From the book jacket of the 1967 first edition:

"Alaska today is a modern community. But only a few short years ago it was a savage and primitive country. Herbert Heller has been fortunate enough to acquire original manuscripts in which some of the men who tamed that land in an incredibly short time have provided us with fascinating accounts of what they had to contend with. Their language is simple and direct, and the stories they tell are full of humor, wonder, and courage.

Most of these men came up north looking for easy money in the form of gold. All too frequently they were to learn that gold was never where they were. But they all fell in love with the vastness and the beauty of the land, and they stayed on.

Their accounts take in almost all aspects of the life they lived. There are stories of the brutal struggle for mere survival, or dealings -- both friendly and unfriendly -- with the Indians, of the encounters of green youths with sophisticated and hardened dance-hall girls and men, and of the first, faltering attempts to establish the principles of law and order in the community.

And dominating it all are the awesome splendor and magnificence of the country itself. The description of the spring break-up of the Chena River is breathtaking. The account of a bicycle ride from Valdez to Fairbanks is almost unbelievable."