We wish to convey special thanks to Fayann Hubert and Ken Choquette, of Iowa. They sent us a copy of a book entitled Buck Choquette, Stampeder, self-published by the author, Henry W. Clark - Buck's grand-son, in 1960. The book can be found in the University of Alaska's Rasmuson Library in Fairbanks. We also wish to thank Kay Jabush, Librarian at The Irene Ingle Public Library, in Wrangell, Alaska and to Kathryn H. Shelton, Librarian at The Alaska State Library.

In this 150 page book, Henry W. Clark reports on Buck?s adventures in an extremely detailed way and, no doubt, with a certain degree of fiction. Nevertheless, this documentary-novel is all the same the fruit of extensive research. Several historical sources were consulted, particularly the files of the reknowned Hudson's Bay Company, and those of the British (Victoria) Colonist, a newspaper with which Buck maintained a regular correspondence. This being said, we do not know the sources of information concerning Buck's childhood in Quebec. This chapter may very well belong to legend rather than reality.

For your reading pleasure, following are a summary and excerpts from the book. Remember, it was written around 1960, in a somewhat lyrical style. At the end of the text, we have added a list of related links.

Buck Choquette - Stampeder
by Henry W. Clark ©
summary

His childhood in Quebec

Alexandre Choquette was born in 1829 in a village of Quebec [ which we are desperately trying to identify]. According to the author of the book, Henry W. Clark, he came from a middle-class family, and his father?s brother was a judge in the village. He was brought up Catholic among the Jesuits.

He wanted to follow the trails of two of his friends (Pierre and Frederic Erusard) whom had emigrated to the United States (Nashua, New Hampshire). Alexandre had a taste for adventure.

"Alexandre and boys like him were impatient with the humdrum of civilization; they had the urge to go out and pit themselves against nature at its worst or to enjoy it at its best. They yearned to be a vital part of something big, exciting and new. To go after elusive goals not so much for gain as for the thrill of discovery." (p. 5)

His first destination was Montreal. He would have been 12-13 years old at that time, it seems. He started working in an apothecary, among other jobs.

1848 Discovery of gold in California

It is in 1848 that gold was discovered for the first time in California. The news spread to Montreal. Let Henry W. Clark continue:

"Then in 1849, everybody started talking excitedly about the discovery of gold in California and hundreds of people who were rushing across the Great Plains in their covered wagons.(...) Alexandre had a good job as clerk and bottle washer in an apothecaire but this talk was too much for him. He caught the fever, quit his job and set out for the west." (pp. 13-14)

From Lachine Canal to Duluth (Source of Map: Microsoft Encarta 95)

From Duluth to The Oregon Trail (Source of Map: Microsoft Encarta 95)

Thus, as of 1849, he traveled towards California through the Western plains via the Lachine Canal, the Rideau Canal, the St-Lawrence Seaway, the Thousand Islands, Lake Ontario, Erie and Huron, Sault-Ste-Marie, the Lake Superior, Winnipeg, Duluth, the Mississippi, St-Paul, St-Louis, Independence (Missouri), the Oregon Trail and across the Rocky Mountain and the Sierra Nevada to reach with node to Donner Pass, California, in July 1849.

"On a July day in 1849, Choquette stood on the summit of Donner Pass and saw the dark green forest of California. The threshold of a land of gold. But not the fulfillment of his dreams for the compass needle of his destiny pointed north. Though still in his teens, his willingness to tackle any job, his energy along with his pep and good nature made him from the first a popular fellow among these rough and ready miners and settlers." (pp. 14-15)

The Oregon Trail (Source of Map: Microsoft Encarta 95)

(Source of Map: Microsoft Encarta 95)

"Choquette's first jobs were handling pack horses and helping newcomers travel through the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. On the side, he eagerly picked up mining lore from the old timers." (p. 16)

According to the author, during this period, Buck became friends with Joe Juneau. [who later discovered gold in 1880, in a place which now bears his name and is the capital of Alaska ].

Between 1851 and 1859, Buck went up California towards Canada by following the San Joaquin, Sacramento and Feathers rivers. He continued to look for gold. He learned to deal and negotiate with the aboriginals; a skill that would later be quite useful to him. After a brief stop in Oregon, where he decided that a farmer?s life was not for him, he carried his way up North.

1857 The Fraser River Rush

At the same time, another episode of The Gold Rush was unfolding with the discovery of gold in the Fraser Valley, in British Columbia. The prospectors of the north of California came in great numbers:

As for Buck, he decided to go to the Fraser Valley by the overland route and remained there a few months before reaching Victoria in 1859. There, he furthered his knowledge of native culture and the trading practices of the Hudson Bay Company.

