83 books like I Married the Klondike

By Laura B Berton,

Here are 83 books that I Married the Klondike fans have personally recommended if you like I Married the Klondike. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Book cover of Starting Out In the Afternoon

Jane Christmas Author Of What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim: A Midlife Misadventure on Spain's Camino de Santiago de Compostela

From my list on memoirs that combine the inward and outward journey.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a kid, I hated the outdoors, hated change, hated discomfort. Imagine my surprise when, in 2004, without an iota of expertise, I decided to hike Spain’s Camino de Santiago de Compostela. It was life-changing and world-opening on so many levels. Since then, I’ve written five best-selling journey memoirs, two of which have been nominated for awards. I read just about anything but I am particularly drawn to stories about those who leave the comfort of their homes to go and live another life. We all think of doing it; few of us actually do.

Jane's book list on memoirs that combine the inward and outward journey

Jane Christmas Why did Jane love this book?

Your marriage is over and your child is heading off to university. What to do? Why, you get in your car and drive nearly 6,000 km from Toronto to the Yukon. This lyrical, enchanting memoir of a mid-life journey tugs at the soul. What strikes me the most about it is the courage of its author to go it alone.

By Jill Frayne,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Starting Out In the Afternoon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Jill Frayne’s long-term relationship was ending and her daughter was about to graduate and leave home. She decided to pack up her life and head for the Yukon.

Driving alone across the country from her home just north of Toronto, describing the land as it changes from Precambrian Shield to open prairie, Jill finds that solitude in the wilds is not what she expected. She is actively engaged by nature, her moods reflected in the changing landscape and weather. Camping in her tent as she travels, she begins to let go of the world she’s leaving and to enter the…


Book cover of The Spell of the Yukon

Dorris Heffron Author Of City Wolves: Historical Fiction

From my list on the adventurers of The Klondike Gold Rush.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a novelist all my adult life. My first three books are novels about teenagers, regarded as pioneers in the genre of Young Adult fiction. My inspiration has always been real people, events, and places. Animals, especially dogs have always been part of my life. I turned to adult fiction because I felt the need to write about the full cast of life. City Wolves was inspired, if not driven by my first Malamute, Yukon Sally. With the research she led me to do into wolves, sled dogs, the history of women veterinarians, the real people who were part of the Klondike Gold Rush, I found some marvellous biographies, histories, biological studies, and poetry.

Dorris' book list on the adventurers of The Klondike Gold Rush

Dorris Heffron Why did Dorris love this book?

Robert Service became a bank clerk in the Klondike Gold Rush. But that was to support his life as a poet.

At one time he lived and wrote in a log cabin now standing across the road from the house in Dawson City where Pierre Berton grew up. Pierre Berton was born long after Robert Service, but the poems of Robert Service have been popular for generations.

They portray the life and characters of the Yukon around the time of the gold rush. Pierre Berton gave many public performances reciting the whole of Service’s The Shooting of Dan McGrew. No one could do it better. I joined others rising to our feet in applause and whistles.

There is a Malamute Saloon named after a line in that famous poem which I took my Yukon Sally to in Dawson City. My photo of that brings tears to my eyes.    

By Robert Service,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Spell of the Yukon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Robert Service wrote in the golden years of the Klondike -- of the rough and ready men, and women just as tough. No-one in Robert's world (real or imagined) minced words or had any self-consciousness about them. It was live and let live and sometimes kill or be killed. Reading his poems transports us back to that frozen place in nature when it was literally every man and every woman for him/herself, yet Robert conveys to us not only a sensitivity (in his poem extolling the simple light switch -- something quite novel in those times, especially in the Klondike),…


Book cover of Gold at Fortymile Creek: Early Days in the Yukon

Frances Backhouse Author Of Women of the Klondike

From my list on the Klondike Gold Rush.

Why am I passionate about this?

My interest in the Klondike gold rush was sparked by a Canadian history course I took as an undergrad. Nearly all the accounts I read then relegated female participants to the sidelines and implied that most were of dubious moral character, but I suspected there was more to the story than that. I started digging and, unlike many Klondikers, I struck gold. Since then I’ve made numerous visits to the Yukon and Alaska, hiked the Chilkoot Trail twice and spent three months as Writer in Residence at Berton House in Dawson City (where I worked on my third gold rush book, Children of the Klondike). Today, I’m still captivated by this colorful, character-rich historic event.

