Part 1, Chapters 1-7 Summary

Chapter one begins with fifteen-year-old Jason Hawthorn standing on the street in front of Grand Central Depot hawking newspapers. On that morning, July 17, 1897, the headline of the New York Herald was "Gold in Alaska". People rush to Hawthorn to buy one of the papers to learn about the next great gold rush. Hawthorn has not had the opportunity to read the story yet and is anxious to sell his papers so he can steal away and read about the latest discovery. Hawthorn has only been in New York for five days, after taking ten months to cross the country from Seattle. Now Hawthorn discovers that the first shipment of gold has arrived in his hometown.

Hawthorn immediately slips into a fantasy about discovering his own fortune. He thinks about his brothers, Abraham and Ethan, who are probably curious about...