The Legend of the Headless Valley

Nahanni National Park Reserve is beautiful, but it may have a dark side.

When the Klondike Gold Rush hit, prospectors took many different way to get to the Yukon. One way was along the Nahanni River through the Northwest Territories. This river went right through a valley, called the Nahanni Valley but also called by some the headless valley.

In the summer of 1897, about 766 prospectors travelled from Edmonton on the All-Canadian overland route, and of those only a handful went through the South Nahanni River route. Only two of several dozen are known to have made it through that route.

Of the valley, legendary historian Pierre Berton would say in 1947:

“The legend of the headless valley. It is one of the few pieces of bona fide folklore that we have in Canada. I think you will agree that it is a pretty good legend too, for it has something of almost everything in it.”

In 1908, Willie and Frank McLeod went into the valley to find gold and were never heard from again. It would be two years later that their bodies were found, both without their heads. Today, the Lost McLeod Mine has become a legend unto itself and it is believed as many as 20 people have lost their lives searching for the mine. Also with the men was a Scottish engineer, who was never seen again.

This isn’t the only story of headless bodies to come from the valley. Martin Jorgenson went into the valley in 1917, also looking for gold. He would send out letters stating he found gold but then his cabin burned to the ground. His body was found in the ashes, without its head.

Explorer Raymond Patterson would set out from Fort Smith in the 1920s to explore the region and was told:

“men vanish in that country and down the river they say it’s a damned good country to keep clear of.”

In 1922, John O’Brien, a First World War veteran, was found hunched over a pile of timber with a matchbook in his hand, as if he had suddenly died while lighting a fire.

In 1945, another miner, this one coming from Ontario, came to the valley. When his body was found in a sleeping bag, it was also without his head attached. There are numerous RCMP reports that show many have vanished in the park, and there have even been a few unexplained plane crashes.

Other trappers, like Bill Epler and Joe Mulholland went into the valley and vanished completely.

The valley itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is often called Canada’s Grand Canyon and it has been inhabited by the Dene people for thousands of years, dating back to as long as 10,000 years ago. Many areas of the park are also sacred for the Inuit who have inhabited the region since long before Europeans ever arrived.

So, what is going on there? Well, no one knows but it is a terrain for only the experienced traveler and it is likely many have simply fallen prey to the elements and landscape itself. That being said, some say that an evil spirit haunts the valley and that its shrieks can be heard in the valley at night. Others say that hairy giants live in caves in the canyon walls, led by a pale skinned woman. The aforementioned Waheela is said to also inhabit this region, accounting for the headless corpses.

According to the Dene, the land was inhabited by the Naha once, who were ferocious warriors that frequently raided Dene settlements along the Mackenzie and Lair Rivers. After several attacks, a party of Dene warriors went into the Nahanni country and planned to pillage a Naha camp. As they approached a series of Naha structures, they found that the Naha were nowhere to be found. They had simply vanished. According to the Dene, the Naha were never seen again.