The Road North: A Woman's Adventure Driving the Alaska Highway 1947-1948

In an age before interstate highways when women were supposed to stay home and do laundry, Iris Wollcock's yearn for adventure got the best of her. After purchasing a trailer in Florida, she returned to her farm in Vermont, loaded up 11 spare tires, 23 inner tubes, an electric generator, four spare axles, supplies, a complete darkroom and set out alone with a WWII jeep and her cat. The trailer weighed 16,000 pounds.Wollcock's adventure along one of the toughest roads in the world also revealed numerous design flaws in trailer manufacturing, which was just in its infancy. She was more than happy to tell the designers what worked and what did not.