Railroad spurs Anchorage
Aunt Phil’s Trunk Volume Three, released in 2008, highlights Alaska’s early days as a territory of the United States. From the building of the Alaska Railroad, to new-fangled automobiles, to those amazing flying machines of the 1920s, this book – with more than 350 historical photographs – is filled to the brim with adventures of the era between 1912 and 1935.
Railroad spurs Anchorage
The U.S. government sparked a stampede of hard-working railway workers to Cook Inlet when it chose to build a railroad from Seward to the coal fields of the Matanuska Valley in 1915.
Flu epidemic hits Alaska
Soldiers coming home from World War I brought back more than battlefield memories. The flu epidemic of 1918 devastated many Alaska villages.
On July 29, 1913, one of Alaska’s trail-blazers started a historic journey – the first automobile trip over the wagon trail from Fairbanks to Valdez. Robert Sheldon, whód never seen an automobile, also built the first car in Alaska.
Airplanes change Alaska forever
Airplanes, which changed Alaska forever, started dotting the skies of the North Country in the early 1920s. Brig. Gen. William Mitchell had a hand in bringing the magnificent flying machines to Alaska. His Black Wolf Squadron, made up of four De Havilland DH-4B aircraft, took off from New York on July 15, 1920, to “demonstrate that we could establish an airway to Alaska and Asia.” They made the 4,500-mile trip in 55 flying hours.
Alaskans and their dog teams came to the rescue to race vials of lifesaving serum from Anchorage to Nome following an outbreak of diphtheria in 1925. Together, the teams covered the route in 127-1/2 hours, which was considered a world record.
Natives gain recognition
Alaska Natives marked a milestone in the mid-1930s, when the federal government recognized their right to locally govern their affairs by tribal governments.
Black fog over Barrow
Wiley Post and Will Rogers crashed and died in 1935. A typewriter recovered in the wreckage had Rogers’ unfinished last “piece for the papers,” and the final word he’d typed was “death.”
