Alaska history book, Aunt Phil's Trunk Volume One – Early Alaska up to 1900

This first book in my Alaska history series, first printed in 2006, is filled with short stories and hundreds of historical photographs from Alaska's colorful past.

Did you know that the last shot of the American Civil War happened in Alaska? Or that a Confederate conspiracy may have turned the tables on Alaska becoming part of the United States? Those stories and more can be found in this treasure trove of historical goodness!

Richly assembled with hundreds of rare historical photographs and entertaining short stories, Aunt Phil’s Trunk brings Alaska’s history alive for ages 9 to 99. Compiled and written after decades of research, the tales of adventure that unfold within these pages are as intriguing and fascinating as Alaska itself.

The book pays homage to the Alaska Natives, trappers, mushers, merchants and prospectors who forged a life in the Last Frontier. Whether you’ve lived in Alaska all your life, or you’ve always wanted to visit, you will be enthralled by this collection of stories and more than 350 historical photos chronicling a patchwork of Alaska’s colorful past from early Native life up to the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898.

This volume is also available in ebook format for $9.99 at https://auntphilstrunk.com/product/aunt-phils-trunk-vol-1-ebook/ or in audiobook format at https://adbl.co/30GwdAk

Learn more about this series by watching this video https://youtu.be/zKuI-Nty1T8

About the Author
My Dad’s older sister, Phyllis Downing Carlson, was one of Alaska's most respected historians. She willed me a strange inheritance after she died in 1993: her entire life’s work of research into the extraordinary history of my great state. The trunk contained her notes, research and rare Alaska history books that she had collected during her 84 years in the Last Frontier.

I felt a deep responsibility to do something with this gift. So I returned to college (in my 50s) and graduated with a degree in journalism and a minor in history from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2003.

Then I sorted through Aunt Phil’s notes, organized her work into periods of time and began researching on my own to fill in some holes for pieces of history that I thought important. Once the research was complete, I wrote short stories about the events, people and places that helped make Alaska what it is today and searched for hundreds of historical photographs to complement the storytelling.

The result of my labors became the five-book Aunt Phil’s Trunk Alaska history series, which earned the 2016 gold medal for Best Nonfiction Series from Literary Classics International. Each book features a different period of time in Alaska’s colorful past.

I also developed a full curriculum with student workbooks and teacher guides for classroom and home-school use, which won the silver medal in the Education Category from Literary Classics International in 2018. (A college book took gold.)

Alaska History Book, Aunt Phil's Trunk Volume One Early Alaska Native history up to Klondike Gold Rush, Alaska Gift