Gold Rush

Barry M. Gough is a professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University
and the author of The Northwest Coast: British Navigation, Trade, and
Discoveries to 1812 and First Across the Continent.

This wilderness adventure book is a tribute to those who tackled
mountains and rivers a century ago in the search for gold in the
Klondike. By horseback and scow, the Wilsons relived the adventure and
found gold in their pans on the rivers of the north. No strangers to
wilderness travel and frontier literature, they recount the troubles of
yesteryear in a vivid personal fashion. Their sketches and photographs
add much to the production. For all of its strengths, however, the book
lacks a historical dimension, and there is little commentary on those
who went before. A little pre-trip homework would have added an enriched
perspective on the past.