The shaman predicted that Howard Rock would become a great man. He was born in 1911 in a sod igloo in Point Hope, an ancient Eskimo village in northwest Alaska where the people had hunted whales and lived off the land for centuries. Instead of becoming a hunter, Howard became an accomplished artist and crusading newspaper editor. He helped defend his people from a controversial Atomic Energy Commission proposal to excavate a harbor near the village with an above-ground atomic blast. Then Rock founded the Tundra Times and helped Alaska's Native people press their aboriginal land claims before Congress, ultimately winning a settlement. Deeply moving.

I cruised Alaska this summer and took a facinating tour of the Skagway Red Light district. After the tour, I wanted to learn more, thusly I hit a bookstore and found this book. I was thrilled to find it, as I recognized several of the names (Klondike Kate, PeaHull Annie, etc) and was looking forward to finding out more. The book promised not to leave out any "lusty and licentious parts". That couldn't be more wrong.

I found out more information about the men of the Kondike and their wenching habits, than the actual women themselves. In this case, my wonderfully guided tour gave me more information about how the women actually conducted their business (lots of interesting info about their personal hygene that are no where to be found in this book. what kind of book on prostitution doesn't talk about birth control methods and their ways of preventing VD? VD is barely brought up).

If I wanted to read about the men of the Klondike, I could pick up any random book in the Klondike History section of any bookstore. The women are often the ones forgotten about, and deserve better treatement in the annuls of history, most especially in a book supposedly about those women. If you want some good information on this type of history, go up to Alaska and take any one of the amazing Red Light District tours. Don't waste your money on this book.

I bought this book at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks bookstore. My dad, Class of '51 at UAF (we were there for his 50th reunion), had told me some stories about "The Line" and he had had his first job with the gold mining operations, so I was curious. There's not a lot of gory detail here. It's about people and places, but it's quite a colorful history. Though never officially legal, prostitution was tolerated and it flourished in Alaska for more than 50 years. And some very famous characters pop up, like Wyatt Earp and the "Birdman of Alcatraz". Definitely worth the time.

In the boomtowns of the Alaska-Yukon stampedes, where gold dust was common currency, the rarest commodity was an attractive woman, and her company could be costly. Author Lael Morgan takes you into the heart of the gold rush. Authentic, humorous and sympathetic. B/W photos.