Includes bibliographical references.

"A gripping and wholly original account of the epic human tragedy that was the great Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1898"--,Provided by publisher.

In 1897, the United States was mired in the worst economic depression that the country had yet endured. When newspapers announced gold was to be found in wildly enriching quantities at the Klondike River region of the Yukon, a mob of economically desperate Americans swarmed north. Within weeks tens of thousands of them were embarking from western ports to throw themselves at some of the harshest terrain on the planet-- in winter yet-- woefully unprepared, with no experience at all in mining or mountaineering. Castner tells of the gold rush through the individual experiences of the iconic characters who endured it. A young Jack London, who would make his fortune but not in gold. Colonel Samuel Steele, who tried to save the stampeders from themselves. The notorious gangster Soapy Smith, goodtime girls and desperate miners, Skookum Jim, and the hotel entrepreneur Belinda Mulrooney. -- adapted from jacket