Matanuska Valley soon finds a Colony barn enhancing the landscape. These striking Valley landmarks are the enduring legacy of an all-but-forgotten chapter in American history, when the U.S. government took a direct hand in the lives of thousands of its citizens, offering Depression-distraught farm families an opportunity to begin again in a far-off land with government financing and support. Central to every Colony farm was the barn, a core structure integral to the operation of these family farms.” ~from the preface The Matanuska Colony Barns: The Enduring Legacy of the 1935 Matanuska Colony Project, by Helen Hegener, photographs by Eric Vercammen, Stewart Amgwert, Albert Marquez, Dave Rose, Joanie Juster, Ron Day and others. Foreword by Barbara Hecker. Introduction by James H. Fox. 140 pages, full color. ISBN 978-0-9843977-4-7. Includes Colonist families listing, maps, bibliography, resources, index.

Alaska is my home, and the focus of my work, but I had the good fortune to be raised by parents who loved adventure, and they spent a lifetime traveling and exploring from California to Europe, from Arizona to Alaska. In my 35 years of writing and publishing I've been fortunate to continue the travels and explorations my parents began so long ago, and simply living and learning has given me a perspective and an appreciation which cannot be won any other way.