Hank Jacquot has a story or two up his sleeve. And they all seem to come back to the Kluane region, where he was born and raised.

One such tale centres around Solomon Albert, a French-Canadian trapper and prospector who, one frigid day circa 1913, sliced his toes clean off enduring a particularly fierce case of frostbite.

“He chopped them off when they were frozen,” said Jacquot, now 80. “He did this in a tent.”

Following days on end in the bush without food, Albert made it to St. Mary’s Hospital in Dawson City, where his feet were amputated. He received a pair of primitive prosthetic feet, but never really took to them.

“So come springtime he shot a bear, took the skin off and used the hind feet for himself,” Jacquot chuckled.

Not long after, tramping along a sandbar on the Donjek River about 40 kilometres from Burwash Landing during the Shushanna stampede — “Alaska’s last great gold rush,” according to Alaska Geographic — a group of hunters came upon the tracks of what appeared to be a bipedal bear.

“They were very superstitious back then. And it scared the wits out of them,” Jacquot said. “They up and moved camp!”

Apparently, the so-called Bear Man often came through Burwash Landing, a community established by Jacquot’s father, Gene, and great-uncle, Louis, around the turn of the century.

Albert, like many other trappers and prospectors in the Kluane region, depended on supplies from the local trading post, which the Jacquot brothers had built on arrival.

That trading post gradually became surrounded by other log structures, including the Jacquot resort by 1948.

Now, the two-storey lodge — the largest building constructed in Burwash Landing at that time — stands under threat of demolition, as the Kluane Community Development Corporation considers other uses for the land it bought several years ago.

“It’s the story of the lodge itself, but it’s also the story of the Jacquot brothers,” said local resident Pauly Wroot on the site’s significance. “It’s the story of the opening up of the Kluane area, this very special place, for the first time.”

Wroot, who worked for four years in the heritage department of the Kluane First Nation, sees the lodge as a gateway into a bygone world, with a legacy that resonates across the Yukon to this day.

“With that structure you can lead into telling that larger story, the development of the community, the first access to this area — pre-highway,” she said, noting the Jacquots’ initial Kluane Lake trading post was the portal to the east until the mid-1940s, when the Alaska Highway was completed.

Kluane Chief Mathieya Alatini said the decision to raze the building was made following several community meetings over the past year-and-a-half.

However, only 12 development corporation shareholders — all Kluane citizens hold a stake in the company — were at the critical final meeting late last year, she said.

While the choice to use the lakeside site for a new resort, expanded RV park or residential development was unanimous among the dozen, there are more than 50 Kluane citizens who live in Burwash Landing, according to a territorial census from 2006.

Many more — like Hank Jacquot — likely live outside the community.

Monique Martin, a local resident, said that “people have been vocal publicly within the community about their opposition” to demolition.

Martin recalled a public presentation last October by a group trying to designate the Alaska Highway as a national historic site.

“After, citizens expressed their thoughts about the lodge,” she said, noting the chief and council members were present at the meeting.

“Basically, people were saying ... ‘Why are we ripping down the lodge because it’s a historical spot?’

“I don’t believe that the corporation has done its due diligence in researching this.”

Colin Asselstine, the development corporation’s general manager, had no comment when contacted last week by the Star.

Wroot, a great-granddaughter of Louis Jacquot and a former interpreter at Kluane National Park, said she understood the dilemma facing Kluane citizens.

“It’s a challenge to consult every stakeholder for Kluane First Nation. There’s quite a few of us spread far and wide.

“The corporation and KFN themselves were faced with a tough decision. But I don’t think it’s fair to say that it’s unanimous....”

Wroot reiterated the lodge’s tourism potential.

“I’m an advocate for the history of this area, and this is where our tourism lies, our story that’s of interest to visitors. It ties in with the national park’s history, all of it is connected.”

Wroot also stressed the stake that all Yukoners have in the future of the resort, given the half a century of post-contact history that preceded it and its current significance as the oldest lodge on the Yukon portion of the Alaska Highway, according to the Yukon Historical and Museums Society.

“The right thing to do is to open up that conversation to the territory,” Wroot said. “This is important on a grander scale than just the community of Burwash Landing.”