The Hard Road to Klondike

Born in 1865 in Donegal, the eldest of twelve children in a poverty-stricken family, Michael MacGowan left home as a young man to work in Scotland, but soon headed for America and, he hoped, some kind of success. He worked his way across the country as a hobo, working in steel mills and mines in Tennessee and Montana, before embarking on his greatest adventure-the gold rush, in the primitive, harsh, and icy wastes of the Yukon. His saga is filled with vivid recountings of his adventures and experiences-canoeing the Yukon, panning for gold, sheltering with Indians, the long dark winters near the Arctic Circle-and his loyal ""sourdough"" companions. He returned home in 1901 and using the money from the gold he found, bought some land and a house, married, and never wandered again, dying in 1948. MacGowan's highly readable true story of the frontier is one of determination, courage, and spirit.