From: "Roy Ostenso" <dchs@dunnhistory.org> Subject: November event Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2009 11:35:48 -0600 Message-ID: <004201ca5be2$ed38a750$c7a9f5f0$@org>
Heritage Speaker Series | November 15, 2009
1:30 p.m. at the Russell J. Rassbach Heritage Museum, Menomonie
Western Wisconsin Premier Film Screening
Panel discussion with the Matt Carter, UWEC history student & the film's
producers
ALASKA FAR AWAY
The New Deal Pioneers of the Matanuska Colony
A documentary film by Paul Hill and Joan Juster
In the midst of the despair of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt's
New Deal gave over 200 struggling Midwestern farm families an extraordinary
opportunity: the chance to start over on the Alaskan frontier. Alaska Far
Away tells the story of this bold government experiment, and the families
who found themselves thrust into the national spotlight along the way.
Sixty-eight families from Wisconsin participated including residents of
Dunn, Barron, Taylor, Polk and Trempealeau counties.
Story (396 words)
ALASKA FAR AWAY
The New Deal Pioneers of the Matanuska Colony
A documentary film by Paul Hill and Joan Juster
The Matanuska Colonization Project of 1935 was among the most unusual and
controversial of the many New Deal programs designed to help ordinary
citizens devastated by the Great Depression. The project relocated over 200
struggling farm families from the northern Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin
to the Matanuska Valley in Alaska to start an experimental farming colony,
to open up Alaska for settlement, and to give these families a fresh start.
Sixty-eight families from Wisconsin participated including residents of
Dunn, Barron, Taylor, Polk and Trempealeau counties. It generated
tremendous publicity and controversy at the time, not only as a very
expensive federally-funded social experiment, but also as one of the last
pioneer movements in America.
The Matanuska Colony isn't just a fascinating footnote to the history of
Alaska. More than just a local story, the history of the Matanuska Colony
covers broad themes of interest to general audiences: the difficulties and
despair of the Depression, the creative energy of the New Deal, the
adventure of pioneering in Alaska, the excitement and challenge of building
a new community far from home, and the best and worst of both our government
and ordinary citizens in facing those extraordinary challenges.
The Matanuska colonists weren't pioneers blazing trails through a silent
wilderness. They were shipped to Alaska by Uncle Sam, and were dogged every
step of the way by reporters, photographers, tourists, and critics. They
were glorified, vilified, and mythologized by the national press. One day
they were lauded as national heroes, the next scorned as "cream-puff
pioneers."
However, the colonists were ultimately neither heroes nor villains, but
simply ordinary people who shared an extraordinary experience, struggling to
make a new home, far from family and friends in a place considered
forbidding and exotic, under the constant scrutiny of the press and the
politicians. Creating a new community under such an unforgiving microscope
forged unbreakable ties between the colonists that exist to this day.
Americans have always been fascinated by the pioneer experience and frontier
mythology: the hardships, dangers, and excitement of leaving behind
everything familiar to settle a new land. Alaska Far Away reflects that
sense of challenge and adventure, and the energetic pioneer spirit that
brought these colonists to Alaska and helped to build it into a state.
More info at; <http://www.alaskafaraway.com/> http://www.alaskafaraway.com/
Roy S. Ostenso, President
Dunn County Historical Society
1820 Wakanda ST
Menomonie, WI 54751
715-232-8685
Mobile:715-505-1110