Sunken Klondike Gold

On August 15, 1901, the 240-foot SS Islander hit an iceberg in Alaska's inside waters just twelve miles from Juneau. Gold worth $3 million was rumored to have been put aboard in Skagway. There was talk of a salvage operation, but for thirty-three years the passenger vessel lay out of reach in 350 feet of water. Accompanied by eight-five extraordinary photographs and illustrations, this is an insider's story of a two-year struggle to raise the "Islander," a record-breaking salvage that focused on a single prize - an elusive fortune in gold.

A gripping and wholly original account of the epic human tragedy that was the great Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98. One hundred thousand men and women rushed heedlessly north to make their fortunes; very few did, but many thousands of them (and their pack animals) died in the attempt. The electrifying announcement in 1897 that gold was to be found in wildly enriching quantities in the Klondike River region in remote Alaska was demonically well-timed to attract an exodus of economically desperate Americans. 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. It was a mass delusion that quickly proved deadly. Brian Castner tells the unvarnished yet always striking and often amazing truth of this greed-fuelled migration.

The wreck site was discovered during the course of a survey of Klondike Gold Rush era wrecks resting at the bottom of the lake in July 2008. Underwater archaeologists examined the ship in 2009 and found many objects preserved as they were when the ship went down. Among the artifacts was a phonograph with three records, including Rendezvous Waltz and a 1896 recording of Ma Onliest One. The finds gave valuable insight into songs being listened to during the Gold Rush. The Yukon government has designated the shipwreck a historic site."--from Wikipedia, Sept. 2012.

Author's account of his experience during the Klondike gold rush in the Yukon and Alaska. Includes descriptions of daily life and of Dawson City.

This fictionalized account of the Yukon gold rush follows a young man who risks everything for the chance of striking gold. Full color.