Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure

I feel like I recommend this only under a specific set of circumstances, ie: you are a middle school teacher teaching a unit about the Gold Rush OR Call of the Wild and you want some primary sources.

I picked it up with an eye to booktalk it for fans of nonfiction survival stories, but I just don't think it's... exciting... enough for the average young reader to pick up and read cover to cover. It has these great primary sources, family letters of 2 gold prospectors (Stanley Pearce and Marshall Bond), with great details about their lives, but the problem is... like... they don't find gold... and not that much happens to them really. Which I understand is extremely typical–the book says only 0.5% of gold rushers actually got rich on gold. But it's also uhh kind of a letdown, narratively speaking. Like, they go to Alaska (which: yes! Was a hard journey), they get some bad gold claims, they don't find very much gold, they leave Alaska and die from other reasons.

Also: the effect of the gold rush on First Nations and Native Americans is literally an afterthought, like literally the last page is about how the gold rushers “were clearly not aware of or concerned about the potentially detrimental effects of their actions on the land, animals, or Native people, who had already been living there for thousands of years.” Like ok sure, the gold rushers didn't think about them, but you, the author, could have maybe mentioned this sooner.

Anyway, as a historical document of these 2 specific Gold Rush dudes,this is great–great use of the letters, maps, old photos etc! And sort of good job contextualizing the Gold Rush. But it feels like kiind of a stretch to call this “an adventure.”