Children of the Klondike

From the bestselling author of Women of the Klondike, discover the captivating and hidden stories of the children whose lives were forever changed by the Klondike gold rush. Winner of the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize. Attracting tens of thousands of men and women hoping to strike it rich, the Klondike gold rush brought with it a frenzy of activity unlike anything the world had ever seen. The few children who lived in Dawson City and its surrounding mining camps during the Klondike gold rush had front-row seats to this treasure hunt of the century—and to all the antics that a lust for gold brought with it. In Children of the Klondike, her companion book to the bestselling Women of the Klondike, Frances Backhouse explores the experiences of the children who followed their parents north in search of fortune or were born in the goldfields. A chronological story of the gold rush from the discovery of gold in 1896 to the emergence of Dawson City as a post-gold-rush town in the early twentieth century, Children of the Klondike tells the stories of individual children. With anecdotes that range from humorous to heartbreaking, it paints a detailed picture of what it was like to grow up in a rough yet cosmopolitan northern frontier community populated by lucky millionaires, down-and-out dreamers, scarlet women, and a few adventurous families.