Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Klondike!

Having once visited Dawson City in the Yukon, I decided this book Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike would be an interesting read.  Author Charlotte Gray takes a look at the gold rush and its relationship to the development and decline of Dawson City through the stories of six different individuals.  We witness the tale through the eyes of writer Jack London, miner Bill Haskell, businesswoman Belinda Mulrooney, journalist Flora Shaw, mountie Sam Steele, and priest Fr. William Judge.  This was a fascinating account of the free-wheeling and often amazing story of the gold rush from the travels on the Chilcoot Pass tthrough the earliest gold strikes, the tent cities, and freezing conditions and starvation, to the eventual commercialization of the gold industry.  Gray writes a worthwhile tale.  It makes me want to go back to the Yukon to see the area through better informed eyes.

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