In 1897 a grimy steamer docked in Seattle and set into epic motion the incredible succession of events that Pierre Berton\'s exhilarating The Klondike Fever chronicles in all its splendid and astonishing folly.
It is a story of the human capacity to dream, and to endure..
It is a story of cold skies and avalanches, of con men and gamblers and dance hall girls, of sunken ships, of suicides, of dead horses and desperate men, of grizzly old miners and millionaires, of the land -- its exploitation and revenge.
Berton\'s story belongs less to the few who would make their fortunes than to the many swept up in the Gold mania, to often unfortunate effects and tragic ends.
Some would strike gold.
Less than a third of that number would complete the enormously arduous mountain journey to their destination.
Easily as many as 100,000 adventurers, dreamers, and would-be miners from all over the world struck out for the remote, isolated Gold fields in the Klondike Valley, most of them in total ignorance of the long, harsh Alaskan winters and the territory\'s indomitable terrain.
And immediately, the stampede north to Alaska began.
For the steamer Portland bore two tons of pure Klondike gold.
In 1897 a grimy steamer docked in Seattle and set into epic motion the incredible succession of events that Pierre Berton\'s exhilarating The Klondike Fever chronicles in all its splendid and astonishing folly
