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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Local delegates ready for GOP convention 9/1/08   CONTACT THE HERALD Do you have a news tip? newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400   Published: Monday, September 1, 2008 Palin's rise puts Alaskan town in spotlight By Mary Pemberton Associated Press WASILLA, Alaska -- Back in the '70s when Sarah Palin was in elementary school, Wasilla was a sleepy little town with a few hundred people. No longer. Wasilla is now a big town, at least by Alaska standards, with 7,000 residents, with much of the growth occurring during Palin's term as mayor. Residents on Friday celebrated when Palin was chosen as John McCain's running mate for president. Melanie Packer, 32, a lifelong resident of Wasilla and mother of five children, said this was the most important event ever for Wasilla, if not for all of Alaska. "I've lived here my whole life and this is the biggest that has happened," she said. And it will give this former mining supply town a footnote in history. "I think it is going to make Wasilla the place where Palin came from," she said. Palin grew up here, playing high school basketball and competing in beauty pageants before her graduation in 1982. She attended college in Idaho, but eventually moved back. After being elected governor, she upset many Juneau residents by not spending much time in the state's capital, instead preferring her lakeside home here over the governor's mansion. She commutes to her office in Anchorage, 40 miles to the south, many times driving herself to work in her sport utility vehicle. One day in July, her SUV was rear-ended as part of a four-vehicle pile-up, but she wasn't hurt. The easygoing nature of Wasilla matches Palin's personality well. Wasilla is the type of frontier town where people are comfortable driving around in full- and super-sized pickups. Many times, these trucks are hauling trailers loaded with camouflaged four-wheelers for fall moose hunting or boats for salmon fishing on many of the nearby rivers and creeks. Some people walk around wearing professional business attire, but many are just at home in jeans, suspenders and baseball caps. Wasilla was established in 1917 along the newly constructed Alaska Railroad line. Wasilla was a supply base for gold and coal mining in the region through World War II. It's in the Matanuska-Susitna valley, settled by homesteaders in the 1930s. Its borough, which stretches from near Anchorage to Denali National Park, is the size of West Virginia. The town's growth started slowly in the 1970s with construction of a highway from Anchorage, and the town was incorporated in 1974. The spurt of growth picked up in the last decade, and is easily now the fastest growing area of the state. The city's rapid growth combined with Alaska's short construction season means news buildings went up fast. These are sturdy, practical buildings meant more to endure the winter than please the eye. To be honest, with boxy, basic and unadorned structures and unattractive strip malls, Wasilla doesn't handsome up much. But don't say Wasilla isn't a pretty community to Mayor Dianne Keller. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," she said.

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