1861 - First trip to Alaska

It is in Victoria that he heard about the Stikine river for the first time by the traders and trappers who returned from there:

He then decided to go there; easier said than done ! No trapper or trader wanted to take on such a risky journey. His increasingly impressive knowledge of the "Chinook Jargon", the aboriginals' language, allowed him to join a crew of Tlinkit Indians. Buck then left Victoria by canoe with his crew in 1861:

They went through Queen Charlotte Sound and Fort Simpson. Five weeks later, in June 1861, after an eventful voyage, they reached the area of the Stikine river, in Wrangell, Alaska. (See related sites)

Presented to Chief Shakes, ruler of the Tlinkit clans of southeastern Alaska (See related sites), he met Georgiana, the Chief's daughter and asked for her hand in marriage shortly thereafter:

"Buck was careful to follow the Tlinkit marriage rites exactly. He formally proposed to Georgiana through a go between. The night of the wedding, he was arrayed in ceremonial blankets and escorted to the Shakes home where he was seated in the middle of the great room while the men executed dances and the clan sang songs designed to lure his bride out from the dark corner where she was hiding. Finally, with bowed head she came out and sat down beside Buck while the songs and dances rose to a happy crescendo. For two days after the wedding night the bride and groom kept strict fast. It was a full month after that before they were officially recognized as husband and wife." (p. 59)

In July 1861, shortly after his wedding, he left for the top the Stikine river and discovered the Glacier which he henceforth called Ice Mountain:

"A dozen miles farther along the canoes rounded a bend and were faced by a tremendous glacier that roses seemingly from the edge of the river into huge cones and pyramids. Buck had seen a few glaciers on his way north from Victoria to Wrangell, always at great heights and in the distance; he had never been confronted with such a massive sight at close quarters. (...) Buck was completely awed by its size, beauty and magnificence and could think of no other words of his own to describe it than to call it a mountain of ice. It has been known as the "Ice Mountain" or great glacier ever since and being just above the present boundary between Canada and Alaska serves as an outstanding landmark of the Stikine trip." (pp 64-65)

1861 - The Search for Gold

Buck arrived in the mining district of Cassiar. The author of our book, Henry W. Clark, gets poetic:

"Here was the great "Kaska" or Cassiar District, over a hundred and sixty thousand square miles of wilderness, an inland empire of one hundred million acres, now beheld for the first time by its discoverer Alexandre Choquette opened it to civilization-to the thousands of men who rushed there for millions in gold, to the uncounted thousands who will develop it for mankind down through the ages." (p. 74)

Buck finally reached the goal he had dreamed about for so long:

"Now he came to a bend of rocks and sand that made a bar in the river across from a tall dark cliff with a sandy cove just beyond. (...) Buck decided that this was a likely place to camp and explore thoroughly. One morning in the fall of 1861, with a nip of frost in the air, Buck turned out early before the rest of the party were awake and tried out a few panfulls on the bar just above camp. His wife was preparing breakfast for the crew when suddenly she was startled by a cry from her husband.

"Hi ! Yi ! Georgie," His yell to his wife brought all the boys out and splashing upstream to his location. There Buck stood laughing like a crazy man and shaking his half empty pan at them.

"There's color enough to match your northern lights," Buck went into a jig as the men crowded around him to see the profusion of yellow dust gleaming amid the gravel. Shining before them was gold dust with plenty of heavy gold nuggets for all to see.(...)

Here was the dream come true at the end of a trail that led Alexandre "Buck" Choquette a thousand miles north over stormy uncharted seas and a hundred miles east up a wild swift river never before traversed by white man. "Buck's Bar" as it has been known ever since, marks not only the first discovery of gold on the Stikine River or in the great Cassiar District, it was the first gold strike in the Alaskan area. (The place was subsequently christened Telegraph Creek) This great discovery has been attested by journalists, historians, geologists and government authorities because of its significance. It led directly to the Stampede to the Stikine in 1862 and '63, to the Cassiar in 1874, to Treadwell, the world renowned Klondike of 1898 and Nome in 1900."

But a few days later his wife Georgiana, who until then had been invaluable to him in organizing the expedition, became ill. Buck went back with her to a camp site up the river. She recovered and they both returned to Wrangell.

