WEBVTT - Season 06 Episode 23: How the Wind Does Scream 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.120 On a stormy night on the small island of Guernsey, 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:07.720 a young paranormal expert joins a skeptical history teacher to 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:11.000 record the first in a series of podcasts based on 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:15.880 the island's incredible folklore and paranormal history. As the expert 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:20.239 regales his horrifying stories, the teacher learns that we all 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:24.800 have our own truth, our own story ghosts that haunt us. 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:30.560 Starring Olivier nominated actor and former Blue Peter legend Peter Duncan, 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.400 When Darkness Falls is a spine chilling ghost story that 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:38.919 delivers a twisted, terrifying and thrilling tale that the Guardian 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.199 said will leave you cowering in your seat. Catch the 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.760 brand new UK tour of When Darkness Falls from September 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:50.480 fifteenth in a town near you. Select nights will also 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:54.600 feature myself delivering a live episode of Unexplained. For more 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:58.880 details or to book tickets, visit When Darkness Falls dot 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:15.000 co dot uk if you dare One frigid morning in 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:19.760 the early winter of nineteen hundred, Fred McLeod, chief factor 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.680 of the Hudson Bay fought Lyard Trading Post in Canada's 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:28.399 Northwest Territories, sat alone at his desk, attending to some 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:33.560 paperwork when the front door opened suddenly and a blast 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:39.160 of cold air whipped through the store. A man stepped inside, 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:43.199 wearing little more than a caribou hide streaked with dirt, 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.200 carrying a pair of snowshoes in one hand and a 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:52.840 rifle in the other. McLeod assumed at first that the lean, 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:57.720 dark haired figure was De Nay, a broad and diverse 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:01.919 group of First nationers that were indigenous to the north Lands. 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:07.600 But something about this individual was different, not least of 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.720 all how strangely underdressed he was for someone native to 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.240 a region where the mercury could drop as low as 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:20.320 minus twenty four celsius in the winter months. Fred watched 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:24.720 with a studied curiosity as the man perused the post's 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.640 few shelves of items, then grabbed what he needed and 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.880 headed up to the counter, trailing snow under his moccasins 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.560 as he went. Fred was about to turn the man 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:40.520 away when he reached into a small medicine pouch tied 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:44.480 around his neck and pulled out a handful of bright 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:51.880 gold nuggets. Now he had Fred's complete attention as spread 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:55.600 proceeded to process the items. He did his best to 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:59.520 get the man talking. Where was he coming from, he asked, 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:04.320 and where was he heading to? And more importantly, where 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.280 on earth did you find that gold? The man gave 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.720 little away at first, before eventually revealing that he'd discovered 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.040 it along the banks of the Flat River, about a 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.359 hundred and ten miles to the north, not far from 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:23.600 where it met with the South Nahani River. And then 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:29.959 it finally hit fred. The man was Nahari himself, or Naha, 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:34.560 another indigenous group who lived mostly in the valleys and 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.640 hills further up to the northwest of Fort Lyard, in 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:50.320 what the Europeans called the Mackenzie Mountains. Many a strange 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:54.160 tale had been told of the giant sprawl of wilderness 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:59.400 encompassing the Mackenzie Mountains, in particular the region known as 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:05.760 Nahana Valley, a three hundred mile stretch of vast canyons, gorges, 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:10.040 and rolling pine covered hills that flanked the South Nahani 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:15.960 and Flat Rivers. Due to its positioning and