Eugene “Gene” Jacquot (1877 – 1950)
Eugene Jacquot was born in St. Marie-aux-mines, in the province of Romback-le-France, in the Haul (Upper) Rhine country of Alsace-Lorraine, France.1) Louis Jacquot immigrated to Canada in 1894 to escape compulsory military service. He worked as a cook in Winnipeg and Chicago and then returned to France to bring his brother Eugene back with him to Chicago.2) Eugene learned his trade as a cook on the American transcontinental trains.3)
The brothers saved enough money to head for the Klondike. They came north and Eugene married “Pete” Ruth Mary Dickson, who was born in Carcross around 1902.They had five sons: Eugene Jr., Joe, Lou, Hank, and Larry. They met Tom Dickson who gave them jobs guiding for him in Kluane country. The Jacquots established the Burwash Trading Post in 1904 and bought a guiding business from Morley Bones who had a cabin at Wolverine Creek. Eugene was the businessman, and Louie was the miner and blacksmith and really good at working with his hands. Eugene had bad rheumatism and was always doing research looking for a cure. The brothers discovered gold on Burwash Creek which they named after the local mining recorder. Their partner in the mine was Ernest Lawrene Petrel, another Frenchman. He died while visiting family in Louisiana and Eugene brought his two nephews, Frank and Paul Birckel, out from France and gave them jobs at the mine. They were in the French Foreign Legion and it was difficult to extract them.4)
In 1923, The Jacquots erected a bridge over the Jarvis River and that permitted a vehicle to drive the 150 miles from Whitehorse to Kluane Lake.5) Burwash grew up around the Jacquot trading post and attracted people from the White and Donjek rivers country. It also became a centre for big game hunting and prospecting. In 1924, The Jacquot brothers purchased three head of cattle from Charles McConnell at Robinson in April and expected they would arrive at Kluane in June.6) In 1928, Gene took delivery of a Chevrolet one-ton Canopy type truck. It was to transport supplies for his hunting parties.7)
The Jacquots guided the hunting party of Richard K. Mellon of Pittsburgh into the Kluane country in 1938. The hunters killed two moose, six caribou, six mountain sheep, and four bears, and also secured through special permit, some animals for the American Natural History Society’s museum in New York. The museum animals included a group of Ovid Dall sheep, one horned owl, one Hawk Owl, and two plovers.8)
The Jacquots had the government job of fixing the road and repairing the bridges. They would work all summer on the road and also run hunting parties. Ruth's dad, Tom Dickson, was an ex-RCMP and used to guide for the Jacquots until he lost an eye on one of their trips. The Jacquots had a house at Silver City, but their main operation was at Christmas Bay. They put the road through to there and took the wagons and later the trucks there. Dickson kept a boat there too because Silver City was too windy.9) In 1943, Gene Jacquot rented horses to the last Alaska Highway construction camp north of Burwash. He told Gertrude Baskine that she should be able to rent or borrow these to cross the White River.10) Eugene Jacquot ran the Burwash Landing Lodge in the 1940s. After his death, Leland Allinger took over the Lodge.11)