From the Whitehorse Star, September 1956

1956 Trapper Fought To Live

TRAPPER FOUGHT TO LIVE - THOUGH STRICKEN BY HEART ATTACK

A tragic story that carries the reader back to the harsh days of the north has been told surrounding the death of William Couture, 68 year-old trapper, who died in hospital at Dawson a month ago. The story traced first by the Fairbanks News-Miner, tells of an appeal for help sent floating down the Yukon River on a tiny raft - a message that was found too late to save the stricken trapper.

William Couture, about 68, passed away August 20 in the Dawson hospital. Requiem mass was performed there August 23.

The note he had painfully scribbled on June 14, placed on a raft and shoved into the Yukon river in the hope that it would be spotted downstream at Eagle remained undiscovered until this week.

SPOTTED THE RAFT

Maj. John Orr, information services officer at Eielson Air Force Base, spotted the raft about the size of a table top, benched many miles beyond that Alaska border town. Orr was making a canoe trip down the Yukon with three companions when he found the raft September 4.

The note was addressed to "Mrs. Hansen" at Eagle and said:

"I had a heart attack and am very sick. If you get this message kindly wire Dawson to come out and pick me up. Thank you very much."

Parts of the note were nearly illegible, and Maj. Orr interpreted the signature as William Couture, of 40-mile, a one time gold rush community in the Klondike country. The officer and three other companions carried the note to Fort Yukon, about 15 miles from Eagle.

PASSED EAGLE UNNOTICED

Not only had the raft passed Eagle unnoticed but Mrs. Barney Hansen, to whom the note was addressed, had spent the entire summer in Fairbanks. Her family and Trapper Bill were friends of many years standing although Couture made his annual shopping trips to Dawson, not Eagle. He was a Canadian citizen.

"Lack of telephone communications to Dawson prevented full investigations of the case until today, but a wire from that city and information supplied by Mrs. Hansen placed together this account:

Couture, a former cook turned trapper who had lived by himself in a one-room cabin beside the Yukon River for many years, suffered the heart attack on June 14.

His nearest neighbor, another trapper, lived more than 20 miles upstream. The river itself is the only means of transportation. Dawson and Eagle are about 40 miles in opposite direction from his solitary cabin at 40 mile.

PUT BOTTLE ON RAFT

Couture felt his chances of survival were better at home than attempt a long journey by small boat in his condition. He had not even a single husky dog for companionship.

On the same day, with tremendous effort he built the raft, lashed together four square oil cans, stuck a pole in center with a white flag at the top, and attached a bottle containing the note.

He pushed it into the stream and began his lonely vigil.

Day after day passed. Still no help. His strength was rapidly ebbing.

Then, one afternoon, a small river freighter rounded a bend and chugged to a stop beside the cabin. Inside lay Couture still alive but in critical condition.

He was carried aboard and transported to Dawson.

There he stubbornly clung to life until August 20 when death finally claimed a spunky Klondike sourdough, two months overdue.

He had no known survivors.

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