“They were drawn by a dazzling mirage, Eldorado in the Yukon, the land of gold at the end of the trail, the get-rich-quick Utopia on the other side of the wilderness,” writes Lowell Thomas, Jr., in his introduction to this anthology of memorable fact and fiction from one of the most exciting periods in American-Canadian history. Those who made it over the rugged trail needed ambition, endurance, guile, and plenty of luck. And, Mr. Thomas writes, “. . . where the chief figures were unlettered roustabouts out of the rough-and-tumble school of life, the Gold Rush was unbelievably lucky in attracting important writers”: Jack London, the Homer of the Yukon; Robert Service, its minstrel; William Ogilvie, its Commissioner; T. A. Rickard, geologist; Rex Beach, adventuring novelist.

The facts about the Alaskan gold rush have been recorded many times, but never before have its essential spirit and color been better or more vividly captured than in Lowell Thomas, Jr.’s tribute to his newly adopted home.