A Trail of Broken Dreams: The Gold Rush Diary of Harriet Palmer

Susan Merskey is freelance writer in London, Ontario.

It is 1862. Harriet’s mother has just been buried in Upper Fort Garry
(now part of Winnipeg). Her father is away searching for gold. A
neighbour is watching Harriet and her sister and brother, but plans to
return to Eastern Canada the following year, taking Luella and William,
but not Harriet.

Spurred on by the urgent need to contact her father before this
happens, Harriet joins a group setting off for the Cariboo goldfields,
hoping to find him there. Disguised as a boy, she endures the hardships
of travel and survival along the trail through a long summer and early
fall, as well as being tormented by some of the boys and men.
Eventually, she is exposed as a girl, but is protected by one boy and
his father, plus a woman who is travelling with her young children.
Reaching Cariboo, she asks for news of her father, only to be told that
he died of fever out near the gold diggings three days earlier. However,
she and her protector, Talbot, journey to the site of his claim and find
that he is still alive—it was his partner who died. Harriet and her
father are eventually reunited with Luella and William, and the family
settles in Victoria and subsequently in the Okanagan Valley.

The diarist never minimizes the hardships she endured, but she does not
exaggerate them either. While Harriet and her diary are fictional, the
experiences she chronicles could well have been those of anyone lured to
Cariboo by the gold rush. Photographs, historical notes, and an
author’s epilogue describing the later fortunes of Harriet, Talbot,
and their families all add interest and credibility to the story.

Haworth-Attard is a well-known writer of historical fiction. This
carefully researched book is another fine addition to the Dear Canada
series, which helps young readers learn more about the history of the
country. Recommended.