Speaker 1: On a stormy night on the small island of Guernsey,
Speaker 1: a young paranormal expert joins a skeptical history teacher to
Speaker 1: record the first in a series of podcasts based on
Speaker 1: the island's incredible folklore and paranormal history. As the expert
Speaker 1: regales his horrifying stories, the teacher learns that we all
Speaker 1: have our own truth, our own story ghosts that haunt us.
Speaker 1: Starring Olivier nominated actor and former Blue Peter legend Peter Duncan,
Speaker 1: When Darkness Falls is a spine chilling ghost story that
Speaker 1: delivers a twisted, terrifying and thrilling tale that the Guardian
Speaker 1: said will leave you cowering in your seat. Catch the
Speaker 1: brand new UK tour of When Darkness Falls from September
Speaker 1: fifteenth in a town near you. Select nights will also
Speaker 1: feature myself delivering a live episode of Unexplained. For more
Speaker 1: details or to book tickets, visit When Darkness Falls dot
Speaker 1: co dot uk if you dare One frigid morning in
Speaker 1: the early winter of nineteen hundred, Fred McLeod, chief factor
Speaker 1: of the Hudson Bay fought Lyard Trading Post in Canada's
Speaker 1: Northwest Territories, sat alone at his desk, attending to some
Speaker 1: paperwork when the front door opened suddenly and a blast
Speaker 1: of cold air whipped through the store. A man stepped inside,
Speaker 1: wearing little more than a caribou hide streaked with dirt,
Speaker 1: carrying a pair of snowshoes in one hand and a
Speaker 1: rifle in the other. McLeod assumed at first that the lean,
Speaker 1: dark haired figure was De Nay, a broad and diverse
Speaker 1: group of First nationers that were indigenous to the north Lands.
Speaker 1: But something about this individual was different, not least of
Speaker 1: all how strangely underdressed he was for someone native to
Speaker 1: a region where the mercury could drop as low as
Speaker 1: minus twenty four celsius in the winter months. Fred watched
Speaker 1: with a studied curiosity as the man perused the post's
Speaker 1: few shelves of items, then grabbed what he needed and
Speaker 1: headed up to the counter, trailing snow under his moccasins
Speaker 1: as he went. Fred was about to turn the man
Speaker 1: away when he reached into a small medicine pouch tied
Speaker 1: around his neck and pulled out a handful of bright
Speaker 1: gold nuggets. Now he had Fred's complete attention as spread
Speaker 1: proceeded to process the items. He did his best to
Speaker 1: get the man talking. Where was he coming from, he asked,
Speaker 1: and where was he heading to? And more importantly, where
Speaker 1: on earth did you find that gold? The man gave
Speaker 1: little away at first, before eventually revealing that he'd discovered
Speaker 1: it along the banks of the Flat River, about a
Speaker 1: hundred and ten miles to the north, not far from
Speaker 1: where it met with the South Nahani River. And then
Speaker 1: it finally hit fred. The man was Nahari himself, or Naha,
Speaker 1: another indigenous group who lived mostly in the valleys and
Speaker 1: hills further up to the northwest of Fort Lyard, in
Speaker 1: what the Europeans called the Mackenzie Mountains. Many a strange
Speaker 1: tale had been told of the giant sprawl of wilderness
Speaker 1: encompassing the Mackenzie Mountains, in particular the region known as
Speaker 1: Nahana Valley, a three hundred mile stretch of vast canyons, gorges,
Speaker 1: and rolling pine covered hills that flanked the South Nahani
Speaker 1: and Flat Rivers. Due to its positioning and unique geology,
Speaker 1: the valley was completely untouched by the Last ice Age,
Speaker 1: leading some to claim that despite temperatures there routinely dropping
Speaker 1: below freezing for half of the year, whole sections of
Speaker 1: it never froze over at all. Psalm even claimed that
Speaker 1: hidden deep within it was a tropical oasis overgrown with
Speaker 1: gigantic ferns and vines, where tremendous herds of moose and
Speaker 1: caribou roamed, bigger and fatter than anything anyone had ever
Speaker 1: seen before. There were rumors two of other creatures, giant
Speaker 1: fur covered things that left eighteen inch wide three toed
Speaker 1: impressions in the earth, as if whatever it was had
Speaker 1: emerged from some kind of prehistoric portal that penetrated the
Speaker 1: valley's floor, which led to some other world entirely. The
Speaker 1: Dunae had their beliefs about it too, Stories passed down
Speaker 1: from generation to generation, a bridge to a distant and
Speaker 1: ancient time. They told tales of malignant elemental forces that
Speaker 1: held sway over the valley, and also equally terrifying but
Speaker 1: more corporeal dangers like than Akanne, a race of giant
Speaker 1: head hunting wild people who were said to hide deep
Speaker 1: inside unreachable caves carved high up into the canyon walls.
