In 1934, Mrs. Mary Nan Gamble, an administrative assistant for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.), helped with the planning and criteria for selecting 200 farm families from the Midwest to participate in the Matanuska Colony project. The Matanuska Valley was selected for its favorable farming conditions and trade potential with Anchorage and the Alaska Railroad areas. Under the F.E.R.A. Act of 1933, the E.R.A. of each state could obtain grants for "rural rehabilitation relief" as a substitute for direct rural relief. Funding was provided to Midwest states and the Territory of Alaska for establishment of the agricultural colony near Palmer, Alaska. Before the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation - Corporation (A.R.R.C.) was incorporated, the first administrative agency was the California Emergency Relief Administration (C.E.R.A.). High costs faced by the colonists caused a larger debt loan than they were told to expect. Within four years, about sixty percent of the original colonists had left.

Mrs. Gamble was one of three people who accompanied the contingent to Alaska, lived with them in tents until the forest was cleared and roads and cabins built on their forty acre tracts. Upon her return to Washington D.C., Mrs. Gamble maintained case records and a project history for two more years. She later made other trips to Alaska for the government as a census official.