Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Ancient technologies

The Nahanni Valley, better known as the Headless Valley

In the polar region of Canada, in the so-called Northwest Territories, there is a picturesque place called Nahanni National Park. Its more famous nickname, the Headless Valley, has turned this park into one of the creepiest places in North America.

At first glance, there is nothing sinister about Nahanni Valley. It is filled with beautiful landscapes of forests, waterfalls, cliffs, and hot springs.

There are no human settlements here, and if there were any in the past, they were many centuries ago because the local Indigenous peoples try to avoid entering this valley even in pursuit of game.

The reason being, they believed that in this valley lies a place where the spirits of brave warriors go after death. And that they roam there with some “magical” tribes in the company of giant man-eating animals. White settlers, of course, laughed at the “Indian tales,” but they also feared to venture there.

The story that gave the Nahanni Valley its ominous nickname began in the summer of 1900 when an Indigenous man named Little Nahanni arrived at the settlement of Fort Liard in the Yukon, carrying a bag filled to the brim with gold nuggets.

By then, the gold rush had already passed through California and the Klondike, so many were eager to know where Nahanni found so much gold. He reluctantly revealed that he found it in the valley near the South Nahanni River.

By the way, it’s not surprising that this Indigenous man was named after the river, as among Indigenous tribes, this was a common tradition.

In an attempt to find the exact location, a group of local residents began secretly following Little Nahanni to catch the moment when he would go back for gold to that valley. But he initially spent the gold on delicacies, trinkets, and fine clothing, and when it ran out, he took up fishing. He never went back to the valley a second time, reportedly because he was very frightened when he went there the first time.

An unusual tuft rock in the Nahanni Valley

In 1903, another Indigenous man arrived at Fort Liard carrying a bag of gold. When questioned, he also indicated that he found gold in the valley of the South Nahanni River, specifically in Bennett Creek.

Three local adventurers immediately set out to find the gold. They were the three McLeod brothers – Willie, Frank, and Charlie. They were experienced in many pursuits, including having tried their luck searching for gold in various places before. In January 1904, they set off for the Nahanni Valley on horseback, found Bennett Creek, which flowed at the mouth of the Flat River, and began panning for gold there.

By winter of the same year, they had accumulated quite a bit of gold sand and decided to return the next year. However, for some reason, Charlie refused to go to the valley a second time, so Willie and Frank hired a laborer whose name is not recorded in history.

They were supposed to return by winter, but they didn’t. They didn’t show up the following year either. Only in 1908 were the remains of the McLeod brothers’ camp found on the edge of the Nahanni Valley. Frank and Willie’s skeletons lay decapitated, and as for the body of the hired worker, some rumors said he fled with the gold to Vancouver, while others said his decapitated body lay nearby the brothers’ bodies.

Rumors spread throughout the region that someone had killed and decapitated the three prospectors. Whites blamed the Indigenous people, while the Indigenous people claimed it was the vengeance of the spirits who didn’t like them digging in their lands.

In 1910, a prospector named Martin Jorgenson, who was a big skeptic when it came to the supernatural and therefore didn’t believe in spirits, went to the Nahanni Valley in search of gold. Two years later, his decapitated skeleton was found near the cabin he had built at the mouth of the Flat River. The cabin had been burned to the ground.

In 1928, an adventurous woman named Annie Laferte ventured into these parts, and upon hearing about gold in the Nahanni Valley, decided to head there. She never returned, and what happened to her remained unknown. Later, local Indigenous people claimed they saw a naked woman running down the mountain slope screaming. “The spirits took her,” the Indigenous people were sure.

In 1929, a certain Angus Hall went to the Nahanni Valley (which by then had already acquired the nickname Headless Valley) and never returned. Those who went to search for him only found a footprint, presumably his, on the sand by the river.

In 1931, fur trapper Phil Powers went hunting in the Headless Valley. A year later, his body was found in a burned-down cabin, and it was decapitated.

Several more years passed, and two men, J. Mulholland and Bill Esper, went to the valley in search of gold. When they didn’t return by the agreed-upon time, they were searched for, but no one was found, dead or alive. Instead, they found the “fresh” body of an unknown man. Also headless. His identity was never determined.

By the 1960s, it was believed that over forty people had disappeared in the Headless Valley, some without a trace, while others were found decapitated. Who or what is killing and mutilating people in this valley remains a subject of lively debate.

Some researchers are convinced that there is indeed a lot of gold in the valley, and that the local Indigenous people simply don’t want it to be taken by outsiders. That’s why they kill them and decapitate them to make it harder to identify the bodies.

Others speculate that it’s not the Indigenous people, nor the bandits, but the local yetis who attack people, for whom the Headless Valley is one of the last refuges.

There’s also something suspicious about the fact that UFOs are very often seen in these parts. Perhaps the decapitated people have become victims of extraterrestrial experiments?

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Copyright © 2024 ExtraTerrestrial