unique geology, 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.640 the valley was completely untouched by the Last ice Age, 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:25.279 leading some to claim that despite temperatures there routinely dropping 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:29.240 below freezing for half of the year, whole sections of 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:34.279 it never froze over at all. Psalm even claimed that 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:38.840 hidden deep within it was a tropical oasis overgrown with 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:43.599 gigantic ferns and vines, where tremendous herds of moose and 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:48.320 caribou roamed, bigger and fatter than anything anyone had ever 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:54.120 seen before. There were rumors two of other creatures, giant 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.839 fur covered things that left eighteen inch wide three toed 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.920 impressions in the earth, as if whatever it was had 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:07.760 emerged from some kind of prehistoric portal that penetrated the 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:13.160 valley's floor, which led to some other world entirely. The 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:17.640 Dunae had their beliefs about it too, Stories passed down 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:22.320 from generation to generation, a bridge to a distant and 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:28.120 ancient time. They told tales of malignant elemental forces that 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:33.080 held sway over the valley, and also equally terrifying but 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:38.440 more corporeal dangers like than Akanne, a race of giant 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.440 head hunting wild people who were said to hide deep 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:47.760 inside unreachable caves carved high up into the canyon walls. 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:53.279 Fred McLeod had heard it all, but this was the 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.440 first time he'd ever seen any evidence there might be 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:04.800 gold there. Two. You're listening to unexplained, and I'm Richard 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:18.440 McClean smith. In nineteen hundred, the Hudson Bay Company or HBC, 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.919 was the most prominent fur trading business in Canada, with 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:27.279 hundreds of posts stretched out across the entirety of the continent. 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:32.360 Fought Lyard, located on the Lyard River at the southern 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.599 edge of the Northwest Territories, was one of its most 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:40.919 westerly posts. It was a place which for Europeans would 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.479 be considered about as close to the frontier as one 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:48.839 could get. However, for those who'd been indigenous to the 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:53.160 surrounding lands for thousands of years, it was but just 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:57.760 another spot in a rich and vast expanse, of which 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:02.400 some parts were better known than others, and some remained 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:07.960 completely uncharted. For twenty two year old Fred, who like 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.840 the rest of his brothers and sisters identified as MATEI 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.600 on account of them being descended from both European and 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:23.800 First Nation heritage, this great wilderness was merely home. As such, he, 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.520 like anyone else in his family, would think nothing of 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:31.119 heading out into the mountains for months on end, arm'd 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.840 with little more than a gun and a few pounds 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.640 of flower. Whether they be hunting for fur or gold 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:44.160 as chief factor. However, it was also Fred's responsibility to 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:49.120 oversee all trade that came through Fort Lyard. It was 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.920 a position of great responsibility that had been passed down 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.960 to him by his father, and one which he was 0:07:56.000 --> 0:08:02.520 contractually obliged to maintain, and so, despite his adventurous urges, 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.640 he had little choice but to simply bid farewell to 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:10.280 the young a Harny man and try to forget about 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:15.640 his curious pouch of bright gold nuggets. It was a 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:19.000 good three years later when another and a Harny hunter 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:23.040 appeared at the Fort led trading post with yet another 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:27.960 pouchful of gold. This man, too, claimed to have found 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.520 it while panning on the banks of the Flat River, 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.440 in a spot roughly five miles south from where his 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:40.720 compatriot had found his hall those few years before. This time, 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.439 the by then twenty five year old Fred did not hesitate. 