Alexandre “Buck” Choquette (1829 – 1898)
Alexandre Choquette was born on a farm in Seignory township in Quebec. Dissatisfied with a quiet life, he left home at an early age and briefly found work in Montreal. He continued west to Fort Garry (Winnipeg) where he heard about the gold strike in California. Buck arrived in central California to find a partner in fellow Quebecer, Joe Juneau. In 1855, Buck started north with a new partner, trapper Alois Tremaine. They joined a party of men at Walla Walla and travelled to the Fraser River where gold was discovered in 1858.1)
Choquette made his way to what is today Wrangell, Alaska and was then a post controlled by the Tlingit chief Snakes. Choquette married his daughter Georgiana and with Chief Snake’s blessing started exploring the Stikine River.2) Choquette and another miner named Carpenter discovered gold on the bars of the Stikine River in 1861.3) Many would-be miners in Victoria stampeded north when they heard the news. William Moore ferried 125 prospectors up the Stikine, but Buck’s Bar and nearby bars were impossible to work during high water and at best produced only $1 to $10 per man per day.4) Choquette opened a trading post near his Stikine River claim.5)
The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) established a trading post at Glenora about 1874 and it flourished under Choquette’s management. He started a second post at the US/Canada border. HBC did not sell alcohol to the First Nations and it was also against Canadian law at the time. Choquette brought in supplies to make “hootch” and he was eventually caught and taken to court for the offense.6) After this, Choquette opened an independent trading post until business on the river began to slow.7)
When Buck travelled to the Klondike gold strike he was seventy-years-old but he had a number of children he could depend on in areas of trapping, mining, freighting, and storekeeping. His son Henry died after an accident at Five Finger Rapids when he was bringing supplies to Buck’s store in Dawson. Buck fell sick in Dawson and although daughter Aggie hurried back from Wrangel to put him hospital care, he died from pneumonia.8)