Frances' book list on the Klondike Gold Rush

Frances Backhouse Why did Frances love this book?

This impeccably researched book by Yukon historian Michael Gates provides the backstory to the 1896 discovery that kicked off the Klondike gold rush. Small numbers of gold-seekers began prowling the creeks of Alaska and the Yukon as early as 1873 and their stories are every bit as fascinating as the stories of those who followed. These men, and the occasional woman, were a particularly hardy lot who put themselves through incredible hardship in hopes of finding a fortune. They were perfectly positioned to beat the rush to the Klondike goldfields and some of them did clean up. But regardless of whether they struck it rich, all of these risk-takers and dreamers helped set the stage for the big event.

By Michael Gates,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Gold at Fortymile Creek as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The book, based on the accounts of dozens of prospectors, follows the first gold-seekers from their arrival in 1873 until the stampede to the Klondike in 1896. Gates captures the essence of these early years of the gold rush, about which very little has been written. He chronicles the trials, hearbreaks, and successes of the unique and hardy individualists who searched for gold in the wilderness. With names like Swiftwater Bill, Crooked Leg Louie, Slobbery Tom, and Tin Kettle George, these men lived in total isolation beyond the borders of civilization. They were often eccentrics and outcasts, who shaped their…


Book cover of Frontier Spirit: The Brave Women of the Klondike

Dorris Heffron Author Of City Wolves: Historical Fiction

From my list on the adventurers of The Klondike Gold Rush.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a novelist all my adult life. My first three books are novels about teenagers, regarded as pioneers in the genre of Young Adult fiction. My inspiration has always been real people, events, and places. Animals, especially dogs have always been part of my life. I turned to adult fiction because I felt the need to write about the full cast of life. City Wolves was inspired, if not driven by my first Malamute, Yukon Sally. With the research she led me to do into wolves, sled dogs, the history of women veterinarians, the real people who were part of the Klondike Gold Rush, I found some marvellous biographies, histories, biological studies, and poetry.

Dorris' book list on the adventurers of The Klondike Gold Rush

Dorris Heffron Why did Dorris love this book?

Author Jennifer Duncan an adventurous person herself, went to the Yukon a hundred years after the Klondike Gold Rush and lived in Dawson City, now a picturesque historical heritage town where the saloons and dancehalls replay the raucous social times of the 1890s gold rush.

Her book gives a real feel for the place and the remarkable women who grappled their way across the continent and north to the land of the midnight sun. They turned themselves into smart businesswomen and made fortunes without digging for gold.

A diligent researcher, Duncan casts a new light on who first discovered gold in the Klondike. Not the American Carmack but his Indigenous wife, Kate who let him take the credit for the discovery. He later denied her as his wife and abandoned her.   

By Jennifer Duncan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Frontier Spirit as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The brave women of the klondike.


Book cover of Wealth Woman: Kate Carmack and the Klondike Race for Gold

Frances Backhouse Author Of Women of the Klondike

From my list on the Klondike Gold Rush.

Why am I passionate about this?

My interest in the Klondike gold rush was sparked by a Canadian history course I took as an undergrad. Nearly all the accounts I read then relegated female participants to the sidelines and implied that most were of dubious moral character, but I suspected there was more to the story than that. I started digging and, unlike many Klondikers, I struck gold. Since then I’ve made numerous visits to the Yukon and Alaska, hiked the Chilkoot Trail twice and spent three months as Writer in Residence at Berton House in Dawson City (where I worked on my third gold rush book, Children of the Klondike). Today, I’m still captivated by this colorful, character-rich historic event.

Frances' book list on the Klondike Gold Rush

Frances Backhouse Why did Frances love this book?

The highly readable Wealth Woman, by longtime Alaskan Deb Vanasse, fills a major gap on the Klondike bookshelf. It is the first full biography of Kate Carmack, the Tagish woman who was wife, sister, and aunt to the men whose discovery launched the gold rush. And it flips the conventional Klondike narrative on its head and considers the event from the generally overlooked perspective of the Indigenous communities and individuals whose territories were overrun by gold-seekers.

By Deb Vanasse,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Wealth Woman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With the first headlines screaming "Gold! Gold! Gold!" in 1896, the Klondike Gold Rush was on-and it almost instantly became the stuff of legend. One of the key figures in the early discoveries that set off the gold rush was the Tagish wife of prospector George Carmack, Kate Carmack, whose fascinating story is told in full here for the first time.

