I Married the Klondike

Nora T. Corley is a librarian in Ottawa.

Laura Beatrice Thompson heard the call of the Yukon in 1907 when she accepted the post of kindergarten directness in Dawson City for $1200 a year. With some apprehension, a good deal of excitement and against the advice of well-meaning family and friends, Laura went to “try it for a year” and stayed for the better part of twenty-five. The gold rush was over when Laura arrived in Dawson, and many people were leaving; the town was slowly getting smaller and smaller. Dawson was still, however, a bustling place socially, particularly during the long dark winter. Many customs and traditions were followed faithfully through each season, and Laura quickly fell into the routines of her new home. On a trip to the goldfields she met Frank Berton, a shy, clever young man, whom many considered to be eccentric because they did not know him. He was an educated man who preferred the great outdoors to the halls of academe. The winter following their casual meeting found Frank in Dawson teaching French, and Laura one of his students. By spring they had an “understanding.” Married some time later, they set up housekeeping at “Honeymoon Villa,” a tent on Sourdough Gulch near Bonanza Creek, where Frank was working. After an adventurous summer they moved back to Dawson, where they spent most of the years before Frank’s superannuation in 1929 from his position as gold commissioner. Laura Berton has written a gallant account of her life in a northern city, which was always a step behind the times — past its prime when she arrived and even more so when she left. Her delight in the country is obvious. She was friends with many famous Yukoners (George Black, Joe Boyle, Robert W. Service, Bishop and Mrs. Stringer) as well as many who were not considered “society”; and she speaks of all of them with warmth. Laura Berton’s account of her life in the Yukon was first published in 1954 (Boston, Little, Brown; and London, Hurchinson, 1955) when she was 79 years old. Since then it has become, in the words of her son Pierre, “a minor Canadian classic.” This current reissue was timed to appear in conjunction with the CBC television drama with the same name. This is a most enjoyable book, recommended to all interested in the early days of the Yukon and life in Canada’s North. (In his book Drifting Home [New York: Knopf, 1974] Pierre Benton tells us more about his parents. Recommended as a companion volume to I Married the Klondike.)