Palmer is a city in and the borough seat of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is part of the Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city was 4,533. 2008 Census Bureau estimates give the city a population of 8,201.The first people to live in the Matanuska Valley, where Palmer is located, were the Dena’ina and Ahtna Athabaskans.

They moved throughout the area, living off of subsistence and by trading with other native groups. Their trade routs where along the Matanuska River. When Russians came to Alaska in 1741, they began to trade furs. When Alaska was bought from Russia by the United States in 1867 for two cents an acre, many of the Russians left, though interest in furs continued. In the mid-1880's, an entreprenuer named George W. Palmer built a trading post on the Matanuska River, right near present-day Palmer. The town was later named after this Alaskan pioneer.