Today’s story takes us into the Dehcho region of the Northwest territories in Canada, specifically, the Nahanni national park reserve. The focal point of the park is the south Nahanni river; there are also four massive canyons that reach 3,300 ft in depth (1,000 m) lining the river. Because of its beautiful canyons, roaring waterfalls, and rushing rivers, the Nahanni national park was one of the first four natural heritage locations to be listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1978. The valley gets its name from the indigenous Dene language which translates to “river of the land of the Naha people”. For the past several thousand years, the land surrounding this valley was home to the Dene tribes, though through stories and legends that have been passed down for generations, these tribes speak of another tribe that lived in the valley, the Naha. The Naha are said to be a warlike tribe that live in the mountains and descend the slopes into the lowlands to hunt and raid and so they became the number one enemy of the Dene people who were terrified of them. Despite their supposed aggressive nature, the Dene claim that the Naha simply vanished all at once. The raids stopped and the Naha were never seen again. The only proof of this tribe ever existing are the stories told by the Dene people. Some speculate that the Naha still live in the valley to this day, hiding in plain sight.
Now onto why we’re talking about this park, it is said to be haunted or cursed, due to the mysterious deaths and disappearances of several gold miners over the years. There is a special place in this valley, originally known as 200 mile gorge but would later become known as the valley of the headless men.
Sometime in the early 1900s, three brothers, Frank, Willie, and Charlie Mcleod, made a journey from Edmonton, Alberta to the Nahanni valley. They brought very basic gear with them and traveled by train, boat, and foot through the numbingly cold Canadian wilderness until they came upon Gold Creek (which would later be known as headless creek). The trio managed to quite a bit of gold but on the return trip to their home in Fort Laird, their makeshift boat had capsized due to the intensity of the rapids and they lost a lot of equipment and the majority of their gold. They decided that while they were there they would try again, they salvaged some of the lumber from the wreckage, chopped a few trees and crafted a new boat to carry them back up the river but this time they had no luck. They decided to return home and later plan a second trip to Nahanni valley. This time things would be different, Charlie decided not to go back and so Frank and Willie brought their friend, a Scottish engineer named Robert Weir with them instead. These three men would enter the valley and never be heard from again. Two years had passed before Charlie led a search party into Nahanni valley in search of his brothers and their friend. What they found instead was a campsite along the river’s edge and two bodies. The heads had been severed and one body was lying on the ground outside the tent with an arm outstretched toward a rifle, the other body was inside the tent with a blanket partially covering it as if he had leaped from the bed suddenly. The party searched the area around the campsite but were unable to locate the heads, closer inspection of the camp would reveal some personal items confirming that these two bodies were Charlie’s brothers. Another interesting thing that was found at the campsite was a carving in a nearby tree that said “We have found a fine prospect.” Robert Weir was nowhere to be found but several months later a partial skeleton was discovered down the river from the campsite though it is unconfirmed whether or not it was Robert. After this incident, the canyon where the campsite and bodies were found became known as Headless Valley.
Thinking nothing of the stories and superstition surrounding the headless valley, Swiss prospector Martin Jorgenson decided to make a lone trip into the valley sometime around 1913. Jorgenson’s plan was to build a cabin several miles up river from where headless valley was and live there through the winter and then meet up with some friends in the summer. Allegedly Jorgenson found a lot of gold and sent a letter to his friends stating that they were rich. This excited his friends and when summer came around they traveled to the meeting spot just outside the valley and waited for Jorgenson who never showed up. The group waited at the spot for a few days thinking he was running behind. They eventually decided to head into the valley toward the cabin to check on him. But instead they found a burned down cabin and the charred, headless corpse of Martin Jorgenson. No gold was found anywhere near the remains of the cabin, nor did they find a head. Despite all of the similarities of the two incidents, police said the two were not connected and again insisted that they died by some other means and animals were responsible for the missing parts.
Several years later, around 1921, prospector and trapper John O’Brien and his partner ignored the strange things happening in Nahanni valley and decided to go looking for gold. They set up camp in headless valley not far from where the Mcleod brothers were found. They spent a few days there and were finding quite a bit of gold when John told his partner to wait at the camp while he went out to check their traps and he’d be back in about nine days. After the nine days were up John’s partner decided to go looking for him. While searching, he came across another prospector who was also looking for gold in the area, he informed him of what was going on and the two began searching along the river for any sign of John. Eventually they did find him, but he had frozen to death in front of an extinguished campfire, allegedly it looked as if he had been flash frozen, his expression was that of someone who was just enjoying the fire, he was even clutching a matchbook in his hand. Again no foul play was suspected because the police said even though he was in an odd position it was clear he froze to death.
In 1926, a hunting party departed for Nahanni valley. Among the group was a young girl named May “Annie” Lafferty, she was the younger cousin of Poole Field’s wife, Mary. It is said that she was strange and one of the members of the party described her as “neurotic”. This hunting party consisted of Annie, Poole and Mary field, and a group of natives from Fort Simpson. One day during their trip, they woke up to discover that Annie was missing, at first not much was thought of her disappearance as they had assumed she just walked a little ways into the brush to explore and would be right back but as the day went on, Mary became worried for her younger cousin. Poole would then head out into the forest with five native hunters, Diamond C, Boston Jack, Charlie Yohin, George Tesou, and Big Charlie. It didn’t take long for these veteran hunters to pick up on Annie’s trail, at first it seemed like she had just gotten lost, but as they continued it got increasingly difficult to keep up with the trail of moccasin prints that seemed to indicate Annie had picked up speed and darted through the wilderness “as if on the wings of the wind.” They followed her trail for nine days and along the way they continued finding pieces of Annie’s clothing that had apparently been shredded and were now hanging from various branches at random as if she had torn her clothes off as she ran. Despite now being naked in the harsh Canadian wilderness, Annie’s trail continued winding up the mountain. The group followed her trail for four more days before giving up. Annie was never found. The strangest part of this story wouldn’t come out until months later when the hunting party returned home and reported the incident which eventually made its way into the local newspapers, after which a hunter identified only by the name “Charlie” came to the police and told them of his experience in the Nahanni valley.
Charlie stated that while he was hunting near third canyon he had set up camp for the night by Flat river but was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of a rock falling into the river. The only light he had at the time was the moonlight reflecting off of the river and about a hundred yards away he spotted a naked girl running on all fours up the side of the cliff, he described the girls movements as “like an animal”, but what he remembers most was when she would occasionally stop and look around before continuing up the cliff and knocking more rocks into the river below, Charlie said her expression was like a “rictus grin, like the expression was frozen on her features, and her eyes wide and wild”. Police dismissed the story and never investigated due to the fact that no one could survive naked in the mountains that long. After the incident, the river where Annie disappeared was renamed “May Creek” in her memory.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahanni_National_Park_Reserve
https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/nahanni-valley-0016177
https://www.rpgpub.com/threads/pfcocafrl-spotlight-the-valley-of-the-headless-men.6817/
The Squonk & The Hag Podcast: True Crime & Scary Stories 