 He lived in Caribou Crossing, now Carcross, Yukon, Canada.In the mid-1880s, he worked as a packer over the Chilkoot Pass carrying supplies for miners, where he earned his "Skookum" nickname because of his extraordinary strength.Skookum means "strong", "big" and "reliable" in the Chinook Jargon and regional English as used in the Pacific Northwest.