1862 - The Hero of The Moment

In the Fall of 1861, the schooner Nonpareil arrives in Wrangell. Buck takes advantage of this opportunity to sail to Victoria:

"On January 10, 1862, Choquette landed in Victoria where he set the town on fire with the story of his gold strike up on the Stikine River. [He] was in his glory. He loved people, loved to talk and was always the complete optimist and enthusiast. Now he was the center of attraction, the Lion of the Hour. He was perfect copy for The Victoria Colonist and anything he said about his discovery was quoted in detail. Carried away by his own enthusiasm, he asserted that the Stikine River was larger than the Fraser and drained a much finer country" (pp. 80-81)

Needless to say these statements created an influx of prospectors in the area... On his return from Victoria, hitches delayed the trip some, but gave place to this cute anecdote:

"He was so absorbed in his anxiety to get going in order to prove up and enlarge his discovery that he almost missed the arrival of Jesuit missionary from the Queen Charlotte Islands. Buck had promised himself again when Georgie took sick the fall before that their marriage should be confirmed in his Catholic Church and here seemed a miraculous chance to do it. He urged the Padre to join the "Kingfisher" pointing out that the trip to Wrangell was a distance of less than two hundred miles. The good father hesitated because Fort Simpson was the northern limit of this diocese and the Russian Orthodox priests at Sitka might regard this as a spiritual invasion. Buck glibly promised he would be back in a week even though he had no idea of when or what kind of a boat would be available southbound. The Padre was intrigued by the idea so when they finally sailed, he was aboard.

Buck's arrival in Wrangell with a priest and his announcement of an immediate wedding assured Georgie's complete recovery and set the whole village astir. Georgie insisted on becoming a catholic so the Padre had to drill her long hours. Meanwhile, Choquette borrowed use of the Hudson's Bay warehouse and put together a makeshift altar. Then he pressed two of his French Canadian prospector pals into service as altar boys and a third as best man. Chief Shakes and his council attended proudly and they were duly married." (p. 83)

He continued to prospect, but with mitigated success. Later that year, " Buck" wrote to the Victoria Colonist......

"... that he went up the the river in April to his discovery claim at Buck?s Bar and worked over the ground thoroughly. The returns were only fair and he was finally reluctantly convinced that his discovery had been nothing more than a rich by isolated pocket."

He went back to Wrangell, where Alexandre junior, his first son, was born around March 1863.

1866 - Business with The Hudson's Bay

In 1866, his life took yet another turn:

"Buck had now spent five years prospecting and mining the valley of the Stikine and had little or nothing to show for it. He had always made more than the expenses and would have been comfortably well off if he had kept all of his earnings. However, he was forever grubstaking miners who dreamed they were just where the big paystreak lay and he was always willing to loan an old crony enough to tide him over a run of tough luck. The birth of his second son, Henry, at this time not only added to his financial plight but acted as a brake on his urge to go chasing off after every rumor of a new strike" (p. 98)

After discussion with his companions, he decided to switch from gold mining to the trade. On March 13, 1866, Buck made his debut in business as an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. The company archives, based in England read:

In 1867 he set up his store between the Porcupine river and Ice Mountain where he remained with his family until 1870. Meanwhile his family got bigger. His first daughter, Georgiana, was born in the summer of 1868. (She will later marry a lawyer, former student of McGill).

From 1870 to the summer of 1875, Buck lived in Boundary Post with his wife and four children. Henry W. Clark gives us an account of life in those days:

"The life that the family led was in many ways similar to that of other better class pioneers of the western frontier. The trading post was located on a level piece of ground above a sandy beach just back from the river bank. The main building had two floors in front and one in back with peaked roofs and log construction throughout. Directly behind the store was a storage shed for the more valuable merchandise while scattered around the quarter acre of cleared ground were a half dozen outbuildings used as warehouses or living quarters for visitors who came to trade. The prestige of the company was maintained by the fact that the main building was larger than any others along the river and it even boasted hardwood floors in the living quarters. Buck lived upstairs over the store in a living room, dining room, kitchen and three bedrooms, truly commodious quarters.(...)

