Jean “Joe” Boudoin

Jean Beaudoin was French Canadian, a nephew to Francois Xavier Mercier, and his assistant at Noukelakayet station near the mouth of the Tanana River in 1878.1) In 1894, Jean and Jack Cawper charged the NWMP $125 to build a boat at Lake Bennett for Inspector Constantine and take the first North-West Mounted Police to Fortymile. They were experienced at navigating Miles Canyon and shooting the Whitehorse Rapids.2) They were not very happy with the required design of the boat or the ‘box’ as it was afterwards known. Constantine wanted the sides built up so he could sit in the bottom and not see the water.3)

1)
Francois Xavier Mercier, Recollections of the Youkon: Memoires from the Years 1868-1885. Edited by Linda Finn Yarborough. Anchorage: The Alaska Historical Society, 1986: 50.
2)
T.W. Paterson, Ghost Towns of the Yukon. Langley: Stagecoach Publishing Co. Ltd., 1977: 54.
3)
Ian McLean and Jill Jago, A Very British Mountie. Montreal: Productions Grand Nord Quebec Inc., 1999: 17.