Frank Jackson
Jim and Frank Jackson re-opened LaPierre House post in 1925 as an affiliate of the Northern Commercial Company. The post was on the Bell River upstream from Rampart House. They ran it for a decade. Lots of people lived there.1) In 1926, Reverend Isaac Stringer asked the Jackson brothers to erect a small mission cabin there using the logs from an old Hudson’s Bay Company residence. Stringer directed Reverend McCallum to start a LaPierre House mission when Jackson was still at LaPierre.2)
Frank Jackson and Peter Alexi, from LaPierre House, joined the hunt for the Mad Trapper in 1932. Jackson was described as a huge, grey-haired giant who had traded at LaPierre House for many years and knew the mountains better than any living white man.3)
In the 1930s, Frank and Jim Jackson were coming down the Porcupine River. Just upriver from Rampart House there is a big rock in the middle of the river. Frank was at the wheel and couldn’t decide which side of the rock to go on. He left it too late and the barge hit the rock and knocked a big hole in the bottom. The barge sunk and they landed at Rampart House where they patched it up just enough to get down to Fort Yukon. They called the rock Jackson Rock after that. A few years later, Frank Jackson sold out to the Northern Commercial Company. The company bought that boat too and the barge. They hired another guy to go up there and bring the boat down to Fort Yukon. The pilot came around the bend and the two brothers, Frank and Jim, were sitting in the barge - arguing about something. They looked up and saw the rock but disagreed on which side to pass. The pilot didn't know and they got too close. The barge missed the rock but the power boat hit it square in the middle and broke that big boat in two. The pilot, Jimus, jumped onto the rock. Half that big boat had the 250-horsepowere Kermuth engine in it and it sank on one side of the rock. Somebody grabbed an axe and cut the tow rope so the front end was not tied to the barge and the bow sank on the other side. Richard Martine told the story and he thought they had a small boat on the barge so they came up and picked up the pilot. Jackson Rock was almost renamed Suicide Rock. Richard commented that it is safe to pass on either side - there is plenty of water.4)