In looking for a story to tell, I like to put a character in a difficult situation and see how clever he or she is about solving the problems that arise. What could be more difficult, more physically challenging, than the task the Stampeders of 1898 set themselves—not just to find gold but, they discovered once they were well on their way, to walk, climb, scramble across the toughest terrain in North America in weather that ran the gamut from bone-chilling blizzards to blistering heat. Could a thirteen-year-old boy manage this, I wondered?

    Amazingly the Klondike Trail, which included climbing the nearly vertical Chilkoot Pass in the depths of winter, was traveled not just by strong, young men but also by women, at least one of whom, Martha Black, was pregnant at the time. So, I decided, a thirteen-year-old boy might just make it to gold country. I didn’t climb the Chilkoot myself but I read so many interesting and detailed accounts by some of the original Stampeders that I felt as though I had. This is the kind of research I find most useful for writing a story set in the past—reading the journals, letters and diaries of people who actually lived the experience. After that, it’s all up to my imagination—a writer’s most powerful tool.

Excerpts from the Junior Library Guild Resource Catalogue, 2002