Speaker 1: Fred McLeod had heard it all, but this was the
Speaker 1: first time he'd ever seen any evidence there might be
Speaker 1: gold there. Two. You're listening to unexplained, and I'm Richard
Speaker 1: McClean smith. In nineteen hundred, the Hudson Bay Company or HBC,
Speaker 1: was the most prominent fur trading business in Canada, with
Speaker 1: hundreds of posts stretched out across the entirety of the continent.
Speaker 1: Fought Lyard, located on the Lyard River at the southern
Speaker 1: edge of the Northwest Territories, was one of its most
Speaker 1: westerly posts. It was a place which for Europeans would
Speaker 1: be considered about as close to the frontier as one
Speaker 1: could get. However, for those who'd been indigenous to the
Speaker 1: surrounding lands for thousands of years, it was but just
Speaker 1: another spot in a rich and vast expanse, of which
Speaker 1: some parts were better known than others, and some remained
Speaker 1: completely uncharted. For twenty two year old Fred, who like
Speaker 1: the rest of his brothers and sisters identified as MATEI
Speaker 1: on account of them being descended from both European and
Speaker 1: First Nation heritage, this great wilderness was merely home. As such, he,
Speaker 1: like anyone else in his family, would think nothing of
Speaker 1: heading out into the mountains for months on end, arm'd
Speaker 1: with little more than a gun and a few pounds
Speaker 1: of flower. Whether they be hunting for fur or gold
Speaker 1: as chief factor. However, it was also Fred's responsibility to
Speaker 1: oversee all trade that came through Fort Lyard. It was
Speaker 1: a position of great responsibility that had been passed down
Speaker 1: to him by his father, and one which he was
Speaker 1: contractually obliged to maintain, and so, despite his adventurous urges,
Speaker 1: he had little choice but to simply bid farewell to
Speaker 1: the young a Harny man and try to forget about
Speaker 1: his curious pouch of bright gold nuggets. It was a
Speaker 1: good three years later when another and a Harny hunter
Speaker 1: appeared at the Fort led trading post with yet another
Speaker 1: pouchful of gold. This man, too, claimed to have found
Speaker 1: it while panning on the banks of the Flat River,
Speaker 1: in a spot roughly five miles south from where his
Speaker 1: compatriot had found his hall those few years before. This time,
Speaker 1: the by then twenty five year old Fred did not hesitate.
Speaker 1: Although he wasn't free to make the journey himself. Fred
Speaker 1: sent word to his thirty two year old brother Willie,
Speaker 1: who was living some seven hundred and fifty miles away
Speaker 1: in Edmonton, Alberta at the time, explaining to him that
Speaker 1: there might be a fortune waiting to be discovered in
Speaker 1: the Naharani Valley. Ever ready for adventure, Willie immediately made
Speaker 1: his way to Fort Nelson in British Columbia to visit
Speaker 1: his and Fred's older brother, thirty five year old Frank,
Speaker 1: who was also employed by the Hudson Bay Company at
Speaker 1: the time. Feeling somewhat less loyal toward the HBC as
Speaker 1: his brother Fred, Frank agreed to accompany Willie into the valley,
Speaker 1: and so it was in late nineteen oh three that
Speaker 1: the two brothers made the lengthy journey up to Fort
Speaker 1: Lyard before heading on to the South Nahani River. Some
Speaker 1: weeks later, they arrived at Nahani Butte, a striking mound
Speaker 1: of sheer limestone cliff that like an ominous giant's finger,
Speaker 1: seemingly directing travelers away from the mouth of the South Nahani.
Speaker 1: Here the brothers loaded their packs into a narrow canoe
Speaker 1: and paddled on upstream into the valley. It was a
Speaker 1: few months later when the brothers returned to Fort Lyard,
Speaker 1: having only succeeded in venturing a short way into the
Speaker 1: valley and failing to find anything significant. Undeterred, they headed
Speaker 1: back the following year, accompanied that time by their younger brother, Charlie.
