Gold at Fortymile Creek: Early Days in the Yukon

By Michael Gates

Book Overview

Gold at Fortymile Creek tells the story of the search for gold in the Yukon before the great Klondike gold rush. Michael Gates writes about the life and times of the early pioneers, who suffered unimaginable hardships in search of the big strike. It is a story about survival and adversity, life and death, good times and bad on one of the harshest, most formidable frontiers in the world. The book, based on the accounts of dozens of prospectors, follows the first gold-seekers from their arrival in 1873 until the stamped to the Klondike in 1896. Gates captures the essence of these early years of the gold rush, about which very little has been written. He chronicles the trials, heartbreaks, and successes of the unique and hardy individualists who searched for gold in the wilderness. With names like Swiftwater Bill, Crooked Leg Louie, Slobbery Tom, and Tin Kettle George, these men lived in total isolation beyond the borders of civilization. They were often eccentrics and outcasts, who shaped their own rules, their own justice and their own social order. Into this no-man's-land came the harbingers of civilization: the traders, missionaries, gentlemen travellers, pioneer women, North-West Mounted Police, and counless others who populated the rough-and-ready settlements--Fort Reliance, Forty Mile, Circle, and Dawson--which grew up around each new find. Fascinating and informative, Gold at Fortymile Creek tells the story of a rag-tag group of risk-takers and dreamers, who set the stage for one of the most remarkable events of the nineteenth century--the Klondike gold rush.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0774804688
• ISBN13: 9780774804684
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Age Range: 22 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent history book.

Michael Gates' book is an excellent history of gold exploration in the Yukon region prior to the Klondike gold rush stampede of 1897-98. Gates points out very well how important transportation and communciations were at the time, as well as the logistical difficulties of food supplies, and the role of poor diet to the miners' health. He also shows how little it took to create a stampede even among experienced prospectors, the development and role of the trading companies, the code of behavior among the early-day prospectors, and the personalities of the miners. Gary Christenson

"Gold Rush" is excellent reading

I throughly enjoyed this book. Gates does an excellent job in going into enough detail to make the book interesting but not heavy and boring. Having been an Alaska resident for 11 years and answering people's questions about that great state I was surprised in my knowledge gap concerning the gold rush. They still mine gold in Alaska today but not like they did then. It was dangerous just to get to where the gold was not to mention getting it out of the ground and trying to survive the harsh winters. This book is an educational, informative piece of work. It covers all aspects of a miner's life and several colorful characters from the gold rush. A great, fun to read book. If Alaska and the Yukon spark you interest and daydreams, this book, both paperback and hardcover, are well worth the asking price. This book will be one of the gems of your library. J.Grimes