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In 1898 the writer met Jack McQuestion at Minook, on the Lower Yukon. The old pioneer, though grizzled, was hale and hearty, and as optimistic as when he first journeyed into the land along the path of the Circle. And no man more beloved is there in all the North. There will be great sadness there when his soul goes questing on over the Last Divide "farther north," perhaps who can tell?
J.H. Turner of the United States Coast Survey found it to be 20 miles within the lines of the United States. Consequently in 1891 the post was moved 20 miles further up the river to be within British territory. "The next people to enter the country for trading purposes were Messrs. Harper and McQuestion.
This is the oldest camp on the Yukon River, and the early home of Jack McQuestion. The river banks were lined with canoes; many natives stood looking at us from the shore, and while stevedores handled the wood, many passengers visited the town.
As he turned down the McQuestion, he came upon a sled-trail. The late snows had drifted over, but underneath, it was well packed by travel. His conclusion was that two camps had been established on the McQuestion, and that this was the connecting trail. Evidently, Two Cabins had been found, and it was the lower camp, so he headed down the stream.
And for six months after, he wrote no letters home to the States, and the surgeon at McQuestion travelled two hundred miles on the ice to save him from blood-poisoning. Men and dogs looked askance at Batard when he drifted into their camps and posts. The men greeted him with feet threateningly lifted for the kick, the dogs with bristling manes and bared fangs.
In 1871, from one to seven years before Holt went over Chilcoot, in the company of Al Mayo and Arthur Harper, McQuestion came into the Yukon from the North-west over the Hudson Bay Company route from the Mackenzie to Fort Yukon.
Men like Al Mayo and Jack McQuestion antedated him; but they had entered the land by crossing the Rockies from the Hudson Bay country to the east. He, however, had been the pioneer over the Chilcoot and Chilcat passes. In the spring of 1883, twelve years before, a stripling of eighteen, he had crossed over the Chilcoot with five comrades. In the fall he had crossed back with one.
The witness admits it. We admit it. It wasn't necessary. No tracks led to that bank. The snow wasn't broke." "There was a man on the other bank just the same," Smoke insisted. "That's too thin for skatin', young man. There ain't many of us on the McQuestion, an' we got every man accounted for." "Who was the man you hiked out of camp two weeks ago?" Smoke asked. "Alonzo Miramar. He was a Mexican.
It happened that the surgeon of McQuestion, who was something of a gadabout, was up on a gossip, and between them they proceeded to repair Leclere, "Merci, non," said he. "Do you fix firs' de dog. To die? NON. Eet is not good. Becos' heem Ah mus' yet break. Dat fo' w'at he mus' not die."
"There's some chance for a murderer in Alaska, but a thief's a goner." "Oh, well; you were sayin' that gold o' yours came from " "Poor old Butts! Bright feller, too." "How far off is your " "I tell you, sir, Butts is brains to his boots. Course you know Jack McQuestion?" "No, but I'd like to hear a little about your " "Y' don' know Jack McQuestion? Well, sir, Jack's the biggest man in the Yukon.
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