The museum in Wasilla quietly dropped the name Dorothy Page from its sign in 2016. Page is known as the Mother of the Iditarod. To Bridgette Preston, it was watching someone get erased.
Preston came to Alaska in 1977 as a journalism student. She worked a summer at the Kenai Peninsula Clarion. She got hooked on Alaska, finished her degree, and moved north. Preston landed in Palmer in 1980 as the children’s librarian. She told stories to kids.
She worked as a teacher for English language learners for 20 years in the Mat-Su School District. She moved from school to school. She got to know the area one classroom at a time.
Preston is a storyteller by nature and by trade. She knew she had to act when Dorothy Page’s name came off that museum. Page’s story needed to be told.
Preston figured she would tell it since no one else had. Grandmother Raven Productions was born. Preston’s first play was a one-woman play about Dorothy Page. It sold out four shows at the Musk Ox Farm in Palmer in 2024.
Then came another one-woman play last April. It was titled “A Librarian’s Epilogue.” It tells the story of Sally Gwin. She was Preston’s mentor and Palmer’s first librarian.
Much of Preston’s work happens alongside Palmer Historical Society President Sheri Hamming. Preston says Hamming is as knowledgeable about Palmer’s history as anyone alive.
All proceeds from Preston’s work go back into the community: the library, the museum, and the historical society. She has no interest in Grandmother Raven Productions becoming a nonprofit. She says she’s more interested in keeping the stories alive.
Her newest project is closer to home. “Baking Up Gold: True Tales and Tasty Treats” is a cookbook. It was eight years in the making. It ties recipes to the historic women of Hatcher Pass and Independence Mine.
Dorothy Lynch is one of the women. She is an Olympic skier who spent part of her childhood at the mine. Preston learned that Alaska’s Olympic historians had never heard of Lynch.
Preston’s favorite recipe in the book is a blueberry muffin recipe. It’s the one she used to make for her daughters.
She had help creating the book. Her granddaughters Marayva Dargis and Bianca Dargis did the test baking alongside Preston. Bianca handled the food photography.
Preston says the cookbook became the family’s love letter to Hatcher Pass.
Preston produces Stories in Stone. This summer walking tour at the Palmer Pioneer Cemetery spotlights Matanuska Colony homesteaders. It has been running since 2024.
Preston’s newest endeavor is Ravens’ Watch Walking Tour. It debuts next Tuesday and Wednesday. The tour begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Dr. Myron F. Babb Arboretum in Palmer. It’s built around things in Palmer that people walk past every day like the old DC-3 sitting at the airport and the city seal downtown. Proceeds go to the Historical Society and the Palmer Museum of History and Art.
Sally Hitchcock had told Preston to keep writing her Palmer Buzz essays about the town. Hitchcock couldn’t get out and walk around Palmer anymore. It was the closest Hitchcock could get to seeing it.
That feedback keeps Preston writing and producing. There are so many stories to keep alive.
So Preston is not done. A third play is in the works.
Raven’s Watch tickets are available online through Eventbrite. Search for “raven” in Palmer, Alaska.
Preston will be at Fireside Books on October 3 from 1 to 4 p.m. to sign copies of “Baking Up Gold: True Tales and Tasty Treats”.
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Emily Forstner reported this Page Two article and yours truly, Lee Henrikson produced it. If you have an idea for a Page 2 topic, please email us at page2@radiofreepalmer.org.
That’s it for today and the news on Page Two on Tuesday, September 15, 2026.
Photo courtesy of Bridgette Preston