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:57.640 Although he wasn't free to make the journey himself. Fred 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.440 sent word to his thirty two year old brother Willie, 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.720 who was living some seven hundred and fifty miles away 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:09.880 in Edmonton, Alberta at the time, explaining to him that 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.320 there might be a fortune waiting to be discovered in 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:19.360 the Naharani Valley. Ever ready for adventure, Willie immediately made 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.920 his way to Fort Nelson in British Columbia to visit 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.280 his and Fred's older brother, thirty five year old Frank, 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:29.720 who was also employed by the Hudson Bay Company at 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:34.880 the time. Feeling somewhat less loyal toward the HBC as 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:39.120 his brother Fred, Frank agreed to accompany Willie into the valley, 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.560 and so it was in late nineteen oh three that 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:47.040 the two brothers made the lengthy journey up to Fort 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:52.640 Lyard before heading on to the South Nahani River. Some 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:57.400 weeks later, they arrived at Nahani Butte, a striking mound 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:02.400 of sheer limestone cliff that like an ominous giant's finger, 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:07.800 seemingly directing travelers away from the mouth of the South Nahani. 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:12.199 Here the brothers loaded their packs into a narrow canoe 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:17.480 and paddled on upstream into the valley. It was a 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:21.479 few months later when the brothers returned to Fort Lyard, 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.800 having only succeeded in venturing a short way into the 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:31.320 valley and failing to find anything significant. Undeterred, they headed 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:36.160 back the following year, accompanied that time by their younger brother, Charlie. 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:42.679 Months later, they returned to Fort Lyard again tired and draggled, 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:47.559 with a hellish story to tell, having managed to paddle 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:51.200 and trek along endless miles At the South Nahani River, 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.480 they were prospecting at one of the many creeks that 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:58.079 split off from it when they uncovered a rich deposit 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:02.800 of gold. With winter closing in, the men loaded what 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.480 they could into their canoe and pushed out into the water, 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:13.000 only to unexpectedly crash into some treacherous rapids. The canoe 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:17.880 capsized and they lost everything save for a small eno 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:22.640 fruit salts bottle full of placa gold, which Willie had 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.840 managed to stuff under a sash that he tied around 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:31.280 his waist. Proof, they said that the gold really was 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:42.000 out there. Despite the disaster of their last trip, the 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:46.320 McCloud brothers returned hardened and more convinced than ever that 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.000 there was a huge fortune to be found in the 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:54.600 Nahanni Valley. However, being unable to raise credit due to 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:58.920 their well known gambling habits meant an agonizing weight as 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:02.200 they worked to say what they could to take another 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:06.480 stab at it. It was sometime in nineteen oh five 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:11.679 when a man introducing himself as Robert Were, a steamboat 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:16.160 engineer from Scotland, arrived in Fort Providence in the Northwest 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:21.319 Territories to deliver supplies for the Hudson Bay Company. Weir 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:25.160 was then introduced to Fred McLeod, who had recently been 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:30.920 installed as Chief Factor of Fort Providence. While speaking to Fred, 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:35.640 Weir couldn't take his eyes off his watch, especially the 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:40.880 bright gold chain that secured it around his wrist. Noticing 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:45.200 Weir's curiosity, Fred explained that it had been a gift 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.760 from his