The career of a trader while not as thrilling as prospecting still kept Buck Choquette continually busy. When his supplies came upriver on the boat, barge or canoe they were dumped helter skelter on the river bank but Buck had to check every article and match up with the bill of lading carried by the purser or the list of the carrier. Then the perishables and ammunition must be moved to the main house immediately. The rest of the cargo was carried to the outbuildings as soon as possible to protect it from the weather and wild animals. Next usually came a celebration or spree so that all could enjoy the new and unusual treats." (pp. 113-114)

"Buck and his family stood out from the other pioneers in much the same way as his store and home dominated the shacks and tents at the river landing. The three older boys, Alexandre, Henry and Peter were known from birth as "Buck?s Boys", or as Aleck Buck, Henry Buck and Peter Buck. They learned to pick berries, fish, ice skate and snowshoe so early in life that they could not remember ever not doing these necessary things. When Aleck was seven, he was taken down river to Wrangell for his first communion and presented with a .22 caliber gun as double testimony that he had reached the age of reason. Each of the boys in turn succeeded to these honors and from that time on were expected to keep the home supplied with grouse, ducks or geese depending on the season. They were not expected to kill a deer until they were nine or ten and had learned how to "call" and to "still hunt". Georgiana, as the first girl, learned to skate, snowshoe and fish, like her brothers but her first chores were housework and sewing. Her mother soon taught her the arts of home medicine which were so essential on the frontier. She spent more time around the store that her brothers hence she became more familiar with the prices and the techniques of trade. Buck practically weaned her on the chinook Jargon and showed her the fine points of judging furs. By the time she was twelve, she could heft, pull, blow and shake out a pelt as expertly as a trapper." (p. 166)

1875 - Quarrels with the Hudson's Bay Company

New gold discoveries enticed our friend Buck to take up prospecting again while still being in charge of Hudson's Bay store. This didn't sit well with the company who didn't appreciate that its employee give up the trade. Even if the contract is officially breached in 1875, it seems that Buck and Hudson's Bay still traded during the next 20 years. In fact, 1876 was very lucrative, according to the following:

Report of a Committee of the Honorable The Executive Council of British Columbia on the question of the Boundary between Canada and Alaska", Victoria 1885:

"...At this place, called Buck's thirty miles up the river, in 1876, a French Canadian, named Choquette, carried on a very large trading with the Indians of the neighborhood, who from old associations with the Hudson's Bay Company, preferred dealing in British goods. The extent of Choquette's business may be estimated from the fact that from one firm alone in Victoria his purchases amounted to twenty-five thousand dollars annually and his sales several times in one day alone to a single Indian would amount to twelve hundred dollars in blankets by way of barter, a blanket from the old Hudson's Bay Company custom, being a unit of value." (p. 131)

After Buck had officially ceased his activities with the Hudson's Bay in Boundary Post, he set up his own trading post, known as "Bucks", from where one could see "Buck's Bar", i.e. the site where he had made his famous gold discovery. At the time, this place was at the heart of a dispute between Canada and the United States regarding the precise location of the border.

The following excerpt shows the progression of Buck during the years which followed:

"From 1878 until 1894 Choquette continued, although intermittently, to trade furs with the Hudson?s Bay Company and to obtain goods from the Company for trade on his own behalf. During the summer of 1878, letter to Choquette from chief Factor William Charles were addressed to the Ice Mountain, Stikine River; by 1880 his address had changed to Telegraph Creek; and from 1883 until 1894 Choquette appears to have been residing at Fort Wrangell, at the mouth of the Stikine River and within American Territory. These were not merely changes of address; they were indications of the manner in which Buck was expanding his activities." (p. 137)

Meanwhile, in 1886 Buck and his family went east to Montreal and Ottawa, where Buck had business with the members of Parliament. There, his wife Georgiana died of an infectious disease (Small Pox). She was buried with the Chiefs Shakes in British-Columbia. With 7 children to look after, Buck went back to Wrangell and remarried with a relative of Georgiana.

In 1894, as the trade of fur slowed down and prospecting for gold went further north, a new resource seemed promising: commercial fishing. Buck sold his store to build a saltery (a place where one salted salmon to preserve it) in Red Bay, close to Wrangell, where the salmon were plentiful and easy to catch. But...

"The life of a fisherman and especially life away from town on an island did not appeal to Buck very long. In 1894, he sold out his saltery and repurchased his general store in Wrangell.

Buck's age, the size of his family and his stake in various business ventures all indicated that he should settle down (...) But the love of adventure, of seeking gold in far places, of making the Big Strike, the blood of the Stampeder still ran hot in his veins" (p. 143)

1896 - The Klondike

In the Fall of 1896, George Washington Carmack, Tagish Charlie and Skookum Jim discovered gold in Bonanza Creek, thus giving rise to the famous Gold Rush of the Klondike.

