"Mrs. Hitchcock has written a narrative of a journey the like of which has never been undertaken before." - The Review of Reviews, 1900
"Most thrilling ... she returned the proud possessor of mountains of gold." - The Windsor Magazine, 1901
"Most interesting ... braved all the hardships and dangers of a journey to the Klondike." - Literary News, 1899
"It was a courageous act for these two women, accustomed to ease and luxury, to embark in an enterprise so tremendous as this Klondike expedition." -Overland Monthly, 1899
"Gold fell out wherever I poked my umbrella, and at the last moment Jones knocked out a stone, and right behind it shone a nugget which weighed eight ounces," thus writes Mrs. Hitchcock of one rich gold strike in her 1899 book "Two Women in the Klondike."
Mrs. Hitchcock's book is a story of a journey to the goldfields of Alaska undertaken by her and her friend Miss Edith Van Buren, who visited the Klondike in 1898. Mrs. Hitchcock has written a narrative of a perilous and eventful journey the like of which has never been undertaken before. Mrs. Hitchcock was apparently a lady of means, and travelled with half a ton of luggage. We have in this book the journal from day to day of the journey and experiences of two town-bred women in Dawson City in the height of the fashionable season.
Owing to the waters of the Yukon River being low, the two women were delayed for some time at Dawson City where they located miner's claims and lived as squatters. Besides the interesting incidents of travel included, the book included graphic descriptions of the Klondike region, and accounts of local customs and superstitions, as well as mining methods.
Their advent seems to have created a small sensation, for not only did they live in the biggest tent in Dawson, but they curled their hair and were apparelled in fine linen and dainty laces, gave dinner parties with ice-cream and mandolin accompaniments, to say nothing of a musical box. Mrs. Hitchcock travelled with a cage full of canaries and an aviary of pigeons, to say nothing of cameras, ice-cream freezers, and all the appurtenances of city life.
One of Hitchcock's fellow travelers, writes in his own book that "we had also, among our Argonauts seeking the unknown, two ladies; Mrs. Hitchcock possessed a most undeniable temper and tongue, the captain and various passengers felt the quality of both in infinite variety." - Jeremiah Lynch, Three Years in the Klondike (1904)
Mrs. Hitchcock tells us everything she saw on her journey up the Yukon River, and also of all her exploits when she set the fashion in Dawson City. She writes with a flowing pen, and besides describing what she saw, tells us everything she heard, and tells us a great deal. She returned the proud possessor of mountains of gold, making her a Lady Midas of the Arctic circle.
About the author
Mary Evelyn Hitchcock (1849 - 1920) was an American author and explorer.
