Screamed the banner headline of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on July 17, 1897. This was after the S.S. Portland had arrived from St. Michael, Alaska, carrying 68 prospectors and what newspapers said was "a ton of gold." Two days earlier a similarly laden ship had arrived in San Francisco from Alaska. As newspapers spread the word that a great quantity of gold had been found along the Klondike River, a tributary of the Yukon, thousands of prospectors, in the midst of a depression, began to flock North to seek their fortune... And so started the Klondike gold rush...
We boarded the Oosterdam in Vancouver on June 21, not knowing what lay ahead of us in this upcoming adventure.
