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Book Review: Gold Rush Women

© Katie Anne Gustafsson

Book Review: "Gold Rush Women" by Claire Rudolph Murphy / Jane G. Haigh

This is a slim volume in paperback that disguises a wealth of information about some of the women who made it to Alaska and endured the hardships in the gold-boom towns.

In all 23 women are featured. A biography of their lives explains why they travelled to the area, and what they did when they arrived there. Some of them followed their husbands; some of them prospected for themselves; some of them were native to the area; some of the raised children in frozen isolation; some of them started as prospectors and then turned their attention to making money from other prospectors by using other skills such as cooking. With each biography is a photograph of the woman as she was then, and scattered throughout the 126 pages are many other photographs, maps and excepts of newspaper articles. The biographies don't end with the women leaving Alaska - they give a brief summary of the women until the end of their lives so you get some sense of how the women developed after their northern experiences.

When many of the women arrived, there was usually mud and canvas tents to greet them. But as the book shows, once women came, so did civilisation and towns started to evolve - only to be abandoned when the mines ran dry and word of gold being found in other areas spread throughout the area.

Women experienced the same hardships as men in getting to the gold prospecting areas. They camped out, endured a long strenuous journey, hardships, and had to carry their supplies. As Anne Hall Strong said in her article in "The Skagway News", December 1897 (published in the book in its entirety) "...delicate women have no right attempting the trip. It means utter collapse" Attempt it they did however, and this book proves it.

When I first looked at the book, I didn't think it could contain much information. I was wrong - it's a goldmine of information! The one thing that stands out in my mind is that the book shows how recent in history terms that this all happened. Some of these women lived until the 1970s! If this period of history interests you, then this book will fascinate you!

Katie-Anne Gustafsson

Gold Rush Women by Claire Murphy and Jane G. Haigh. Published by Alaska Northwest Books, ISBN 0-88240-484-9: Cover price $16.95, available from Amazon.com.

The copyright of the article Book Review: Gold Rush Women in Women's History is owned by Katie Anne Gustafsson. Permission to republish Book Review: Gold Rush Women in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.