Boom and Bust in the Alaska Goldfields: A Multicultural Adventure

Description

In this lively narrative with its numerous illustrations and photographs, Steven C. Levi captures the color and the riches of the Alaska Gold Rush and tells the stories of the larger-than-life characters who lived the adventure. The Alaska Gold Rush at the end of the 19th century was the last great fit of gold fever in North America. Men and women--including African Americans, Portuguese, Japanese, Italians, and Chinese--all rushed north. Many of these adventurers died in the harsh Arctic winters or drowned in the leaky, rotting ships that ferried them to the gold fields. The Gold Rush created the geography of modern Alaska and brought its rich natural resources and large Native population under the eye of the American government. This book, says Levi, is not intended to be an overview of the Alaska Gold Rush. Rather, it is meant to provide a myriad of glimpses into the lives of people and events of the age. This is a book of popular history. If you find it interesting, don't thank the writer; credit the 100,000 men and women who rushed north in search of the precious yellow metal a century ago.

Far to the north of the 48 contiguous states, writes Steven C. Levi, is a land shrouded with the miasma of adventure. It is a land of glaciers the size of some states and fish the size of some cities. Its history is steeped in intrigue, scoundrels abound, and things that could never occur anywhere else on earth happened here. It has everything one has come to expect of an exotic port-and more. This land is Alaska.

The Alaska Gold Rush at the end of the 19th century was the last great fit of gold fever in North America. It promised untold riches to anyone who could get there, and created a last-ditch, wild-west culture of greed and sin--a perfect haven for dreamers and scoundrels alike. Men and women--including African Americans, Portuguese, Japanese, Italians, and Chinese--all rushed north. Many of these adventurers died in the harsh Arctic winters or drowned in the leaky, rotting ships that ferried the dreamers to the gold fields.

The Gold Rush created the geography of modern Alaska. Strikes in Nome (where the gold lay on the beach and anyone could reach down and pick it up), Juneau, Fairbanks, Valdez, and Kotzebue helped put Alaska on the map and brought its rich natural resources and large Native population under the eye of the American government.

In this lively narrative with its numerous illustrations and photographs, Steven C. Levi captures the color and the riches of the Alaska Gold Rush and tells the stories of the larger-than-life characters who lived the adventure. E. T. Barnette, for example, founded his own city (Fairbanks), established his own bank (Washington Alaska), and then absconded with every dime in the vault. George Hinton Henry, the father of Alaska journalism, was run out of every town where he tried to establish a newspaper.

This book, says Levi, is not intended to be an overview of the Alaska Gold Rush. Rather, it is meant to provide a myriad of glimpses into the lives of people and events of the age. This is a book of popular history. If you find it interesting, don't thank the writer; credit the 100,000 men and women who rushed north in search of the precious yellow metal a century ago.

Get the book

Amazon.com

Search the book

eBay.com

Search the book

Other editions

• 

  Boom and Bust in the Alaska Goldfields: A Multicultural Adventure

  • 2007
  • 268 pages
  • Paperback
  • Greenwood Publishing Group

Similar books

• 

  Alta California, 1840-1842: The Journal and Observations of William Dane Phelps, Master of the Ship "Alert"

  By William Dane Phelps

  276-9 , 403-3 ) ; William Richard Cutter , Genealogical and Personal Memoirs relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts ( N.Y. , 1908 ) , II , pp . 867-69 ; William Bentley , The Diary of William Bentley ...

• 

  History of Sacramento County, California

  By William Ladd Willis

  The California Pacific Company began the construction of a new bridge on the Howe truss pattern, October 2, 1869, ... the Southern Pacific Company and the counties of Yolo and Sacramento built a bridge jointly at the foot of H street.

• 

  Jackson Hole

  By Frank Calkins

  “ Beavertooth ” Neal was a beaver poacher of such guile and industry that he has since become a kind of folk hero . He used various devices to slip his illegal pelts by officers . One was to found the “ Leader Fur Company ” of Elk ...

• 

  Ecology and Restoration of Northern California Coastal Dunes

  By John O. Sawyer, Andrea J. Pickart

  RESTORATION AS CONSERVATION Restoration and preservation have sometimes been cast as philosophically opposed approaches to conservation ( Kane 1994 ) . However , one unifying theme is the recognition that neither restoration nor ...

• 

  The San Francisco Earthquake

  By Gordon Thomas, Max Morgan Witts

  A moment-by-moment account of the 1906 earthquake and the fire that followed it, using new source material and many eyewitness reports.

• 

  Saving California's Coast: Army Engineers at Oceanside and Humboldt Bay

  By Susan Pritchard O'Hara, Gregory Graves

  For more than a century the history of the American Frontier, particularly the West, has been the speciality of the Arthur H. Clark Company.

• 

  Savage Frontier Vol. III: Rangers, Riflemen, and Indian Wars in Texas 1840-1841

  By Stephen L. Moore

  ... 364 Bryan, Elizabeth, 87 Bryan, John Neely, 269 Bryant, Benjamin Franklin, 174, 197, 203, 309–10,313,316,364 Bryant, Jesse, 197, 313, 316, 364 Bryant's Station, 315 Bryant, William, 313, 364 Brymer, 296 Bryson, Thomas, 18 Buchannon, ...

• 

  Implementation: How Great Expectations in Washington Are Dashed in Oakland; Or, Why It's Amazing that Federal Programs Work at All,...

  By Aaron Wildavsky, Jeffrey L. Pressman

  “ The Methodology of Evaluation . ” In Perspectives on Curriculum Evaluation , edited by R. W. Taylor , et al . Skokie , Ill .: Rand McNally , 1976 . Segal , Steven P. “ Issues in the Utilization and Evaluation of Social ...

• 

  Amazing Pipeline Stories: How Building the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Transformed Life in America's Last Frontier

  By Dermot Cole

  In the 1970s, the world's largest construction companies invaded Alaska in a wild rush to build the 800-mile $8 billion trans-Alaska pipeline. Workers by the tens of thousands headed north,...

• 

  47 Down: The 1922 Argonaut Gold Mine Disaster

  By O. Henry Mace

  Advance Praise for 47 Down "A gripping mystery story: Will the men trapped deep underground in a mine by fire be reached by rescuers in time? And why do these...