brothers, constructed from the very gold they'd found 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:55.760 on their last trip into the Mackenzie Mountains. Intrigued, were 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:59.640 promptly quit his job with the HBC and boarded a 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:04.679 boat bound for Fort Simpson, another trading post about two 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:08.600 hundred miles west of Providence, where Willie and Frank were 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:12.880 living at the time. After tracking the brothers down to 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:18.080 a local inn, Weir gave them a proposition he would 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:22.280 foot the bill for their next gold hunting expedition if 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:26.440 they agreed to let him go with them. The brothers 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:30.160 took little convincing and agreed on the spot to take 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:34.440 him up on the offer. Charlie mc cloud, having had 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:38.080 enough of an adventure the first time around, neglected to 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:42.800 join them on this occasion. A few weeks later, a 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:47.079 spring was just beginning to burst, the three men set 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:59.640 off for the fabled Naharni Valley as October crept into November. 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.720 Back in Fought Providence, Fred mc cloud had yet to 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:08.040 receive any word from his brothers regarding their latest adventure, 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:13.400 but since both Willie and Frank were seasoned outdoors people, 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:18.840 he had little reason to panic. In Edmonton, Alberta, However, 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.920 younger brother Charlie, who long sinced he had a feeling 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.840 for this type of thing, was beginning to get nervous, 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.640 and when winter came and went and there was still 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.400 no sign of Willie and Frank, it soon became clear 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:41.040 to him that something was very wrong. In spring nineteen 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:45.440 o seven, Fred and Charlie received word about an abandoned 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:49.600 canoe found caught up in a pile of driftwood on 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.040 the banks of the South and the Harney River. It 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:56.120 didn't mean anything as such, but was said to have 0:14:56.200 --> 0:15:00.040 borne a striking resemblance to the canoe used by the 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:05.720 brothers and Robert Weir. Then another message, as recounted by 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:10.360 writer and explorer Philip Godsell snaked its way out of 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:16.720 the wilderness and arrived eventually at Charlie's door. It involved 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:21.560 the sighting of an emaciated and haggard looking man reportedly 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:26.200 seen at the Telegraph Creek trading Post, some two hundred 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:30.880 and fifty miles southwest of the Nahanni Valley, smelling of dead, 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:35.680 rotting flesh. The man was said to have revealed that 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.480 he'd been prospecting for months in the wilderness with two 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.880 partners before they were ambushed by members of a local tribe. 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.520 Forced to go their separate ways, the man had spent 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:52.160 the last few months trying to get back to civilization. 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:57.040 The hideous smell, he explained, was due to the large 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:01.240 caribou he'd shot, which he'd been stead eating over the 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:06.480 last few days while sleeping inside its rancid carcass at night. 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:13.000 One night, soon after Charlie McLeod awoke from a restless 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.680 sleep with the complete conviction that he had to make 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:21.880 his way to Vancouver. Once there, he walked straight into 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:26.800 the nearest bar, where inside he found a heavily inebriated 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:32.600 Robert Weir loudly holding court. When Charlie demanded to know 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:36.720 what had happened to his brothers. Weir gave another story, 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.640 claiming that although they had been ransacked a few times, 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.800 they still managed to find a rich vein of gold. 