"This was the strike that was to set men's minds afire all over the world by sending a ship into Seattle, Washington with a "Ton of Gold". Small wonder then that the old fever of California in '49 and the Fraser River in '58 broke out more virulent than ever in Buck. He joyfully turned over the store to his wife and daughter while he and the oldest boys, Aleck and Henry planned and gathered their outfits. All winter he made his preparations to be ready to join the rush to the Klondike as soon as the trail opened in the spring of 1897." (p. 144)

You could reach Dawson in several ways. For Buck, the best road was certainly that of the Stikine and Cassiar, which he knew well. But it was also the most dangerous. After having prepared all winter, he announced to his family:

"This is the chance of a lifetime and I am certain that I can make us all well off for the rest of our lives either mining or trading. But any trail to the Klondike is too tough for a man of seventy and the Cassiar trail would be a killer for me. I still feel that it is the best way to get there and I want Aleck and Henry to take it. I will start you boys on your way, then come back here and pick up Aggie [his daughter] and take her south to San Francisco with me. There I can stock up with the best supplies and take them by steamer to St. Michael and then by riverboat up the Yukon. We should arrive in Dawson about the same time." (p. 145)

As planned, Buck's boys reached Dawson in the summer of 1897 to meet Buck and Aggie there. The family then opened a general store. Dawson was a wild boom town and Buck was in his glory in the midst of feverish days and nights, with news of new strikes coming in from the creeks all the time. But in the spring of 1898, Henry, his favourite son, is fatally wounded close to Dawson in an accident aboard a sternwheeler.

"Buck (...) collapsed when they told him what had happened. (...) They all tried to cheer him up but Old Man Buck had no heart to carry on. He died quietly that spring of 1898. Buck Choquette would never have asked for a different ending to his life. Dawson on the Yukon in ?98 could just as well have been Wrangell in ?74, or Fort Hope on the Fraser in ?59 (...) The legion of pioneer prospectors all up and down the Pacific Coast who mourned his death knew that the frontier, whether mining camp, trading post or a tent in the wilderness has lost one of their own kind." (pp. 150-151)

Conclusion

Having pursued wealth all of his life, Alexandre Buck Choquette left very little money, a sum hardly sufficient to pay for transporting his remains back to Wrangell, Alaska, where he is buried.

Buck's will can be found in Yukon's Archives (source: David Mattison and Bob De Armond, one of Alaska's most respected historians):

Alexandre Choquette made a will on June 15, 1898 and died on or about June 17, 1898, at Dawson and was a resident of Dawson at that time.

Value of property under $1525 and consists of:
1 bench claim on Little Skookum, 10^th tier.
½ interest in #54 Jensen Creek.
1 bench claim on Eldorado Creek.
1/6 interest in #19 above on Last Chance
Cash on hand, $1,000.
Value of claims listed above: $500."

Buck's story, adventurous and optimistic as he was, is undoubtedly representative of that of the gold prospectors who gave up everything to reach their dreams, and persisted in spite of the sometimes disappointing results:

"The cold statistics on gold rushes are amazing - - one in ten stampeders make enough to pay their way back home; one in seven don't find any gold at all, and only one out of thousands makes a killing." (p. 98)

Let's leave the last word to his grandson, Henry W. Clark:

"These men may have been dreamers, always seeking richer, distant fields; they may be called intransigent, or mercurial. Yes, and they were more than that. They were not content to sit at home and dream, they went out in quest of their vision. They did not sit back supinely hoping for a brave new world, they matter-of-factly set about building it. They were the essence of divine unrest. That is why Alexandre Buck Choquette "Stampeder" is a vital part of the story of our west."

Links :

Gold Rush :

 

• The Overland Trail - Trails to the Gold Rush
  
  
• Ghosts of the Klondike Gold Rush: The Gold Rush Database mentions the presence of at least 8 Choquette in Alaska, at the end of the last century.
  
  
• Wrangell's Gold Rush Era: They mention that's Buck's Bar was a minor find when compared to the gold strikes that were to follow.
  
  
• Gold Rush and Golden Girls: Klondike Capers

Fort Wrangell and The Stikine River:

• Ice Mountain Research : a great site with lots of interesting links.
  
  
• Wrangell, Gateway to the Stikine River
  
  
• Wrangell's History
  
  
• The Stikine River
  
  
• Wrangell's Gold Rushes

Native Culture:

• Wrangell's Chief Shakes Island and Tribal House
  
  
• Alaska Natives Online
  
  
• Tlingit Culture

The Hudson's Bay Company :

• The Company's Official Site
  
  
• Hudson Bay's Archives

Victoria, British-Columbia :

• Victoria's Heritage

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