WASILLA, Alaska --- Signs are starting to pop up on businesses in Wasilla, population about 7,000, celebrating the nomination of hometown girl Sarah Palin as running mate for Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Cheryl Metiva, the executive director of the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce, says the small community, a one-horse town with one stoplight on the main drag until the 1970s, isn't ready for the publicity Mrs. Palin's candidacy will bring.

Mary Bixby, the assistant to Wasilla Mayor Diane Keller, said her office has been inundated with requests from the news media for interviews and information about the government of Wasilla.

"We can't return long-distance phone calls because we don't have the budget for it," Ms. Bixby said.

Though right smack in the fastest-growing area of Alaska, now attracting Wal-Mart and other major retail chains, Wasilla today is a politically conservative, working-class town with one eye in the past and the other in the future.

Travelers on the George Parks Highway, which connects Anchorage with Denali National Park and Fairbanks, are unlikely to stop in Wasilla, except for any of the half-dozen stoplights or a drive-through window of one of several fast-food restaurants.

The big attraction is Wasilla Lake, a popular spot for swimmers, boaters and water skiers in summer, and snowmachines in winter.

Nearby is the headquarters of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, an event that now rarely starts in Wasilla because of a general lack of snow.

Still, the city maintains it is "the home of the Iditarod."

The growth started in the 1970s, when a small strip mall opened for business. When the George Parks Highway, also known as Alaska Route 3, was completed in 1975, attitudes toward living in the Wasilla area began to change, old-timers said.