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.160 After working it for a few weeks, however, they had 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.880 decided it was safer to get out while they still could, 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:56.520 in order to return with the much bigger party. He 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.600 and the brothers, he said, had last seen each other 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:12.479 Nahani Butte before going their separate ways. More determined than 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:17.560 ever to find the truth about his brothers, Charlie, accompanied 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:22.080 by his younger brother Donald, pert five man search party together. 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:27.880 Among the group was former Royal Northwest Mounted Police officer 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:32.720 and well respected trapper Paul Field, who, as one of 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.720 the first outsiders to venture into the Nahani Valley, had 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.439 forged good relationships with many of the First Nation people 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:46.560 who populated the region. In May nineteen o seven, the 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.680 team arrived at the mouth of the South Nahani River 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.199 and over a number of weeks steadily made their way 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:59.200 through the rivers silty et crew waters, each day taking 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:04.480 them deeper and deeper into the valley. At just over 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:09.160 thirty miles up river, a mist descended as the men 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:14.560 approached the first of the river's grand canyons, the surrounding 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:19.040 pine covered foothills giving way to a thousand meter high 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:23.119 limestone cliffs that shot up vertically from the ground on 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:29.760 both sides and on. They continued in almost complete silence, 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.560 save for the gentle splash of the oars as they 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:37.200 broke through the water, while the men kept their eyes 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:42.600 peeled for any sign of human activity. Then a strange, 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:49.600 high pitched whale rang out from somewhere overhead. Charlie glanced 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:53.880 nervously up toward a small line of caves carved out 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:58.400 of the limestone, perched up high ahead of them, remembering 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:03.160 all those unnerving tails he'd heard of, the mysterious head 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:07.959 hunting and cave dwelling the carne. It's just the wind, 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:14.560 said Paul, doing its best to reassure him. It was 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:18.800 sometime later when the men finally pushed through out of 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.720 the canyon into a wide bowl of rolling hills and 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:27.879 lush green vegetation. As they continued to paddle, one of 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:32.200 the men spotted a manufactured clearing in the trees, which 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:36.159 appeared to have been hacked back some time ago. The 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.840 men paddled over and jumped out of their canoes to 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:44.160 make a quick search of the area when Charlie spotted 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:48.439 an iron sled runner in the long grass. Holding it 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.959 up to the light, he found a message scrawled across 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:56.959 it in pencil, which read, we have found a fine prospect, 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:02.960 and Charlie's heart jumped it was his brother Willie's handwriting. 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.639 Finding little else of note in the clearing, Charlie and 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.919 his search party jumped back into their canoes and continued 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:20.879 to scour the banks of the river As they made 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:25.320 their way toward the Second canyon. They were just approaching 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:29.040 the entrance to it when they spotted another clearing and 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.320 what appeared to be the remnants of a long ago 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:37.360 abandoned camp. As they eased closer to the bank, the 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:41.880 full horror of the scene slowly began to reveal itself. 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:50.000 Charlie stepped out of his canoe and stumbled forward. The long, 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:53.720 snuffed out ashes of a camp fire was flanked on 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:59.520 both sides by two spruce bough beds, each occupied by 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:05.760 s eatle remains. One skeleton lay on its back under 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:10.359 a weathered, moth eaten blanket, while the other lay on 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:15.120 its chest, its blanket twisted up around it as if 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.080 whoever it was who had been in a hurry to 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:23.000 get out of their bed, its right arm was stretched 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.679 