Speaker 1: Months later, they returned to Fort Lyard again tired and draggled,
Speaker 1: with a hellish story to tell, having managed to paddle
Speaker 1: and trek along endless miles At the South Nahani River,
Speaker 1: they were prospecting at one of the many creeks that
Speaker 1: split off from it when they uncovered a rich deposit
Speaker 1: of gold. With winter closing in, the men loaded what
Speaker 1: they could into their canoe and pushed out into the water,
Speaker 1: only to unexpectedly crash into some treacherous rapids. The canoe
Speaker 1: capsized and they lost everything save for a small eno
Speaker 1: fruit salts bottle full of placa gold, which Willie had
Speaker 1: managed to stuff under a sash that he tied around
Speaker 1: his waist. Proof, they said that the gold really was
Speaker 1: out there. Despite the disaster of their last trip, the
Speaker 1: McCloud brothers returned hardened and more convinced than ever that
Speaker 1: there was a huge fortune to be found in the
Speaker 1: Nahanni Valley. However, being unable to raise credit due to
Speaker 1: their well known gambling habits meant an agonizing weight as
Speaker 1: they worked to say what they could to take another
Speaker 1: stab at it. It was sometime in nineteen oh five
Speaker 1: when a man introducing himself as Robert Were, a steamboat
Speaker 1: engineer from Scotland, arrived in Fort Providence in the Northwest
Speaker 1: Territories to deliver supplies for the Hudson Bay Company. Weir
Speaker 1: was then introduced to Fred McLeod, who had recently been
Speaker 1: installed as Chief Factor of Fort Providence. While speaking to Fred,
Speaker 1: Weir couldn't take his eyes off his watch, especially the
Speaker 1: bright gold chain that secured it around his wrist. Noticing
Speaker 1: Weir's curiosity, Fred explained that it had been a gift
Speaker 1: from his brothers, constructed from the very gold they'd found
Speaker 1: on their last trip into the Mackenzie Mountains. Intrigued, were
Speaker 1: promptly quit his job with the HBC and boarded a
Speaker 1: boat bound for Fort Simpson, another trading post about two
Speaker 1: hundred miles west of Providence, where Willie and Frank were
Speaker 1: living at the time. After tracking the brothers down to
Speaker 1: a local inn, Weir gave them a proposition he would
Speaker 1: foot the bill for their next gold hunting expedition if
Speaker 1: they agreed to let him go with them. The brothers
Speaker 1: took little convincing and agreed on the spot to take
Speaker 1: him up on the offer. Charlie mc cloud, having had
Speaker 1: enough of an adventure the first time around, neglected to
Speaker 1: join them on this occasion. A few weeks later, a
Speaker 1: spring was just beginning to burst, the three men set
Speaker 1: off for the fabled Naharni Valley as October crept into November.
Speaker 1: Back in Fought Providence, Fred mc cloud had yet to
Speaker 1: receive any word from his brothers regarding their latest adventure,
Speaker 1: but since both Willie and Frank were seasoned outdoors people,
Speaker 1: he had little reason to panic. In Edmonton, Alberta, However,
Speaker 1: younger brother Charlie, who long sinced he had a feeling
Speaker 1: for this type of thing, was beginning to get nervous,
Speaker 1: and when winter came and went and there was still
Speaker 1: no sign of Willie and Frank, it soon became clear
Speaker 1: to him that something was very wrong. In spring nineteen
Speaker 1: o seven, Fred and Charlie received word about an abandoned
Speaker 1: canoe found caught up in a pile of driftwood on
Speaker 1: the banks of the South and the Harney River. It
Speaker 1: didn't mean anything as such, but was said to have
Speaker 1: borne a striking resemblance to the canoe used by the
Speaker 1: brothers and Robert Weir. Then another message, as recounted by
Speaker 1: writer and explorer Philip Godsell snaked its way out of
Speaker 1: the wilderness and arrived eventually at Charlie's door. It involved
Speaker 1: the sighting of an emaciated and haggard looking man reportedly
Speaker 1: seen at the Telegraph Creek trading Post, some two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty miles southwest of the Nahanni Valley, smelling of dead,
Speaker 1: rotting flesh. The man was said to have revealed that
Speaker 1: he'd been prospecting for months in the wilderness with two
Speaker 1: partners before they were ambushed by members of a local tribe.
Speaker 1: Forced to go their separate ways, the man had spent
Speaker 1: the last few months trying to get back to civilization.
Speaker 1: The hideous smell, he explained, was due to the large
Speaker 1: caribou he'd shot, which he'd been stead eating over the
Speaker 1: last few days while sleeping inside its rancid carcass at night.
