Customer Reviews

Good Time Girls: Of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush

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I cruised Alaska this summer and took a facinating tour of the Skagway Red Light district. After the tour, I wanted to learn more, thusly I hit a bookstore and found this book. I was thrilled to find it, as I recognized several of the names (Klondike Kate, PeaHull Annie, etc) and was looking forward to finding out more. The book promised not to leave out any "lusty and licentious parts". That couldn't be more wrong.

I found out more information about the men of the Kondike and their wenching habits, than the actual women themselves. In this case, my wonderfully guided tour gave me more information about how the women actually conducted their business (lots of interesting info about their personal hygene that are no where to be found in this book. what kind of book on prostitution doesn't talk about birth control methods and their ways of preventing VD? VD is barely brought up).

If I wanted to read about the men of the Klondike, I could pick up any random book in the Klondike History section of any bookstore. The women are often the ones forgotten about, and deserve better treatement in the annuls of history, most especially in a book supposedly about those women. If you want some good information on this type of history, go up to Alaska and take any one of the amazing Red Light District tours. Don't waste your money on this book.

In the boomtowns of the Alaska-Yukon stampedes, where gold dust was common currency, the rarest commodity was an attractive woman, and her company could be costly. Author Lael Morgan takes you into the heart of the gold rush. Authentic, humorous and sympathetic. B/W photos.

I bought this book at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks bookstore. My dad, Class of '51 at UAF (we were there for his 50th reunion), had told me some stories about "The Line" and he had had his first job with the gold mining operations, so I was curious. There's not a lot of gory detail here. It's about people and places, but it's quite a colorful history. Though never officially legal, prostitution was tolerated and it flourished in Alaska for more than 50 years. And some very famous characters pop up, like Wyatt Earp and the "Birdman of Alcatraz". Definitely worth the time.

This it not the type of book I typically read. But while in Skagway on a second cruise to Alaska this summer, I skimmed this book in a bookstore but did not purchase it there. I continued to think about it, so I ordered it from Amazon.com. I am not studying anthropology nor am I an avid reader of books related to historical things, so this was a "one of a kind" read for me; and an interesting one at that. However, I agree with another reviewer that the book, while well researched, was not well organized. Except for a few chapters devoted to specific women, there was considerable lack of organization and I especially found chronology confusing. But, it in addition to stories about the women in the trade, it has enlightening segments about men everyone has heard of - Al Cody and Wyatt Earp - who spent some time in Alaska. I even learned about the "Birdman of Alcataz". Interesting comparisons are made of the various gold rush "camps", the extent to which the "good time girls" were accepted in these camps and what happened to some of these women later in life. Other than an occasional mention about the two common SIDs (sexually transmitted diseases) of that era, not much is mentioned about the other health-related issues the women faced other than tuberculosis, pneumonia or plagues. For example, I don't recall any mention of pregnancies and struggles with raising children while in the trade; perhaps there was no information available on these issues.