In Wealth Woman, Deb Vanasse recounts Kate's life from her early years on the frontier with George, through the history-making discovery of gold, and on to her subsequent fame, when she traveled alone down the West Coast through Washington…


Book cover of Colt

Dorothy A. Bell Author Of Waltz on the Big Meadow

From my list on historical romance on dilemmas and history.

Why am I passionate about this?

The books I read have to draw me in like a good movie. It has to be relatable as far as characters and plot go. I want to see it, smell it, and taste it. We’ve moved a lot, and every time we’ve moved, we always check out the local history and geology. There are so many stories to tell. I’ll see the name of a road, a creek, or a mountain, and it will spark a story within me, like seeing a really good movie with great actors. 

Dorothy's book list on historical romance on dilemmas and history

Dorothy A. Bell Why did Dorothy love this book?

This author is new to me, but she won’t be for long. As Western romances go, it was different. I liked that there was a quest. I also liked that the female character was intrepid, strong-willed, and fierce. And the man had to accept that.

Both of them were tough; they had to be, and yet both of them were soft-hearted, and they recognized that they were equal. It was a delight to read. It even brought forth a giggle or two as they spared and rangled like a really good John Wayne movie.

By Kate Bridges,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Colt as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Be swept away by these passionate ALASKA COWBOYS and MOUNTIES! This heartwarming western historical romance series by USA TODAY bestselling author, Kate Bridges, celebrates sexy heroes and remarkable women as they fall in love.

Alaska and the Yukon, 1898

MEET COLT, the strong and silent Mountie who's forced to escort the beautiful, brainy and talkative Elizabeth through the northern wilderness.

Mountie Colt Hunter is on a dangerous undercover mission with his team of Mounties, traveling to Alaska and the Yukon, and the last thing he wants is the delicate doctor Elizabeth Langley joining them. He agrees to take her on…


Book cover of Collected Poems of Robert Service

Harold Bergman Author Of Sometimes the Heart Sees Things the Eyes Cannot

From my list on poems written by Canadians madly in love.

Why am I passionate about this?

Over my past 87 years, I have experienced a multitude of intimate relationships, including “falling in lust,” infidelity, “one-night stands,” one-week trysts to 40-year companionships, two marriages, and fatherhood, but the one that was most lasting and important to me was one of unconditional love.

Harold's book list on poems written by Canadians madly in love

Harold Bergman Why did Harold love this book?

I love this book because Robert Service is the most famous Canadian author and writes about adventuresome people who don’t fit in.

The poet descriptively pens events foreign to that experienced by most everyday, common people, and romanticizes his characters in such a way that the reader can’t help but have empathy for them and their situation.

By Robert Service,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Collected Poems of Robert Service as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Robert Service, who is known as the “Bard of the Yukon,” is known for his ability to capture the adventure, desolation, and beauty of the Canadian North, and this authoritative collection highlights his most popular works that came to immortalize the Klondike Gold Rush. This expansive edition of the poetry of Robert Service includes his most beloved works, including The Spell of the Yukon and Ballads of a Cheechako, in one beautiful hardbound collection.

Perfect for fans of Jack London and Rudyard Kipling, Service’s work is readable verse that will appeal to adventurers, nature-lovers, and historians. Filled with colorful characters…


Book cover of The Golden Grindstone: One Man's Adventures in the Yukon (Arctic Adventure)

Lawrence Millman Author Of At the End of the World: A True Story of Murder in the Arctic

From my list on the North.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve had a passion for northern places ever since I was a kid. I prefer locales that boast plenty of nature and not very many human beings. I’ve been to Greenland 15 times, but only once to Paris and never to Rome (Rome in New York State once). The more remote the locale, the better. Which is why I’ve only once been to Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, but several times to almost never visited villages in East Greenland.

Lawrence's book list on the North

Lawrence Millman Why did Lawrence love this book?

I’m recommending this book because I think it’s the best book ever written about the Klondike Gold Rush. During his numerous adventures, the main character, George Mitchell, finds something far more valuable than gold. The book was so little known that I felt obliged to get it back into print as well as write an introduction to the reissue.

By Angus Graham,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Golden Grindstone as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A fearless explorer searches for gold on the rugged Canadian frontier in this adventure classic.


