july 27 will be recognized at marge mullen appreciation day. marge was born in chicago in 1,920. according to the peninsula clarion, the local newspaper there on the peninsula, marge claims she remembers seeing an article on alaska homesteading in the chicago daily news in 1,947. the idea must have seemed appealing to her because after she read that article, she and her husband, frank, who was a pilot during world war ii, they bought a small plane and they headed north to plant their roots. that was quite a trek back in the late 1,940's to fly in a small aircraft. they landed in alaska. they walked 65 miles through some pretty tough terrain and they settled their home study on soldotna creek making marge the first woman to live in soldotna under the homestead act. it wasn't too many years after they arrived in alaska that sadly marge lost her husband, frank, to polio. and it certainly would have been easier at the time for her to just pack up and head back to chicago, but marge was a pretty independent, strong headed woman, and she made that pretty brave choice to remain out on h