Palmer is located population 1,181, in Matanuska Valley, 37 mi. NE of Anchorage, Cook Inlet Low.
Agricultural supply town, established as a railroad station on the Matanuska Branch of The Alaska RR. about 1916. The Palmer post office was established in 1917; discontinued in 1925. The Warton post office operated here from 1931 to 1935, and was then changed back to Palmer in 1935 (Ricks, 1965, p. 49, 50, 70). The town became the center of the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation administered by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, the supply center of a colony of about 180 farm families from midwest United States in the 1930's. Its population was 150 in 1939 and 890 in 1950. It is thought to have been named for George Palmer, trader in the Knik Arm area in the late 1800's.