A Matanuska Colony Barn

This red barn is a survivor from one of the boldest experiments of the Great Depression. In the spring of nineteen thirty-five, President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal brought two hundred and three families all the way to Alaska. Chosen from the cold farm country of Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin, these Matanuska colonists were sent to carve a farming community out of this remote valley.

The government built each family a home and a barn, and barns like this one, with their tall gambrel roofs, became the signature of the colony. There was even a central creamery, which later grew into the Matanuska Maid dairy. Many of these colony barns have since fallen to decay and development, with only some still standing.

This one endures, a weathered red landmark of homesteaders who dared to farm the far north.