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 Jack McQuesten was born in Litchfield, New Hampshire and travelled with his father, brother Varnam, and two cousins, William and Henry Wingate McQuesten, to California in 1856.  He left his relatives there and travelled to Oregon where he fought with Capt. Benjamin Hayden during the indigenous uprising of 1857.((//Fairbanks Weekly Times,// 23 October 1909; //Seward Gateway,// 1 September 1909; Clarence L. Andrews, //Alaska Life,// October 1943.))
-McQuesten was working at Port Gamble Mill in 1858 when he heard of the gold discovery on the Fraser River. He went there in April and mined until 1863. He was at the Forks of Quesnelle when the miners heard that George Cary had found diggings on the Peace River. About 100 men went up the Fraser to Stewart Lake and portaged to the headwaters of the Peace and the diggings at the mouth of the Finlay River. It was not as good as expected so they all returned except for Mike Shannon and Jack McQuesten. They continued down the Peace River to winter at Fort St. John. In the fall they worked a gravel bar eighty miles below the fort and made $5 a day each. In the spring of 1864, they started down the river in canoes. Shannon stayed on the bar they had worked in the fall and McQuesten continued down the river to Fort Chipewyan, prospecting but finding little. He returned that fall to Smokey River expecting to winter there, but Shannon was gone to Fort Edmunds, so McQuesten returned to Fort Vermillion and wintered there. He trapped all winter and killed 200 martins, a few lynx, and some fox. In the spring of 1865, he went to Manitoba in the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) boats, in the company of Al Mayo. They traded and trapped in different parts of the country until 1871 when they were at Great Slave Lake. They went up Hay River 350 miles and wintered. There they heard about the transfer of Alaska to the United States and decided to go to the Yukon River drainage and look for gold. They left in the spring of 1872 and went down Hay River to Great Slave Lake and from there down the Mackenzie to Fort Simpson. In June 1872, Al Mayo, James McKniff, and Jack McQuesten started for the Yukon from Hay River, a tributary of Great Slave Lake. They went up the Delyore [Liard] River and wintered at the mouth of the Nelson River. They intended to go up to Francis Lake and over to the Pelly River and down the Yukon.((Leroy McQuesten letter to Albert McKay dated 1 July 1905. 11pp, Alaska State Library, MS 13, Box 5, #5 AHC))
+McQuesten was working at Port Gamble Mill in 1858 when he heard of the gold discovery on the Fraser River. He went there in April and mined until 1863. He was at the Forks of Quesnelle when the miners heard that George Cary had found diggings on the Peace River. About 100 men went up the Fraser to Stewart Lake and portaged to the headwaters of the Peace and the diggings at the mouth of the Finlay River. It was not as good as expected so they all returned except for Mike Shannon and Jack McQuesten. They continued down the Peace River to winter at Fort St. John. In the fall they worked a gravel bar eighty miles below the fort and made $5 a day each. In the spring of 1864, they started down the river in canoes. Shannon stayed on the bar they had worked in the fall and McQuesten continued down the river to Fort Chipewyan, prospecting but finding little. He returned that fall to Smokey River expecting to winter there, but Shannon was gone to Fort Edmunds, so McQuesten returned to Fort Vermillion and wintered there. He trapped all winter and killed 200 martins, a few lynx, and some fox. In the spring of 1865, he went to Manitoba in the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) boats, in the company of Al Mayo. They traded and trapped in different parts of the country until 1871 when they were at Great Slave Lake. They went up Hay River 350 miles and wintered. There they heard about the transfer of Alaska to the United States and decided to go to the Yukon River drainage and look for gold. They left in the spring of 1872 and went down Hay River to Great Slave Lake and from there down the Mackenzie to Fort Simpson. In June 1872, Al Mayo, James McKniff, and Jack McQuesten started for the Yukon from Hay River, a tributary of Great Slave Lake. They went up the Delyore [Liard] River and wintered at the mouth of the Nelson River. They intended to go up to Frances Lake and over to the Pelly River and down the Yukon.((Leroy McQuesten letter to Albert McKay dated 1 July 1905. 11pp, Alaska State Library, MS 13, Box 5, #5 AHC))
 About the first of November, three HBC men arrived to prevent the McQuesten party from trading in furs. They built a cabin nearby and were quite pleasant. One of them, Sibistone, had been over on the Yukon several years and gave them a lot of information. He was at Fort Yukon when Captain Raymond of the US Army took command of the fort in the summer of 1869. They came in a small steamboat, the //Yukon//, the first steamer on the river. He said one of the officers on the boat washed out a jar of dirt near Fort Yukon and found a teaspoon of gold. He threw it away in case the crew decided to leave the steamer to prospect. Chief Factor McDougall arrived at the mouth of the Nelson later and he confirmed all that Sibistone had said.((James A McQuiston, //Captain Jack McQuesten: Father of the Yukon.// Denver: Outskirts Press, Inc. 2007: 49-50, 53-56.))