Would names like “Deadmen Valley,” “Headless Creek,” “Headless Range,” and “Funeral Range” deter you from visiting the Nahanni Valley region, one of the world's most pristine and wild UNESCO sites?
What if those landmarks received their ominous names from real-life horror stories? Would stories of a decapitated prospector scare you off? What if it wasn’t just one person but multiple incidents involving headless victims and charred remains?
Was it thieves trying to steal hard earned gold, locals defending their sacred ground, the murdering “Mad Trapper of Rat River”, or just bad luck in a dangerous place?
The Nahanni Valley is a region in Canada’s Northwest Territories that is steeped in stories of adventure, survival and death. Known as the “Paddlers Paradise”, it's an outdoors person's dream, home to pristine wilderness for those with enough experience to handle it.
Home to bears, unpredictable weather, intense rapids, and scalding springs, the remote location is the perfect setting for adventure. To this day, the area is known for dangers and death, but It’s not the modern tragedies that make the Nahanni Valley infamous, it's the eerie pattern of human dismemberment that spanned decades in the early 20th century that makes even the most seasoned adventurer queasy.
Nahanni Valley: Pre-European Contact
The word “Nahanni” is derived from the name of the Naha people, who were known as “the people that roamed through the mountain and valley.” The valleys and river bottoms were also home to another indigenous group called the Dene.
There are stories of the Naha coming down from the mountain villages to raid the Dene settlements only to disappear after the carnage. The Naha terrified the Dene people. They were so feared that the Dene would only talk about the Naha in whispers out of fear of attracting retribution.
Eventually the Dene people reached their breaking point and decided to launch a preemptive attack against their enemy.
When the Dene reached the mountain settlements of the Naha, all that remained were smoldering fires and empty teepees. The Naha had disappeared completely.
Along with stories of the Naha people, local legends speak of a white wolf-like creature called the Waheela. It was known as a giant wolf with supernatural powers that was known to decapitate its victims, could it have been responsible for the beheadings and missing people?
The Gold Rush and the McLeod Brothers
Between 1906 and 1969 when the Nahanni River Valley was first explored by gold-seeking Europeans, 44 people were killed or reported as missing. Out of those whose remains were able to be found, six of those victims were missing their heads and lying beside burned-out camps.
But it was the McLeod brothers and their mysterious gold mine that would be the catalyst for so many misadventures and deaths. When Charlie, Willie, and Frank McLeod returned from their panning trip in the early 1900s, stories spread across the country about their gold laden claim in the Nahanni.
Two years later, Frank and Willie decided to venture out again, this time with an engineer named Robert Weir.
When two years passed and they didn’t return, their brother Charlie set out to look for them, but found only his brothers’ decapitated bodies next to the river. Their heads and their partner, the engineer, were never found. Since then, dozens of people have unsuccessfully gone in search of the Lost McLeod Gold Mine.
Strangely, this story of decapitation isn’t an isolated incident.
Another Headless Body and Another...
In 1917, another decapitated body was discovered in the valley, this time it was Swiss prospector Martin Jorgenson. He was found next to his burnt-down cabin near Flat River.
There have also been other mysterious deaths in the isolated valley; a woman named Annie Laferte went missing in Nahanni in 1926. Eyewitness accounts describe her running and screaming into the woods while discarding her clothing.
Many months later, an Indigenous man by the name of Big Charley claimed to have seen her, climbing a nearly vertical cliff face while totally naked, seemingly out of her mind. She was never seen again.
Now, back to the headless stuff, because yes, there's more.
In 1927, part time prospector and outlaw named “Yukon” Fisher was found dead in almost the same spot that the McLeod brothers had been killed. He was decapitated and his camp burned.
In 1931, another prospector, Phil Powers was also found beheaded alongside the ashes of his campsite.
The list of suspected murder victims for the Nahanni region is extensive. Angus Hall, Joe Mulholland, and Bill Epier all perished. Ollie Holmberg is presumed to have died in the Nahanni Valley, although his remains have never been found.
Albert Johnson, otherwise known as the “Mad Trapper Of Rat River” was an infamous outlaw who went on a murderous rampage across the northern territory in the 1930s that was sparked by a trap line dispute.
Johnson had spent time in the area. Police mentioned him as a potential suspect, after his dead body was found with gold teeth that could have come from dead Nahanni Valley prospectors.
Could he have been the killer who took prospectors' heads as well as their teeth? Unfortunately, even after Johnson died in 1932, people continued to perish and disappear in the Nahanni.
In 1945, a prospector presumed to be from Ontario was found decapitated with his body wrapped in his sleeping bag. Like so many others, he was lying beside his burned out tent. He was never identified.
Ernest Savard, another prospector, went to the Nahanni in the spring of 1945 and was reportedly not seen again. John Patterson was supposed to rendezvous at Virginia Falls in the summer of 1946, he never showed up and was never found.
Death by Dynamite
Perhaps one of the most grizzly stories out of the Nahanni Valley comes from 1959. Alex Mieskonen was in a party of five that headed into the seemingly cursed place. After a brutal winter that ended with the group low on supplies, he sank into a deep depression after an expected bush plane failed to arrive on schedule.
On March 17, 1960, he walked into the woods and committed suicide by strapping dynamite to himself and detonating it.
Nahanni Valley Plane Crash
Angus Blake Mackenzie’s plane crashed into a mountain on Jan. 5, 1962. He apparently survived the crash itself and used the gear and supplies he'd packed to survive for a period of 46 days, according to the journal he kept. Then, he disappeared. No other trace of him was ever found.
Were these dead or missing people the victims of remote territorial disputes? A greedy prospector? Victims of the infamous “Mad Trapper of Rat River” or just unfortunate individuals who gambled their health and safety for gold or adventure in a wild place? The truth may never be known.
Related Articles
