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Mysteries / Strange places

Nahanni's Headless Valley

1908 · Nahanni National Park Reserve, Northwest Territories, Canada

A wild river valley where prospectors were found headless, leaving names like Deadmen Valley and the Funeral Range.

The Gate, in Second Canyon of the South Nahanni River
The Gate, in Second Canyon of the South Nahanni RiverPhoto: Paul Gierszewski · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

The South Nahanni River cuts through the Mackenzie Mountains in four canyons with walls up to 1,000 m high. The name comes from the Dene name for the area, Nahʔa Dehé, the river of the land of the Nahʔa people. Today it is a national park reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

During the Klondike Gold Rush, some prospectors tried to use the Nahanni as a route to the Yukon goldfields, or to find gold of their own. Around 1908 the headless bodies of two Métis prospectors, brothers Willie and Frank McLeod, were found. Stories grew of a lost mine where they had struck gold, and more unexplained prospector deaths followed.

The legends live on in the map: Deadmen Valley, Headless Creek, the Headless Range and the Funeral Range. In 1947 journalist Pierre Berton flew up the 'Headless Valley' for the Vancouver Sun and quoted a prospector on the valley's 'sinister atmosphere' and the 'weird, continual wailing of the wind'.

Virginia Falls (Nailicho), Nahanni National Park Reserve
Virginia Falls (Nailicho), Nahanni National Park ReservePhoto: Paul Gierszewski (Gierszep) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

  1. 1890sKlondike-era prospectors try the Nahanni route
  2. about 1908The headless bodies of Willie and Frank McLeod are found
  3. 1947Pierre Berton's flight up 'Headless Valley' makes it famous
  4. 1978The park becomes one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The theories, rated

  • Best fitHarsh country and human violence

    Whitewater, cold and isolation were deadly; animals may have disturbed remains, and robbery is often suggested in the McLeod case.

  • No evidenceA curse or a guardian of the gold

    The heart of the legend; no evidence beyond the stories.

  • No evidenceWild men of the valley

    Some retellings add hairy giants or hidden tribes; these appear in later stories, not the early records.

Sources

All 13 mysteries