The Trail of '98

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. An aging man, broken by hardship yet still haunted by memory, returns at the edge of death to tell the story that has never left him: the gold stampede, the trail north, and the losses that followed. His tale begins in the West Highlands, where a dreamy boy with a vivid imagination and a hunger for romance grows up beside his practical, brilliant brother Garry and their loving mother, then is carried away by books of travel and the promise of adventure. When he leaves home for work in Canada, the farewell is already steeped in grief. From San Francisco's glittering underworld to the brutal camps and tunnels of the North, he is swept into a world of labor, risk, and restless ambition. Along the way he meets the sharp-witted Prodigal, whose cynicism, generosity, and hidden education make him both companion and challenge. Together they move through mountain construction, harsh discipline, and the lure of the Great White Land and the coming gold rush, where friendship, class difference, and survival are tested at every turn. Lyrical, fierce, and deeply personal, this is a tale of youth, endurance, and the price of chasing the unknown.