A bank clerk wrote the Yukon's greatest gold rush epic

Robert Service is remembered as the Bard of the Yukon, but his rugged reputation began behind a teller's window. While he was a British bank clerk who studied poetry at the University of Glasgow, he spent his free time wandering the American West and Canada. He never actually participated in the gold rush. Instead, he built his legends by listening to the gritty stories of cowboys and real Yukon expeditioners he met during his travels.