Finding Gold.

In the summer of 1897 Americans caught gold fever. Nothing captured the American male's search for manly adventure, rugged individualism, and money as the Klondike gold rush. In July the first tattered gold-laden millionaires landed on a San Francisco wharf, dragging suitcases, canvas sacks, and old cartons heavy with gold. Within a matter of minutes the Klondike stampede began. At the height of the gold rush in 1898 and 1899, more than one million people made plans to go to the Klondike region of the Yukon Territory of 1898 and 1899 in northwestern Canada, and one hundred thousand actually set off. The prospect of adventure and wealth appealed to many American men who found themselves doing repetitive, dull, and lowpaying work day in and day out. For those men who wanted to mine gold and for those businessmen and -women who saw opportunity in supplying...