Gunnar Borgstrom is the younger brother of Inger Borgstrom. He owns a mercantile store left by his how deceased father which is run by Inger in Illinois. Gunnar spends most of his time and the stores earnings at the local tavern. His dream is to go to the gold fields in Canada since all his friends are also doing it and they've already sold everything they have to Mr McWhorter. Since there's nothing left in Illinois for them, Ben and Inger head West and Gunnar leaves for the gold fields.