Just recently a number of us were discussing the incongruity of gravel extraction in the Valley. On one hand you have gravel pits everywhere destroying the aesthetic beauty of the country side by turning portions of it into a moonscape. On the other hand we continually read about the plight of road, land and home owners bordering the western portions of the Matanuska River as the river erodes away land and homes.

In the old days, during the winters, the Matanuska River was mined for gravel, providing remedial remedies from the alluvium deposits in the main channels during the summer, mitigating the negative meandering impacts of the river upon adjacent private property. Somehow this changed and that mining activity no longer takes place. Does anyone know what happened?

Our guess is that gravel extraction from all the prime sources on land is much more economical than working the river in the winter, but we are not certain about that.