Before the Gold Rush

Jean Free, formerly an elementary-school teacher-librarian, is currently
a library consultant in Ontario.

Pierre Berton’s Klondike stories tell of “human greed and ... folly
... of high adventure and occasional heroism.” These two books, which
complete the six-part series in McClelland and Stewart’s The Great
Klondike Gold Rush, make exciting nonfiction reading for
intermediate-grade students.

Before the Gold Rush tells of the men (and some women) who searched for
gold in an inhospitable land of muskeg and insects “so thick they
blotted out the sun.” Stories of hopeful prospectors climbing the
famous Chilkoot Pass and searching for wealth along the great Yukon
river and its tributaries make dramatic reading. There are tales of
great wealth painstakingly acquired and then squandered on dance-hall
girls and “hootch”; of outfitters who trusted miners with thousands
of dollars; of courage, blizzards, and starvation in the obsessive
search for gold. Kings of the Klondike relates the stories of unknown
names who become real characters: men like greenhorn Tom Lippy, from the
Seattle YMCA, who stakes the richest claim in the Klondike, and women
like Mrs. Willis, a laundress who became rich there in 1895.

This series would make an excellent supplement to Canadian history
courses. The two books under review include maps, an index, and
interesting line drawings by Paul McCusker. Highly recommended.