A fascinating, and often terrifying, look into the Klondike gold rush of the late 1890s and the conditions people faced to get to the region. Thousands of people (mostly men) fled for the Klondike from all corners of the United States when they heard reports of gold fields with large nuggets just sitting there for the taking. People believed it, perhaps because they wanted to, perhaps because they were desperate to, and often spent their last dollar getting to Skagway and Dawson City. The vast majority turned around even before reaching these far flung towns, and never even saw where the gold mining was taking place. The conditions and terrain described are terrifyingly difficult and its amazing that even more people didn't die on their way in, considering how ill prepared most of them were. Author Brian Castner describes things well and has clearly done his research, providing a compelling story of a little known gold rush and bringing it and the people who participated in it to life.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

STAMPEDE by Brian Castner 3 STARS

NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE

This is an interesting novel about the famous Klondike Gold Rush. From the initial discovery of gold to the thousands of people who dropped everything to run for the gold. Desperate folks who thought they could get rich quickly but most found only pain and heartache.

The story is told in more of a story form, yet still giving the details about who found gold first, at which locations. The gold rush was 1896-1899, with the stampede being 1897-1898. Few people got rich from the gold that they found. They discovered that the inflation of regular things like food or supplies went up.

The book has a plethora of historical facts about the stampede, it would appeal to history buffs. Some of it was interesting to me, but I lost interest in it, somewhere in the middle.

Thankfully, I received a complimentary copy of #stampede @stampede from #netgalley I was under no obligation to post a review.

In history class we learned the facts of the Gold Rush but not much about the people who took the chance and headed to the Klondike. More fortunes may have been made in Seattle outfitting the hopefuls and giving them passage to the gold fields. Not many of them realized their dreams. This book told me about the people who took the chance and I found this to be a very enjoyable and informative read. It's also a good overall history and it made me want to read about the gold rush in greater detail. After finishing it I knew there was more I wanted to learn. I'm putting it on my "gift list" for upcoming holidays and birthdays.
My thanks to the publisher Doubleday Books and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

In 1896 there were two gold finds in the Yukon Territory of North West Canada. One was sizable and almost equivalent to the find at Sutter's Creek in California. For most prospectors, a creek that would yield more than ten cents a pan would be consider a great "strike". But not too far from the first strike another was found on the "Klondike" creek. This one yielded pans of up to $5.00 and averaged over $1.50.

During the time that over 100,000 stampeders overwhelmed the area, Dawson and Skagway were the two most popular destinations in the world. During the three years it took to dig out most of the gold out, 20,000,000 ounces, about $34 billion in today's was extracted. The price of gold in 1900 was higher (when adjusted for inflation) than in 2000. Most of the gold was extracted by panning the rivers and melting areas of perma-frost to follow the gold veins.

Of the 100k of people who set out from Seattle and points in Canada, half never made it to the area of the Yukon that led to the two passes that went into the Klondike. Half of those never made it over the passes, and fewer than 10k ever made it to the Goldfields. Of the few dozen millionaires most never made enough money to pay for a ticket home, and many ended up working for those who controlled the thousand best claims.

The moral of the story is that unlike oil, once the original strike is publicized, it's too late to go.

Written as a basic overview of the Klondike Gold Rush, Stampede highlights a rather colorful cast of characters that exemplify what life was like in those trying times - from Soapy Smith, conman extraordinaire; entrepreneur and determined survivor Belinda Mulrooney; the real discoverer of gold, Skookum Jim; the impressionable youth Jack London; to Colonel Samuel Steele who helped save the scrappiest of those determined to make their wealth in the Yukon. From the good time girls to the reporters who covered the mass exodus of folks from across the county, Castner reveals them all in rather engaging blend of history and narrative.
While I did not appreciate the author's inclusion of his politics at the end of the story, I do understand the point he was trying to make by "the madness of the crowds". All in all, engaging but basic, with other books on the market that delve deeper into a fascinating, if rather deadly, point in history.

At the beginning of this book, author Castner states that in order to make the book realistic, he's decided to use racist slurs like the n-word and other terms. I'm so tired of white authors doing this. Dear authors: you can convey racism without repeating the violence of using that word. He also uses "good time girls" to describe sex workers and uses a variety of other offensive terms in his quest to bestow period parlance on the book. And the book itself is rather dull, full of repetitive details and adjectives that rely on gender, age, and race stereotypes without actually telling the read about anything useful. The writing made it difficult to tell when Castner was providing historical narrative and when he was embellishing or speculating, and ultimately disappointed me.

This book is one of the few books that I have found accessible and engaging concerning the Gold Rush. While it shouldn't be taken as the last book on the subject, it is definitely a good place to begin. Castner's descriptions of characters and the stories he tells of them in the Klondike bring a story that may garner a few mentions in history class more of their due. This is the real Mountain Men, much more rough and trying. Many of these stories I had never heard of, aside from Jack London, and even then, I learned a great deal more about him.

What impressed me is not just what is included, but Castner's prose really pulled me in. I read a lot of nonfiction, some rather dry, but here is a book that I think could easily bridge the gap between popular nonfiction and academic insightfulness.

A brilliant telling of the great gold rush in Alaska. All the major characters are fleshed out and made all too human. This is a riveting retelling of the events of that era. Well done on all counts.

Best book I have read on the history of the Gold Rush in the Yukon! The bulk of the story is based on the human aspect of that era. Many lives were impacted by this drive for wealth and adventure in this gold “stampede”.