Just over 140 years ago, the United States made one of the greatest land deals of all time, purchasing from Russia a massive piece of property near the Arctic Circle. Since then, the land known as Alaska has been the site of a gold rush and an oil boom, but those great events comprise only a small portion of the state’s fascinating history. Historic Photos of Alaska captures the majesty, history, and regal beauty of America’s largest and most northern state through nearly 200 archival black-and-white photographs of this awe-inspiring region. Author Dermot Cole takes the reader on a journey through Alaska’s pristine natural beauty and documents moments from the 1898 gold rush to the only World War II invasion on North American soil, to the long-awaited statehood and the incredible destruction wrought by the massive 1964 earthquake. Don’t miss this fascinating trip through Alaska’s history!

Frank Barr was one of the most interesting of the early aviation pioneers in Alaska. At age 28, the former calvalryman, parachute jumper and test pilot, signed on to a Yukon gold expedition in 1932 as a back up pilot. After the expedition failed to find enough gold, Frank Barr stayed in the north country and spent the rest of his career as a bush pilot. He flew every early plane from the Jenny to the Super Cub, carrying passengers and freight to remote villages in Alaska and the Yukon. In 1948 Barr was elected to the Territorial Senate, and held that seat when in 1955 he one of the 55 Alaskans chosen by the people to write a state constitution. Today Alaska's state constitution is considered one of the best state constitutions ever written. Alaska was admitted to the union in 1959. In his later years he flew bush routes for Alaska Airlines and became manager of the northern division. Even in retirement down in the lower forty-eight states, he conducted tours to Alaska and Mexico until he finally retired for good in 1974.

The turbulent history of Fairbanks, Alaska is far less well-known than most urban histories. With this volume, Dermot Cole chronicles the rollicking backstory of a city that owes its beginnings to a cargo boat accident and the Klondike gold rush. Cole engagingly recounts how Fairbanks and its hardy residents survived floods, fires, harsh weather, and economic crises to see the city flourish into the prosperous transportation hub and government seat it is today. "Fairbanks"""is ultimately a fascinating historical saga of one of the last cities to be established on the American frontier.

In the 1970s, the world's largest construction companies invaded Alaska in a wild rush to build the 800-mile $8 billion trans-Alaska pipeline. Workers by the tens of thousands headed north, hoping to make their fortunes working on the pipeline, in a stampede that dramatically affected Alaska.