Speaker 1: One night, soon after Charlie McLeod awoke from a restless
Speaker 1: sleep with the complete conviction that he had to make
Speaker 1: his way to Vancouver. Once there, he walked straight into
Speaker 1: the nearest bar, where inside he found a heavily inebriated
Speaker 1: Robert Weir loudly holding court. When Charlie demanded to know
Speaker 1: what had happened to his brothers. Weir gave another story,
Speaker 1: claiming that although they had been ransacked a few times,
Speaker 1: they still managed to find a rich vein of gold.
Speaker 1: After working it for a few weeks, however, they had
Speaker 1: decided it was safer to get out while they still could,
Speaker 1: in order to return with the much bigger party. He
Speaker 1: and the brothers, he said, had last seen each other
Speaker 1: Nahani Butte before going their separate ways. More determined than
Speaker 1: ever to find the truth about his brothers, Charlie, accompanied
Speaker 1: by his younger brother Donald, pert five man search party together.
Speaker 1: Among the group was former Royal Northwest Mounted Police officer
Speaker 1: and well respected trapper Paul Field, who, as one of
Speaker 1: the first outsiders to venture into the Nahani Valley, had
Speaker 1: forged good relationships with many of the First Nation people
Speaker 1: who populated the region. In May nineteen o seven, the
Speaker 1: team arrived at the mouth of the South Nahani River
Speaker 1: and over a number of weeks steadily made their way
Speaker 1: through the rivers silty et crew waters, each day taking
Speaker 1: them deeper and deeper into the valley. At just over
Speaker 1: thirty miles up river, a mist descended as the men
Speaker 1: approached the first of the river's grand canyons, the surrounding
Speaker 1: pine covered foothills giving way to a thousand meter high
Speaker 1: limestone cliffs that shot up vertically from the ground on
Speaker 1: both sides and on. They continued in almost complete silence,
Speaker 1: save for the gentle splash of the oars as they
Speaker 1: broke through the water, while the men kept their eyes
Speaker 1: peeled for any sign of human activity. Then a strange,
Speaker 1: high pitched whale rang out from somewhere overhead. Charlie glanced
Speaker 1: nervously up toward a small line of caves carved out
Speaker 1: of the limestone, perched up high ahead of them, remembering
Speaker 1: all those unnerving tails he'd heard of, the mysterious head
Speaker 1: hunting and cave dwelling the carne. It's just the wind,
Speaker 1: said Paul, doing its best to reassure him. It was
Speaker 1: sometime later when the men finally pushed through out of
Speaker 1: the canyon into a wide bowl of rolling hills and
Speaker 1: lush green vegetation. As they continued to paddle, one of
Speaker 1: the men spotted a manufactured clearing in the trees, which
Speaker 1: appeared to have been hacked back some time ago. The
Speaker 1: men paddled over and jumped out of their canoes to
Speaker 1: make a quick search of the area when Charlie spotted
Speaker 1: an iron sled runner in the long grass. Holding it
Speaker 1: up to the light, he found a message scrawled across
Speaker 1: it in pencil, which read, we have found a fine prospect,
Speaker 1: and Charlie's heart jumped it was his brother Willie's handwriting.
Speaker 1: Finding little else of note in the clearing, Charlie and
Speaker 1: his search party jumped back into their canoes and continued
Speaker 1: to scour the banks of the river As they made
Speaker 1: their way toward the Second canyon. They were just approaching
Speaker 1: the entrance to it when they spotted another clearing and
Speaker 1: what appeared to be the remnants of a long ago
Speaker 1: abandoned camp. As they eased closer to the bank, the
Speaker 1: full horror of the scene slowly began to reveal itself.
Speaker 1: Charlie stepped out of his canoe and stumbled forward. The long,
Speaker 1: snuffed out ashes of a camp fire was flanked on
Speaker 1: both sides by two spruce bough beds, each occupied by
Speaker 1: s eatle remains. One skeleton lay on its back under
Speaker 1: a weathered, moth eaten blanket, while the other lay on
Speaker 1: its chest, its blanket twisted up around it as if
Speaker 1: whoever it was who had been in a hurry to
Speaker 1: get out of their bed, its right arm was stretched
Speaker 1: out in the direction of what Charlie then saw was
Speaker 1: a rusty rifle leaning against a nearby tree. Turning back
Speaker 1: to the skeletons, it took him a moment to realize
Speaker 1: that both their heads were missing. Charlie drew closer and,
Speaker 1: with shaking hands, pulled back the blankets to reveal a
Speaker 1: gold ring on one of the skeleton's fingers. It was
Speaker 1: Willie's ring. A golden pocket watch was then spotted hanging
Speaker 1: from a nearby branch, which Charlie identified as Franks. Charlie
Speaker 1: looked up and all about the valley as he tried
Speaker 1: to fathom what exactly had taken place there. While all
Speaker 1: about were silent and still shaken by their find, Charlie
Speaker 1: and the rest of the team searched the area for
Speaker 1: more clues and found a number of neatly stacked crates
Speaker 1: fully laden with supplies, as well as a box full
Speaker 1: of large chunks of gold bearing quartz. It seemed Weir
Speaker 1: and the brothers had struck rich after all, but there
Speaker 1: was no sign of the missing heads. Just then, another
Speaker 1: ominous shriek reverberated around the valley. Growing suddenly anxious, the
Speaker 1: men hastily dug two graves for what was left of
Speaker 1: Willie and Frank, and hastily clambered back into their canoes.
