It’s always fun and interesting to take part in book-related events, and I always learn a little more about the history my books touch upon when people who are familiar with those histories – or who lived the history – introduce themselves and we strike up a conversation. That happened several times on Friday when I took part in a four-hour booksigning at my favorite bookstore, Fireside Books in Palmer, highlighting my books about the 1935 Matanuska Colony Project. Also there for the booksigning were several Matanuska Valley pioneers and Sharon Benson, the co-author of another great book, The Life and Times of Matanuska Valley Pioneers.

The history of Alaska and the Matanuska Valley are really nothing more than the compilation of individual stories, whether those stories are thrilling and adventurous or more mundane and everyday. Each person simply going about their daily lives contributed (and continue to contribute) to the whole which we know as history, and when people start talking about their own personal histories, or those of their family members, friends, or even just people they’ve known, the entire process of history-making is given a clarity which I always find fascinating and rewarding. It’s one thing to write about the design and construction of the Colony barns, but quite another thing to have someone tell about working in one, milking cows and loading hay into the hayloft one summer forty years ago.

During the writing of my book on the Colony Project I was able to access the original records at the National Archives office in Anchorage. The office has now been closed, and the records have been moved to the National Archives office in Seattle. Toward the end of the day on Friday a young couple came into the bookstore and I learned that the young man’s parents had been Colonists, and sure enough, we found their name and tract number in my books. I explained about the original files for the Colony families being at the National Archives, which sadly had been moved to Seattle – and learned that the couple lived in Seattle and were only visiting friends in Palmer! They were very excited to learn how they could research their family’s history upon their return to Seattle!

The day after the booksigning I was walking around Palmer’s Colony Days celebration with my grandson Collin and was excited to see four of my books featured at the local museum and visitor’s center. Collin was patient with me in the museum, but it’s not hard to see that he was more than ready to get back outside to the “good stuff” again!