Buck Choquette - Gold Discovery

Gold Discovery

Then, on a trip to Victoria encountered a group of Stikine Indians, who were a subgroup of the Tlingit, and having suspected the Stikine and rivers farther north were richer and richer in gold, the more one went north, and persuaded them to let him ride in their canoes to Fort Stikine (today's Wrangell, Alaska), in what was then still Russian America. No longer a Hudson's Bay Company post, the former fur post was under the control of the powerful Chief Shakes, and had become known as Shakesville. Shake's daughter Georgiana became Choquette's wife, a great honour in prestige-conscious Tlingit society. With his wife and ten men of the Stikine people, and the chief's blessing, Choquette travelled up the Stikine River, whose mouth is near Wrangell, and found gold at a location near Telegraph Creek, about 150 km (93 mi) up that river, at a place marked on the map today as Buck Bar. News of his strike reached Victoria and thousands of men travelled via the Stikine, and overland via another route up the Stikine River and what became Hazelton. Choquette's own claim was not that profitable, but Choquette opened a trading post near his claim, moving it from time to time over the years. His main post was farther down river, near the Great Glacier, at a location known as Choquette Bar today, near Choquette Hot Springs Provincial Park, and was also known as Ice Mountain, which was the name of one of the dominant peaks at that location. By 1867 Choquette and his wife were living in Shakesville, where he had operated a post for the Hudson's Bay Company, whose goods he also sold at his upriver stores, and when the Alaska Purchase of that year saw control of the Alaska Panhandle to the United States, Choquette chose to move upriver to his main store on the Stikine, which was at the confluence of the Stikine and Anuk Rivers. He had some disputes with the HBC, and opened up his own store independent of their interests, but preferred to trade in British territory to avoid American taxes and having to buy American goods. Choquette spoke both Tlingit and the Chinook Jargon and was invaluable in intercommunal relations and commerce to all parties acquaintaed with him As business on the river's diggings began to slow, Choquette opened a salmon saltery and in 1886 travelled via one of the first transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway to testify at hearings in Ottawa concerning the location of the boundary between Alaska and British Columbia.