Palmer Colony Days 2023 (06-10-2023)

BB and I have been to Palmer several times. (See 12-12-2002 post, Alaska Christmas: Palmer Colony Christmas).  The town has a small-town, main street feel that appeals to us.  When we talk about the possibility of coming back to Alaska the two cities we mention most are Palmer and Sitka.

Palmer has been holding the Colony Days Festival since 1936.  It is a three-day summer festival that celebrates the city’s roots as a 1930s New Deal farm colony. Events include a 5K run, bed race, a carnival, arts and crafts markets, historic walking tour and parade.  We attend Colony Days on Saturday so we can see the parade.

We are in Palmer by 10:00am, an hour before the parade is scheduled to start.  We park on a side street near the Palmer Depot.  We check out the Festival of Flowers at the Depot.  There is a raffle.  BB purchases tickets.  I don't think we have passed on a raffle since we've been here.  The raffles are usually for a good cause.  We keep our losing streak (Raffles:8 Us:0).  

BB fills out her raffle tickets.

There are several pretty prizes.

We stake out our spot on the street in front of the depot and wait for the parade.  The empty spaces around us fill up with parents with young children. The kids have bags to hold their treats like at Halloween.  The majority of the parade participants throw out a giveaway, usually candy.  These kids are ready!

Passing time playing with reflections.

Anticipation!

Here comes the parade!  Quite a collection of participants!  

Animals.

   Turtle and Snake from Jonathon's Reptiles.

   Horses.

   The Bernese Mountain Dog Club.

 

All kinds of vehicles

Local Clubs and Organizations.

    The Denali Destroyers

After the parade we wander the Outdoor Market.

Then make our way to the Palmer Museum of History and Art to join a historic walking tour.  The walk includes the Colony House Museum, Colony Inn and Church of a Thousand Logs.   At our first stop, a monument dedicated to the families of the Matanuska Colony next to the Library, our guide gives us a brief history of the colony;  how the families were selected, how they traveled to Alaska and what they found when they arrived.  She also explains how the town was named.  At the time the colony was formed the post office was officially named Warton.  Several suggestions (Valley City and Farmington) for renaming the post office were rejected by the USPS because there were so many other towns with those names.  The USPS accepted Palmer after George Palmer who had the local trading post.

Our guide.

Monument to the Colony families.

In the Church of a Thousand Logs.

After the walking tour we have spinach bread for lunch.

Then we stop to pet the reindeer.

Palmer has a Dairy Queen!  We get treats for the ride home.

 

BB remembered that St. Nicholas Orthodox church is in Eklunta, a Dena'ina Athabascan community.  We pass Eklunta on the way home.  We stop to visit the church.  This ADN article mentions that there are plans to restore the older church building.

New Church.

Old Church.

From the ADN article:

"There was this duality of traditional (Orthodox Christian) belief and Dena’ina shamanism, Dena’ina traditional beliefs,” said Leggett, who noted that Dena’ina tradition was to cremate human remains, where in Russian Orthodoxy the body had to be buried.

This duality can be seen today in the spirit houses that Eklutna is famous for — small, brightly colored structures covering gravesites near the church. These houses give the spirits a place to go, honoring Dena’ina tradition while at the same time following Orthodox beliefs."

Now home.

Sal