Laurel Downing Bill opens her aunt’s trunk of historic notes once more in Aunt Phil’s Trunk Volume 3. This volume starts with the happenings in Alaska during the onset of World War I and the signing of the Alaska Railroad Act by Woodrow Wilson in 1914. This act caused the development of Anchorage and the continued settlement of Alaska. Bill, using the detailed notes and research of her late aunt, Phyllis Downing Carlson (Aunt Phil), recounts the events of the following decades, including the construction of the railroad, aviation exploration, Anchorage’s early development into a thriving city, and the tragedy of the influenza pandemic that struck in 1918.

Laurel Downing Bill's third volume of Aunt Phil’s Trunk celebrates the resilience, ingenuity, and heroism of Alaskan residents in the early to mid-1900s. Bill’s strength from the very beginning of this collection has been in giving history a voice. Rather than dry accounts of historical fact, her collection brings historical moments to life. In this volume, many of the heroes of Alaska are allowed to tell their story, those that bring laughter, those that bring cheers, and even those that bring tears. Readers will learn about entrepreneurs Z.J. Loussac and Austin E. “Cap” Lathrop, the start of the Alaska baseball league by William F. Mulcahy, and the heroics of dog sled driver Leonhard Seppala and the other runners who braved the extreme conditions of Alaska’s winter in order to deliver diphtheria vaccine. These are just a few of the characters that are concisely and intriguingly explored in Aunt Phil’s Trunk Volume 3. Once again, Laurel Downing Bill has provided an enjoyable and exciting account of Alaskan history. I highly recommend Aunt Phil’s Trunk Volume 3 and the rest of her collection.

Aunt Phil’s Trunk Volume Three by Laurel Downing Bill contains valuable historical information and interesting stories about the entrepreneurial expansion and technological modernization of Alaska during the years 1912-1935. Alaska grew in population, and so did opportunities for skilled and unskilled workers. Laborers were needed to build railroads that would link towns. Many people became trendsetters with ventures that would benefit the country. Motor vehicles were seen as replacements for horses and mushers with dogs. Another advancement was aviation, which significantly reduced hours spent traveling inland and delivered mail promptly. The main disadvantage of aviation and motor vehicles was poor weather that delayed travel, so mushers and dogs still played vital roles in transportation. Volume Three also shares how humorist Will Rogers and pilot Wiley Post died in 1935 when their plane crashed in a storm near Barrow. Bill also discusses how diseases traveled to Alaska with immigrants, including the “Great Sickness” of 1918 (Spanish flu) and a diphtheria outbreak that threatened to wipe out the village of Nome in 1925. Mushers and their dog teams raced vials of diphtheria serum north to save the people who lived there. Alaska offered a promising future, but one had to work under extremely hard conditions to claim it.

Aunt Phil’s Trunk Volume Three describes an exciting period that sees Alaska being transformed. There are authentic photos that depict Alaska’s people and environment. An interesting story was the Natives’ battle for equal rights. Another was the government's poor planning and negligence to build schools. The author wrote well and entertained me with historical stories and anecdotes of the country’s development.

Aunt Phil's Trunk: Volume Three of Bringing Alaska's History Alive is part of the continuing historical non- fiction series co-written by Phyllis Downing Carlson and her niece, Laurel Downing Bill. Both authors grew up in Alaska and the result is a series of living history texts based on their own experiences and Carlson's lifelong interest in, and historical research on, the state's history and cultural development. Much of the third volume is concerned with the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries and how previously inaccessible and remote areas of the state were brought together through the pioneering efforts of dog sledders, early automobile enthusiasts and aviators. Downing grew up in Cordova, Alaska, one of the last towns in the state to be reached by airplane. The descriptions of that town's planned celebrations and later disappointments as each planned visit was cancelled due to extreme climate conditions is especially poignant.

Volume Three of Phyllis Downing Carlson and Laurel Downing Bill's history series, Aunt Phil's Trunk: Bringing Alaska's History Alive is filled with tales of adventurers and explorers who loom larger than life. There's the story of Dr. J.B. Beeson who traveled over 1,000 miles via a relay series of dog sleds from Anchorage to Iditarod to attend a gravely ill patient, and the follow-up account of how heroic mushers and their dogs averted a diphtheria outbreak by relaying serum through arctic conditions to Nome, Alaska. We also learn how the first cars were brought north and of the efforts of the first tour bus operator to recruit Mae West as an assistant. Then there are accounts of the visit of Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, and the story behind the first blimp to touch Alaskan soil, and the first Arctic crossings. And that's just a very small portion of the marvelous trip through history you'll experience within the pages of Aunt Phil's Trunk: Volume Three of Bringing Alaska's History Alive. I've had a grand time reading this series, and the armchair adventurer in me especially enjoyed this volume. It's highly recommended.

Aunt Phil's Trunk: Volume Three Bringing Alaska's History Alive by Laurel Downing Bill is another dive into the history of Alaska and this time we pick up from 1912 to 1935. Again we have an array of short stories combined with beautiful and historic photographs (almost 350). In this volume, we visit the great sickness of 1918 and the steamship sinking of the Princess Sophia. Lest we forget, we also visit the story of the great Serum run to Nome in 1925. A lot of big things happened in this era and none of them should be forgotten.

This is the best volume yet in this series. I loved every page, story and picture. It really is written to appeal to people of all ages. While all the stories from this time period held my interest and were very informative, my favorite was the Nome serum run of 1925. I have been in love with the story since I saw the movie Balto as a kid and then researched the real story. It is amazing what the dogs and mushers did to save people at the time; can you imagine it? Laurel Downing Bill is onto something with the Aunt Phil’s Trunk series because the books just seem to get better and better. If you love history and Alaska or are even just curious about either topic, this book will interest you. The layout and format with the short and enjoyable stories make it easy to read and take in the information so you never get bored. I highly recommend this one.