America's Historic Trails with Tom Bodett(1997)

America's Historic Trails with Tom Bodett is a documentary series that follows the legendary gold rushes of the late 1800s. Between 1896 and 1903, three major strikes lured thousands of prospectors northward, drawn by dreams of fortune but often met with hardship and loss. Host Tom Bodett retraces the perilous routes these fortune seekers traveled, starting in Seattle and journeying through the Inside Passage along Alaska's rugged coastline to the boomtown of Skagway. The series explores the optimism, desperation, and gullibility that drove ordinary people to risk everything in the frozen wilderness, revealing both the allure and the brutal reality of the gold rush era.