Klondike Saga

Book excerpt: Klondike Saga was first published in 1965. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. This is the story of the Monitor Gold Mining and Trading Company, an organization of sixteen Minnesotans who went to the Canadian Klondike region in the late 1890's to prospect for gold. It is based on diaries and letters written by the men during their venture. Most of the company members were of Scandinavian origin, recent immigrants to America, and a number of the letters were written to Nye Normanden, a Norwegian-language newspaper published in Minneapolis at the time. The leader of the company, Lars Gunderson, was the grandfather of the late Carl L. Lokke, author of the book. Mr. Lokke, a historian, was chief of the foreign affairs branch of the National Archives at the time of his death in 1960. This is the first book issued under a joint publishing arrangement between the University of Minnesota Press and the Norwegian-American Historical Association. It is Volume 7 in the association's Travel and Description Series. There is a preface by Kenneth O. Bjork, editor of the association, and Senator Ernest Gruening of Alaska writes a foreword.