Accurate account of Klondike Gold Rush turns mythology on its head

gata.org / By David A. James via Alaska Dispatch News, Anchorage / March 12, 2017

“All for the Greed of Gold: Will Woodin’s Klondike Adventure.” Edited by Catherine Holder Spude; Washington State University Press; 2016; 294 pages; $27.95

Nothing in northern history is as heavily romanticized as the Klondike Gold Rush. The era has been mythologized as the last great leap in westward expansion, when thousands flooded north and a culture of greed, gambling, and gunplay swept over the Last Frontier.

The popular narrative makes for good novels and movies, but apart from the exploits of Soapy Smith, it didn’t happen that way. As we learn from “All for the Greed of Gold,” a recently published firsthand account of life on the trail to Dawson City in 1898, what mostly transpired was a lot of hard work. It’s not the stuff of Hollywood productions, but it’s actually fascinating for what it tells us about the people who went and what their experiences required of them. …

… For the remainder of the report:

https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/we-alaskans/2017/03/12/accurate-account-…

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