Speaker 1: After making it back to fort Lyart, Charlie informed the
Speaker 1: Royal Northwest Mounted Police about what they'd found, and a
Speaker 1: short time later led a small unit back into the
Speaker 1: Nahanni Valley to analyze the scene. In the end, they
Speaker 1: surmised that Wea was most likely the culprit, killing his
Speaker 1: partners after they struck it rich before making off with
Speaker 1: as much of their find as he could carry. Or conversely,
Speaker 1: they really had separated with were heading off in a
Speaker 1: different direction, and the brothers perhaps dying from an illness
Speaker 1: after getting stranded in the wild. As for the heads,
Speaker 1: they had no answer, but Charlie was not quite convinced.
Speaker 1: Both his brothers were far too experienced to get stranded,
Speaker 1: and if Weir truly had murdered them, how much could
Speaker 1: they have found exactly that he would have been comfortable
Speaker 1: leaving so much behind. It has been reported that the
Speaker 1: condition of the skeletons at the point where the skulls
Speaker 1: should have been had given some pause for thought, with
Speaker 1: the spines having apparently been crushed and twisted at the top,
Speaker 1: as though their heads had been ripped off with brute force.
Speaker 1: Whether this had occurred before or after death, however, was
Speaker 1: impossible to determine. Others claimed the heads had in fact
Speaker 1: been surgically removed, suggesting it was a deliberate act perpetrated
Speaker 1: by whoever had killed them. It's believed that Charlie returned
Speaker 1: to Vancouver at the first chance he got, hoping to
Speaker 1: quiz Weir further on the ma, but the man had
Speaker 1: long since moved on. In the end, the deaths were
Speaker 1: classed as accidental and the case was closed. As news
Speaker 1: of the grim discovery filtered through the Northwest territories and
Speaker 1: out into the wider country, many began to talk once
Speaker 1: more of strange mystical goings on in the Nahani Valley,
Speaker 1: while others, especially those of Denay heritage, speculated that the
Speaker 1: entire region was being watched over and protected by an
Speaker 1: ancient vengeful spirit who had grown tired of outsiders encroaching
Speaker 1: on its land. Others, like trapper Martin Jourgensen, were far
Speaker 1: more interested in the bit that many people left out
Speaker 1: of the story the bit about how much gold the
Speaker 1: brothers had reportedly found. In time, the notion of a
Speaker 1: lost gold mine also grew to mythical proportions, and in
Speaker 1: nineteen oh nine Jourgensen set out to find it. In
Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen, with Jorgenson having been gone for some time,
Speaker 1: a local Denay trapper named Jules arrived in Pelley, a
Speaker 1: small village in Saskatchewan, with a letter addressed to one
Speaker 1: Billy Atkinson. Billy was an old acquaintance of Jorgensen's who
Speaker 1: just so happened to be serving a prison sentence for
Speaker 1: violent assault at the time. As a result, Jules was
Speaker 1: directed to Billy's wife, Mary, who, in a complicated but
Speaker 1: apparently amicable arrangement, had actually separated from Billy and married
Speaker 1: his friend Paul Field while Billy was in prison. Jules
Speaker 1: explained to Mary and Field that he'd just returned from
Speaker 1: the Naharni Valley, where he'd been accompanying Jourgensen on his
Speaker 1: travels there, and then handed them the letter. Though a
Speaker 1: little damp and smudged, it comprised of a hand drawn
Speaker 1: map detailing the location of a cabin about a mile
Speaker 1: west of the mouth of the flat River itself, about
Speaker 1: eighty miles west of the mouth of the South Nahari,
Speaker 1: with a message written below it that said simply, Billy,
Speaker 1: come quick. I have struck it rich. With Billy's permission
Speaker 1: to act on his behalf while he was locked away,
Speaker 1: paul Field promptly assembled a team and headed once more
Speaker 1: into the Naharani Valley in search of Jourgensen and his
Speaker 1: apparent bonanza. After one failed attempt in nineteen fourteen, Field
Speaker 1: and his team returned the following year, where after months
Speaker 1: of arduous but fairly uneventful trekking, they soon found themselves
Speaker 1: at the mouth of the flat River, inching their canoes
Speaker 1: toward its gently flowing waters. A little further beyond, after
Speaker 1: veering off down a narrow creek, they spotted the frame
Speaker 1: of a long abandoned shelter with what appeared to be
Speaker 1: a note nailed on to one of its columns. The
Speaker 1: note was another message from Jourgensen, explaining to whomever might
Speaker 1: find it that he'd moved on to another location and
Speaker 1: could be found living in one of two cabins he'd
Speaker 1: built for himself, one being located at the confluence of
Speaker 1: the Flat and South Nahanni River, and the other along
Speaker 1: the banks of another creek a short distance upstream from there.
