Wasilla Alaska History & Facts

Wasilla is a city in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, United States and the fourth-largest city in Alaska. It is located on the northern point of Cook Inlet in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley of the southcentral part of the state. The city's population was 9,054 at the 2020 census, up from 7,831 in 2010. Wasilla is the largest city in the borough and a part of the Anchorage metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 398,328 in 2020.

Established at the intersection of the Alaska Railroad and Old Carle Wagon Road, the city prospered at the expense of the nearby mining town of Knik. Historically entrepreneurial, the economic base shifted in the 1970s from small-scale agriculture and recreation to support for workers employed in Anchorage or on Alaska's North Slope oilfields and related infrastructure. The George Parks Highway turned the town into a commuter suburb of Anchorage.

Wasilla gained international attention when Sarah Palin, who served as Mayor of Wasilla before her election as Governor of Alaska, was chosen by John McCain as his running mate for Vice President of the United States in the 2008 United States presidential election.

Wasilla is named after Chief Wasilla, a local Dena'ina chief. "Wasilla" is the anglicized spelling of the chief's Russian-given name, Васи́лий Vasilij, which corresponds to the English name Basil.

Glacial ice sheets covered most of the northern hemisphere during the last glacial period, between 26,500 and 19,000–20,000 years ago, until they disappeared between 10,000 and about 7,000 years ago. Early humans moved through the area and left evidence of their passage. The Matanuska-Susitna valley was eventually settled by the Dena'ina Alaska natives who utilized the fertile lands and fishing opportunities of Cook Inlet. The Dena'ina are one of the eleven sub-groups comprising the indigenous Athabaskan groups extending down Canada's western coast. The area around downtown Wasilla was known to the Dena'ina as Benteh, which translates as "among the lakes". Near the mouth of the Matanuska River, the town of Knik was settled about 1880. In 1900, the Willow Creek Mining District was established to the north and Knik thrived as a mining settlement.

Wasilla is located at 61°34′54″N 149°27′9″W (61.581732, −149.452539).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 12.4 square miles (32.2 km2). 11.7 square miles (30.4 km2) of it is land and 0.7 square miles (1.8 km2) of it (5.64%) is water.

Located near Wasilla Lake and Lake Lucille, Wasilla is one of two towns in the Matanuska Valley. The community surrounds Mi. 39–46 of the George Parks Highway, roughly 43 mi (69 km) by highway northeast of Anchorage. Nearly one third of the people of Wasilla drive the 40-minute commute to work in Anchorage every day. Six miles to the southeast is Mount POW/MIA.

Famous Peoples From Wasilla Alaska

Sarah Louise Palin

(born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality who served as the 9th governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee alongside Arizona Senator John McCain.

Palin was elected to the Wasilla city council in 1992 and became mayor of Wasilla in 1996. In 2003, after an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor, she was appointed chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, responsible for overseeing the state's oil and gas fields for safety and efficiency. In 2006, she became the youngest person and the first woman to be elected governor of Alaska. Immense legal fees incurred by Palin and the state to fight ethics investigations led to her resignation in 2009.

Palin was nominated for the vice presidency at the 2008 Republican National Convention, shortly after her selection was announced by McCain's campaign. She was the first Republican female vice presidential nominee and the second female vice presidential nominee of a major party, after Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. The McCain-Palin ticket lost the 2008 election to the Democratic Party's then-U.S. Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Since her resignation as governor, she has endorsed and campaigned for the Tea Party movement as well as several candidates in multiple election cycles, prominently including Donald Trump for president in 2016. From 2010 to 2015, she provided political commentary for Fox News. She hosted TLC's Sarah Palin's Alaska in 2010–11 and Amazing America with Sarah Palin on the Sportsman Channel in 2014–15. From 2014 to 2015, she oversaw a short-lived subscriber-based online TV channel, the Sarah Palin Channel, via TAPP TV. Her book Going Rogue has sold more than two million copies.

We also serve Tanaina city.

More Info.

PD&G Wallcover Inc.

Call Us: 949-487-9261
Email: deb@pdgwallcover.com