High hopes and Dashed dreams celebrates the centennial of the Klondike Gold rush. One of Canada's great stories is that of the Klondike Gold Rush. When news of gold struck the cash-strapped economically depressed world of the 1890's, Canada was suddenly the place to be. Imagine the desperation that ripped men and women from the comforts of hearth and home and drove them into the frozen ferel hinterland. What yearning possessed them, giving them the strength to surmount the barriers of a hostile land and all the fury that nature could unleash? Picture the isolation and despair when all was lost and, thousands of miles from home, they resigned themselves to failure. Yukon Gold: High Hope and Dashed Dreams looks at the invincible human spirit in the context of one of Canada's most important historical events. Sir Wilfred Laurier predicted that the twentieth century would be Canada's century. During the Klondike Gold Rush, it looked as though that would be true.