Aunt Phil's Trunk: Volume 3 - Softcover

Phyllis Downing Carlson; Laurel Downing Bill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1578333733 ISBN 13: 9781578333738

Publisher: Aunt Phil's Trunk LLC, 2010

Synopsis

Alaska history decoded!
 
Aunt Phil's Trunk Volume Three is a must read for anyone interested in Alaska's history!

Aunt Phil's Trunk Volume Three is filled with entertaining nonfiction short stories and hundreds of historical photographs that share Alaska's history from 1912 to 1935. This volume, appropriate for ages 9 to 99, is a delightful journey through Alaska's growing pains as a territory of the United States.


Did you know?

• The Alaska Railroad spurred the birth of Alaska's largest town in 1915?
• Mushers and dog teams risked death to deliver life-saving diphtheria serum to Nome in 1925?
• Famous aviator Wiley post and Will Rogers crashed their plane and died near Barrow in 1935?

 
These and dozens more little-known stories fill the pages of Aunt Phil's Trunk Volume Three


Laurel Bill has an extraordinary eye for the telling detail. She knows a good story when she hears it and knows how to tell it. Her history comes alive. Thank goodness she's turned her talents to these compelling chapters from Alaska's rich past. - Kim Rich, Author, Johnny's Girl
 
Drawn from the eventful stories told by Alaskans, author Laurel Downing Bill has expertly woven a seamless narrative of fascinating fact and lore spanning the triumphs and tragedies of the Great Land. - Pennelope Goforth, Author, Sailing The Mail
 
Informative and entertaining, the stories in "Aunt Phil's Trunk" show that there is much more to Alaska than Eskimos, igloos, ice floes and polar bears. Whether you've lived in Alaska all of your life, or you've always wanted to visit, you'll be enthralled by this collection of stories and photos chronicling a patchwork of Alaska's forgotten heroes. - Heather Resz, Editor, Alaska Newspapers Inc.

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Read More here:

The third book in the Aunt Phil's Trunk series is packed with easy-to-read short stories and close to 350 historical photographs to entertain the history buff within.
 
It highlights the pioneering spirit of early Alaska as it enters a new era as a territory of the United States and showcases stories about early Anchorage and the Alaska Railroad.
 
Other stories include:
 
·       Epidemics and rescues
·       Daring flyboys of the 1920s
·       Colonists who turn wilderness into fertile ground where giant vegetables grow
·       Alaska's Native people struggling for recognition
 
 

Aunt Phil's Trunk Volume Three is a treasure trove of short stories about Alaska's colorful past and is filled with close to 350 rare historical photographs.

About this title

About the Author:

Third-generation Alaskan Laurel Downing Bill has turned her Alaska historian aunt's work into a lovely series of books that highlight Alaska's colorful past. Downing Bill earned a degree in journalism from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2003 and wrote several award-winning articles while employed as a reporter for the Anchorage Chronicle newspaper from 2002-2004. Her weekly Alaska history column, titled "Aunt Phil's Trunk," was a favorite with the paper's subscribers. Bill's award-winning stories have appeared in newspapers throughout Alaska, as well as Alaska Magazine, Mushing magazine and First Alaskans magazine.

Review:

David James, Reviewer
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Published Sunday, June 29, 2008

'Aunt Phil's' latest volume filled with history treasures By David A. James

... Countless volumes have been published about the Gold Rush, and anyone who has read much about our state knows how Skagway, Nome and Fairbanks came into being. But what about Anchorage?

Alaska's largest city appears from nowhere in most accounts, because once many authors get past the Gold Rush, they go skipping off to World War II, statehood, and the pipeline, ignoring what came in between. For this reason alone we can welcome Volume Three in the ongoing and exceptionally well-crafted Aunt Phil's Trunk series.

It covers the years 1912 to 1935 a generally forgotten period when Alaska changed dramatically in such an entertaining and informative fashion that readers will wonder why more hasn't been written about this era.

For good reasons, I've been touting these books since the first volume appeared two years ago. They combine clear writing and plenty of details without getting bogged down in minutia. They include both the big stories and many lesser-known incidents. And they are densely illustrated with photographs showing what life was like in Alaska's earlier days. It's a great package, and it hasn't failed yet....

The first section of this book tells how Anchorage came into being. While gold or other resource exploitation had driven the emergence of most other Alaska settlements up until 1915, Anchorage originated as a company town. The federal government had decided to build a railroad from Seward to Fairbanks in order to ease the transport of goods to and from the Interior. Ship Creek, which flowed into Cook Inlet, emerged as the logical midpoint for the stationing of supplies and work crews....

Transportation is the unifying theme of much of this volume. Moving people and goods around Alaska has always been a challenge, and here we read of the many ways this was done early in the 20th century. In addition to the new train, dogsleds, horse carriages, bicycles and cars careen through these pages. (Not only do we get an account of the serum run to Nome that inspired the Iditarod, we also learn of an earlier life-saving dogsled scramble that influenced the later decision to use this means of getting diphtheria medicine to the beleaguered town on Alaska s western edge.)

Ultimately, however, it was the arrival of airplanes that solved Alaska’s transportation woes. The authors devote separate chapters to such aviation pioneers as Carl Ben Eielson, Russell Hyde Merrill, and the Wien brothers, Noel and Ralph, who opened up the territory and changed Alaska forever.

Another big event covered nicely in this volume is the Depression-era creation of the Matanuska Colony by the federal government. Hundreds of displaced Midwestern farmers were moved north and settled in the fertile Matanuska Valley in a mostly successful effort at developing Alaska s agricultural potential.

Other stories found here include profiles of influential Alaskans Z.J. Louscac, Capt. Austin Lathrop, and William Mulcahy; the arrival of a Norwegian dirigible in Teller; the death of Will Rogers in a plane crash; the 1918 flu epidemic, which decimated the Native population; and the emergence of a Native rights movement. Historic photos range from the futile efforts to rescue victims of the Princess Sophia sinking to the first flight over Juneau to a backwoods moonshine distillery near Anchorage.

Each chapter stands as an individual essay, but the interlinking themes pull them together into a cohesive whole. The tales are brought keenly to life by a pair of authors whose love for Alaskan history permeates every page. They show just how fascinating this often-overlooked time was. If you haven t done so yet, take some time and open Aunt Phil s Trunk; you ll find plenty of treasures inside.

About this edition

• Publisher: Aunt Phil's Trunk LLC
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1578333733
• ISBN 13: 9781578333738
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 344
• Editor: Aunt Phil's Trunk LLC