Book cover of Wolves of the Yukon

Dorris Heffron Author Of City Wolves: Historical Fiction

From my list on the adventurers of The Klondike Gold Rush.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a novelist all my adult life. My first three books are novels about teenagers, regarded as pioneers in the genre of Young Adult fiction. My inspiration has always been real people, events, and places. Animals, especially dogs have always been part of my life. I turned to adult fiction because I felt the need to write about the full cast of life. City Wolves was inspired, if not driven by my first Malamute, Yukon Sally. With the research she led me to do into wolves, sled dogs, the history of women veterinarians, the real people who were part of the Klondike Gold Rush, I found some marvellous biographies, histories, biological studies, and poetry.

Dorris' book list on the adventurers of The Klondike Gold Rush

Dorris Heffron Why did Dorris love this book?

I did a lot of research before writing my book. I’ve always written realistic fiction inspired by real people and places. But this novel was driven by a dog, my first Alaskan Malamute whom I called Yukon Sally.

I’ve always had a dog, some kind of Collie from a farm or an animal shelter. After my youngest daughter flew off to university I thought we could spring for a purebred and chose a Malamute because they come from Arctic wolves.

Intrigued by Yukon’s wolf-like traits I researched wolves then the Malamute breed and took Yukon Sally to the Yukon to study sled dogs and the background of the Klondike Gold Rush which was the glory days of the Malamute sled dogs.

While there, I discovered Bob Hayes’ book and learned some more important facts about wolves. They do not need to be culled. Read it and see why. 

By Bob Hayes,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Wolves of the Yukon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Bob Hayes researched wolves in the Yukon for 20 years. Using a combination of narratives and easy-to-follow essays, his book follows the history of the Yukon wolf from the end of the Ice Age to present day. Bob Hayes also explores his original research into wolf relations to moose, caribou, mountain sheep, ravens, grizzly bears and human hunters. The last chapter tells why broad-scale killing of wolves to increase game should end. Finally, Wolves of the Yukon raises profound arguments about how to value and conserve the largest remaining tract of complete wilderness on the continent.


Book cover of Being Caribou: Five Months on Foot with an Arctic Herd

Michael Engelhard Author Of Arctic Traverse: A Thousand-Mile Summer of Trekking the Brooks Range

From my list on Alaska adventure (that are not Into the Wild).

Why am I passionate about this?

I followed the call of the North from Germany to Alaska in 1989—too much Jack London in my formative years, you might say. After living in a cabin without running water and getting a degree in anthropology in Fairbanks, I drifted into the world of wilderness guiding and outdoors instructing, which for the next twenty-five years determined the course of my life. Human-powered travel, on foot or skis, by raft, canoe, or kayak, has fascinated me ever since. At the same time I became immersed in wildlife and natural history, which, despite threats to the Arctic, still largely play out as they did thousands of years ago.

Michael's book list on Alaska adventure (that are not Into the Wild)

Michael Engelhard Why did Michael love this book?

For five months, the wildlife biologist and his filmmaker wife, on skis and on foot, shadowed the Porcupine caribou herd’s spring migration from boreal forest wintering grounds to their nursery on Alaska’s tussock-studded tundra—“North America’s Serengeti,” or, to the Gwich’in Indians, who depend on the animals for subsistence and spiritual nourishment, “The Place Where Life Begins.”

The couple’s journey impresses me as a long-distance feat, and with its poetic rendering, but foremost with its conservation angle. They raised awareness of fossil fuel extraction that threatens lifeways, both the Gwich’in’s and the caribou’s; after their trip, they ventured to Washington D.C. to lobby for the wildlife refuge’s protection.

The book’s highlight for me is the couple tentbound, whispering—out of consideration—amidst thousands of birthing caribou cows.

By Karsten Heuer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Being Caribou as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

For eons, female members of the Porcupine caribou herd have made the journey from their winter feeding grounds to their summer calving grounds-which happen to lie on vast reserves of oil. They once roamed borderless wilderness; now they trek from Canada, where they're protected, to the United States, where they are not.

In April 2003, wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer and filmmaker Leanne Allison set out with the Porcupine caribou herd. Walking along with the animals over four mountain ranges, through hundreds of passes, and across dozens of rivers-a thousand-mile journey altogether, from the Yukon Territory to the Arctic National Wildlife…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Toronto, Canada, and the Klondike Gold Rush?

Toronto 64 books
Canada 443 books