Buck Choquette

Lore & Background

Born Taddée Choquette in a farming family, he left home on foot in 1849 at age 19. He worked his way through the California Gold Rush, then north to the Fraser goldfields, and prospected on the Nass River without much success. In Victoria, he encountered Stikine First Nations people and persuaded them to let him ride in their canoes to Fort Stikine (Wrangell, Alaska). There he married Chief Shakes's daughter Georgiana, a great honor in Tlingit society. With his wife and ten Stikine men, he traveled up the Stikine River and found gold near Telegraph Creek at a place now called Buck Bar.

Reader's Guide

Choquette's discovery in 1861 triggered the Stikine Gold Rush, drawing thousands of men to the region. Though his own claim was not highly profitable, he opened a trading post near his claim, moving it over the years. He later operated a Hudson's Bay Company post in Shakesville, then moved upriver to the confluence of the Stikine and Anuk Rivers to avoid American taxes after the Alaska Purchase. He spoke Tlingit and Chinook Jargon, facilitating intercommunal relations. After his wife's death, at age 67 he opened a store in the Klondike and died in Dawson City in June 1898. His legacy includes the Choquette River, Choquette Glacier, Choquette Hot Springs Provincial Park, and several bars on the Stikine River named after him.

Did You Know?

• Choquette was born Taddée Choquette in St. Benoit de Mirabel.
• He married Georgiana, daughter of Chief Shakes, a great honor in Tlingit society.
• He testified in Ottawa in 1886 about the boundary between Alaska and British Columbia.
• Among his last visitors was novelist Jack London.