Bibliograph

Stampede, gold fever and disaster in the Klondike, Brian Castner

Type

Label

Stampede, gold fever and disaster in the Klondike, Brian Castner

Language

eng

Illustrations

maps

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Stampede

Medium

text large print

Oclc number

1243263418

Responsibility statement

Brian Castner

Sub title

gold fever and disaster in the Klondike

Summary

"In 1897, the United States was mired in the worst economic depression that the country had yet endured. So when all the newspapers announced gold was to be found in wildly enriching quantities in the Klondike River region of the Yukon, a mob of economically desperate Americans swarmed north. Within weeks tens of thousands of them were embarking from western ports to throw themselves at some of the harshest terrain on the planet - in winter yet - woefully unprepared, with no experience at all in mining or mountaineering. It was a mass delusion that quickly proved deadly: avalanches, shipwrecks, starvation, murder. Upon this stage, author Brian Castner tells a relentlessly driving story of the gold rush through the individual experiences of the iconic characters who endured it. A young Jack London, who would make his fortune but not in gold. Colonel Samuel Steele, who tried to save the stampeders from themselves. The notorious gangster Soapy Smith, goodtime girls and desperate miners, Skookum Jim, and the hotel entrepreneur Belinda Mulrooney. The unvarnished tale of this mass migration is always striking, revealing the amazing truth of what people will do for a chance to be rich."--, Provided by publisher

Target audience

adult

resource.variantTitle

Gold fever and disaster in the Klondike

Classification