In the summer and fall of 1913, Dick Bucholtz was making headlines in the Fairbanks newspapers. Dick was the name of a well-known pet moose owned by Pete Bucholtzm who had big plans for his pet that didn’t amuse the chief of police or the city mayor.
Fred Clinton, the freighter, on his round trip from Richardson Friday brought into town the tame moose that he purchased from Munson’s Roadhouse. It is the intention of the freighter to break the animal to the reins and drive excursionists about the camp.
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Although moose are plentiful within a few miles of Fairbanks, it is an uncommon sight to see one of the animals led through the streets of the town like any domestic quadruped, therefore some excitement was created when Peter Bucholtz led his pet downtown this morning.
While the animal was in an extremely frolicsome mood, it was easily managed by Mr. Bucholtz with an ordinary headstall such as are used on horses.
The moose seems to take well to the sights and sounds of the city; therefore Mr. Bucholtz expects to have no trouble with the animal when it takes it Outside during the Panama Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco. Several wagons and teams passed, but aside from shying a little bit, as does every horse when he sees something a little bit unusual, the moose showed absolutely no signs of fright.
A number of good pictures of the tame animal were secured by those who were photographically inclined. When completed, one picture will show the moose in the act of eating apples in the door of a local grocery. After it had obtained a taste of the fruit, it was all its master could do to keep the young animal from turning around and entering the store through the plate glass windows.
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Mr. Dick Bucholtz, the young pet moose of Peter Bucholtz, is now becoming as well acquainted with the business houses of the city as most of the citizens, having been brought down each of the past several days and taken into the emporiums.
He will not touch liquor, but when candy and fruit are offered to him, he eats them with evident pleasure and never forgets the kindness which is done him nor where he receives it, always returning to the donor for more when taken back to the same place the next day.
Mr. Bucholtz stated today that it is his intention to harness the animal and drive him within the next few days, possibly tomorrow.
The animal seems to take well to the sights and sounds of the city, and, for this reason it is expected that he will be quite tractable when put into harness.
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
“Cans” Pete Bucholtz’ Moose and Goes to the Charity Ball
The city council met last evening in regular session.
The council paid the salaries of the city official, passed a lengthy ordinance to compel Pete Bucholtz’s pet moose to keep off the sidewalk, considered the offered-gift of a light for the Turner Street Bridge and listened to a very lengthy communication from School Director Adams in which he pleaded that the school janitor’s wages be raised to the 1906 standard, despite the lower cost of living in Fairbanks today.
The council passed the potlatch for the school janitor and then, impatient over the delay, hotfooted it to the Auditorium to join in the revelry at the Halloween Dance.
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Bucholtz’s Moose Had Untimely End But He Still Lives In Memory
Bucholtz’s moose, forbidden by ordinance the use of sidewalks in Fairbanks, went long since to that happy land where golden streets are free to all for evermore, but the municipal ordinance here is yet in force and the animal still lives in memory, refreshed by pictures taken of him in the heyday of his youth and vigor.
Charles Schiek, painter, occupied a cabin on Eighth Street with Peter Bucholtz 25 years ago when Pete acquired the moose and made a pet of it.
Mr. Schiek has a picture showing him holding the moose and standing nearby are a small boy and Pete.
“I frequently took care of the moose, and often fed him,” Mr. Schiek recalled. “The animal was a calf when Pete obtained him from some men who were hunting game for the market and who had caught the little fellow.
“The animal became very tame and would follow either Pete or me. The moose had been broken to harness and could be hitched to a sled. In winter, he was fed on frozen potatoes and stale bread, and sometimes either Pete or I would go into the woods, then nearby, and cut some willow for the creature. I remember he wouldn’t eat rolled oats.
“He often would follow Pete into Bill McPhee’s saloon in which Pete worked as a bartender, and which occupied the site at second and Lacey of the new Lacey Street Theatre.
“The moose was two years old when an ordinance was enacted, while Andrew Nerland was mayor, forbidding moose the use of sidewalks in Fairbanks.
“There were no other moose except Pete’s in the town and the ordinance had for its single purpose the exclusion of Pete’s pet. Under the law, the animal could not cross a sidewalk to get into McPhee’s saloon or for that matter to anywhere else in the city.
“Andrew Nerland was a good mayor, and his administration was marked by numerous official acts in furtherance of the growth and progress of the city, but he gained more fame for the anti-moose ordinance than for anything else. The report of the enactment of the ordinance was given nation-wide distribution by the Associated Press.
“After the enactment of the ordinance, Pete put a cowbell on the moose and took him outside the city and got back without being followed.
Wandered Back Occasionally
The animal did wander back of his own accord on several occasions, but every time he was let outside the municipal boundaries.
“Finally, when feeding about four miles north of town he was mistaken for a wild moose and was shot and killed.
“Some years later, Pete left Fairbanks to make his home in Los Angeles. He died there. His son Taggart Bucholtz lives in San Diego, Calif. He recently was president of the Sourdough’s Association.”
Mr. Shiek was prompted to look for his picture of the moose by the publication in the Fairbanks News-Miner last Wednesday of an Associated Press report, half a column in length, from New Haven, Conn., saying Robert J. Patterson, and electrician in that city, was in Fairbanks when Pete’s moose roamed the streets.
Mr. Patterson showed the Associated Press correspondent at New Haven a group photograph of Dan Driscoll, a former mayor of Fairbanks, Bucholtz, the moose, and Mrs. Driscoll.
Note: There are numerous photographs of this moose at the Fairbanks Pioneer Museum as part of the Candace Wauguaman collection.
The moose was brought downtown and featured at the charter meeting of the Fairbanks Moose Lodge and was adopted as its official mascot. It’s owner Pete Bucholtz, along with Charley Shiek, Frank Wiseman, and Mayors Nerland and Driscoll were all members of the Fairbanks Men’s Igloo.