out in the direction of what Charlie then saw was 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:32.960 a rusty rifle leaning against a nearby tree. Turning back 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:36.399 to the skeletons, it took him a moment to realize 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:43.000 that both their heads were missing. Charlie drew closer and, 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:47.399 with shaking hands, pulled back the blankets to reveal a 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:51.480 gold ring on one of the skeleton's fingers. It was 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:56.679 Willie's ring. A golden pocket watch was then spotted hanging 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:03.960 from a nearby branch, which Charlie identified as Franks. Charlie 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:06.920 looked up and all about the valley as he tried 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:11.400 to fathom what exactly had taken place there. While all 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:24.080 about were silent and still shaken by their find, Charlie 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:27.159 and the rest of the team searched the area for 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:31.280 more clues and found a number of neatly stacked crates 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:36.199 fully laden with supplies, as well as a box full 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:41.280 of large chunks of gold bearing quartz. It seemed Weir 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:46.480 and the brothers had struck rich after all, but there 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:51.800 was no sign of the missing heads. Just then, another 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:58.879 ominous shriek reverberated around the valley. Growing suddenly anxious, the 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.800 men hastily dug two graves for what was left of 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:07.280 Willie and Frank, and hastily clambered back into their canoes. 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:13.239 After making it back to fort Lyart, Charlie informed the 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:18.240 Royal Northwest Mounted Police about what they'd found, and a 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:22.159 short time later led a small unit back into the 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:27.640 Nahanni Valley to analyze the scene. In the end, they 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:32.159 surmised that Wea was most likely the culprit, killing his 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:36.040 partners after they struck it rich before making off with 0:23:36.160 --> 0:23:40.440 as much of their find as he could carry. Or conversely, 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:44.720 they really had separated with were heading off in a 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:48.880 different direction, and the brothers perhaps dying from an illness 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:53.320 after getting stranded in the wild. As for the heads, 0:23:54.000 --> 0:23:59.160 they had no answer, but Charlie was not quite convinced. 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:03.720 Both his brothers were far too experienced to get stranded, 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:08.240 and if Weir truly had murdered them, how much could 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:11.359 they have found exactly that he would have been comfortable 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:16.280 leaving so much behind. It has been reported that the 0:24:16.359 --> 0:24:19.560 condition of the skeletons at the point where the skulls 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:23.760 should have been had given some pause for thought, with 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:27.960 the spines having apparently been crushed and twisted at the top, 0:24:28.600 --> 0:24:32.280 as though their heads had been ripped off with brute force. 0:24:33.840 --> 0:24:37.840 Whether this had occurred before or after death, however, was 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:43.159 impossible to determine. Others claimed the heads had in fact 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:48.879 been surgically removed, suggesting it was a deliberate act perpetrated 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:54.760 by whoever had killed them. It's believed that Charlie returned 0:24:54.760 --> 0:24:58.320 to Vancouver at the first chance he got, hoping to 0:24:58.400 --> 0:25:01.640 quiz Weir further on the ma, but the man had 0:25:01.720 --> 0:25:06.800 long since moved on. In the end, the deaths were 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:18.600 classed as accidental and the case was closed. As news 0:25:18.640 --> 0:25:22.919 of the grim discovery filtered through the Northwest territories and 0:25:23.080 --> 0:25:26.840 out into the wider country, many began to talk once 0:25:26.920 --> 0:25:31.520 more of strange mystical goings on in the Nahani Valley, 0:25:32.520 --> 0:25:37.800 while others, especially those of Denay heritage, speculated that the 0:25:38.040 --> 0:25:42.000 entire region was being watched over and protected by an 0:25:42.040 --> 0:25:47.119 ancient vengeful spirit who had grown tired of outsiders encroaching 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:53.120 on its land. Others, like trapper Martin Jourgensen, were far 0:25:53.200 --> 0:25:56.520 more interested in the bit that many people left out 0:25:56.520 --> 0:26:00.119 of the story the bit about how much gold the 0:26:00.160 --> 0:26:05.439 brothers had reportedly found. In time, the notion of a 0:26:05.520 --> 0:26:10.720 lost gold mine also grew to mythical proportions, and in 0:26:10.840 --> 0:26:16.479 nineteen oh nine Jourgensen set out to find it. In 0:26:16.600 --> 0:26:21.280 nineteen thirteen, with Jorgenson having been gone for some time, 0:26:21.840 --> 0:26:27.040 a local Denay trapper named Jules arrived in Pelley, a 0:26:27.119 --> 0:26:31.680 small village in Saskatchewan, with a letter addressed to one 0:26:31.840 --> 0:26:37.480 Billy Atkinson. Billy was an old acquaintance of Jorgensen's who 0:26:37.560 --> 0:26:40.359 just so happened to be serving a prison sentence for 0:26:40.520 --> 0:26:45.199 violent assault at the time. As a result, Jules was 0:26:45.240 --> 0:26:50.040 directed to Billy's wife, Mary, who, in a complicated but 0:26:50.240 --> 0:26:55.680 apparently amicable arrangement, had actually separated from Billy and married 0:26:55.720 --> 0:27:01.640 his friend Paul Field while Billy was in prison. Jules 0:27:01.680 --> 0:27:05.520 explained to Mary and Field that he'd just returned from 0:27:05.520 --> 0:27:09.480 the Naharni Valley, where he'd been accompanying Jourgensen on his 0:27:09.600 --> 0:27:14.600 travels there, and then handed them the letter. Though a 0:27:14.640 --> 0:27:18.280 little damp and smudged, it comprised of a hand drawn 0:27:18.400 --> 0:27:22.480 map detailing the location of a cabin about a mile 0:27:22.560 --> 0:27:26.440 west of the mouth of the flat River itself, about 0:27:26.480 --> 0:27:29.400 eighty miles west of the mouth of the South Nahari, 0:27:30.359 --> 0:27:35.119 with a message written below it that said simply, Billy, 0:27:35.840 --> 0:27:41.400 come quick. I have struck it rich. With Billy's permission 0:27:41.560 --> 0:27:44.159 to act on his behalf while he was locked away, 0:27:44.800 --> 0:27:48.920 paul Field promptly assembled a team and headed once more 0:27:49.000 --> 0:27:52.879 into the Naharani Valley in search of Jourgensen and his 0:27:52.960 --> 0:27:59.120 apparent bonanza. After one failed attempt in nineteen fourteen, Field 0:27:59.160 --> 0:28:03.520 and his team returned the following year, where after months 0:28:03.560 --> 0:28:08.960 of arduous but fairly uneventful trekking, they soon found themselves 0:28:09.000 --> 0:28:12.600 at the mouth of the flat River, inching their canoes 0:28:12.800 --> 0:28:18.879 toward its gently flowing waters. A little further beyond, after 0:28:18.960 --> 0:28:22.760 veering off down a narrow creek, they spotted the frame 0:28:22.840 --> 0:28:26.159 of a long abandoned shelter with what appeared to be 0:28:26.200 --> 0:28:36.399 a note nailed on to one of its columns. The 0:28:36.520 --> 0:28:41.120 note was another message from Jourgensen, explaining to whomever might 0:28:41.200 --> 0:28:45.000 find it that he'd moved on to another location and 0:28:45.120 --> 0:28:48.560 could be found living in one of two cabins he'd 0:28:48.600 --> 0:28:52.840 built for himself, one being located at the confluence of 0:28:52.920 --> 0:28:57.080 the Flat and South Nahanni River, and the other along 0:28:57.120 --> 0:29:01.160 the banks of another creek a short distance upstream from there. 0:29:02.880 --> 0:29:07.120 Not wanting to miss out on the Norwegians apparent find Paul, 0:29:07.240 --> 0:29:10.440 Field and his team made sure to carry out their 0:29:10.440 --> 0:29:14.160 own prospecting as they steadily made their way to the 0:29:14.280 --> 0:29:20.680 first of Jorgenson's suggested rendezvous points, With each day yielding 0:29:20.720 --> 0:29:25.280 greater and greater amounts of gold deposits, Field grew excited 0:29:25.320 --> 0:29:30.080 at the prospect that Jorgensen was on to something. Then 0:29:30.320 --> 0:29:33.920 one afternoon, on the shores of a creek about a 0:29:34.040 --> 0:29:37.920 day's journey from the mouth of the flat, Field spotted 0:29:37.960 --> 0:29:41.400 slash marks on a row of spruce trees lining the 0:29:41.400 --> 0:29:46.000 banks of the river. Recognizing the beginnings of a human 0:29:46.080 --> 0:29:50.080 made trail, he moored up beside it and followed it 0:29:50.160 --> 0:29:54.320 into the forest, eventually winding up at a small clearing 0:29:54.800 --> 0:29:59.040 in the middle of which was a rudimentary cabin, but 0:29:59.160 --> 0:30:03.880 there was no sig if Jorgensen. Field was just about 0:30:03.880 --> 0:30:07.000 to head back to his canoe when he spotted an 0:30:07.000 --> 0:30:11.280 axe in the bracken about fifty yards back down the path. 0:30:12.600 --> 0:30:16.080 He was just inspecting the thick rust on its edge 0:30:16.560 --> 0:30:21.480 when something else caught his eye something white and rigid 0:30:22.160 --> 0:30:26.840 peeking out from behind a tree. It was a large, 0:30:27.160 --> 0:30:32.000 broad shouldered skeleton that he could only assume was all 0:30:32.040 --> 0:30:36.720 that remained of Martin Jorgensen, and just as it had 0:30:36.800 --> 0:30:42.520 been with the McCloud brothers, Jorgenson's head was also missing. 0:30:44.320 --> 0:30:48.600 Field saw too that Martin's gun lay right next to 0:30:48.640 --> 0:30:53.719 the remains of his body, cocked and loaded. It was, 0:30:54.000 --> 0:30:58.320 he thought eerily, as if Jurgensen had been stalking something 0:30:58.440 --> 0:31:02.000 through the trees, hadn't even had time to get his 0:31:02.040 --> 0:31:07.640 shot off before it got him. Paul Field stared out 0:31:07.760 --> 0:31:12.040 into the silent stillness of the forest beyond, at the 0:31:12.160 --> 0:31:16.520 row upon row of pines that stretched out before him, 0:31:16.840 --> 0:31:21.800 merging into a distant, hazy darkness, and for the briefest 0:31:21.840 --> 0:31:26.240 of moments, as a chill ran up his spine, he 0:31:26.360 --> 0:31:33.040 had the absolute certainty that he was being watched. And 0:31:33.160 --> 0:31:38.040 with that Field and the others buried Jorgensen's bones and 0:31:38.200 --> 0:31:41.480 paddled out at the valley as quickly as they could. 0:31:42.680 --> 0:31:54.840 No satisfactory cause for Jourgensen's death was ever found in 0:31:54.960 --> 0:31:59.880 Hammerson Peter's twenty eighteen book Legends of the Nahani Valley 0:32:00.080 --> 0:32:03.600 by far and away the most comprehensive detailing of the 0:32:03.640 --> 0:32:07.800 many stories associated with the region. It is said that 0:32:07.880 --> 0:32:11.600 at some point in nineteen twenty six, but then forty 0:32:11.680 --> 0:32:15.880