Speaker 1: Not wanting to miss out on the Norwegians apparent find Paul,
Speaker 1: Field and his team made sure to carry out their
Speaker 1: own prospecting as they steadily made their way to the
Speaker 1: first of Jorgenson's suggested rendezvous points, With each day yielding
Speaker 1: greater and greater amounts of gold deposits, Field grew excited
Speaker 1: at the prospect that Jorgensen was on to something. Then
Speaker 1: one afternoon, on the shores of a creek about a
Speaker 1: day's journey from the mouth of the flat, Field spotted
Speaker 1: slash marks on a row of spruce trees lining the
Speaker 1: banks of the river. Recognizing the beginnings of a human
Speaker 1: made trail, he moored up beside it and followed it
Speaker 1: into the forest, eventually winding up at a small clearing
Speaker 1: in the middle of which was a rudimentary cabin, but
Speaker 1: there was no sig if Jorgensen. Field was just about
Speaker 1: to head back to his canoe when he spotted an
Speaker 1: axe in the bracken about fifty yards back down the path.
Speaker 1: He was just inspecting the thick rust on its edge
Speaker 1: when something else caught his eye something white and rigid
Speaker 1: peeking out from behind a tree. It was a large,
Speaker 1: broad shouldered skeleton that he could only assume was all
Speaker 1: that remained of Martin Jorgensen, and just as it had
Speaker 1: been with the McCloud brothers, Jorgenson's head was also missing.
Speaker 1: Field saw too that Martin's gun lay right next to
Speaker 1: the remains of his body, cocked and loaded. It was,
Speaker 1: he thought eerily, as if Jurgensen had been stalking something
Speaker 1: through the trees, hadn't even had time to get his
Speaker 1: shot off before it got him. Paul Field stared out
Speaker 1: into the silent stillness of the forest beyond, at the
Speaker 1: row upon row of pines that stretched out before him,
Speaker 1: merging into a distant, hazy darkness, and for the briefest
Speaker 1: of moments, as a chill ran up his spine, he
Speaker 1: had the absolute certainty that he was being watched. And
Speaker 1: with that Field and the others buried Jorgensen's bones and
Speaker 1: paddled out at the valley as quickly as they could.
Speaker 1: No satisfactory cause for Jourgensen's death was ever found in
Speaker 1: Hammerson Peter's twenty eighteen book Legends of the Nahani Valley
Speaker 1: by far and away the most comprehensive detailing of the
Speaker 1: many stories associated with the region. It is said that
Speaker 1: at some point in nineteen twenty six, but then forty
Speaker 1: year old Charlie McLeod was visiting a trading post just
Speaker 1: outside of Edmonton in Alberta, when he spotted a man
Speaker 1: browsing fox pelts who looked oddly familiar. The men eventually
Speaker 1: got to talking without really introducing themselves, and soon found
Speaker 1: their discussion turning to the mysterious tales of the Nahanni Valley.
Speaker 1: Before long, the man began talking about two brothers who
Speaker 1: he'd apparently accompanied into the valley many years before, who'd
Speaker 1: both met with the sticky end. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: he said, leaning in closer, it was me who buried
Speaker 1: those fellows. Only then did Charlie realize who the man
Speaker 1: it was, Robert Wea. Having also then realized who he
Speaker 1: was talking to, Wea is said to have bolted from
Speaker 1: the shop, leaving Charlie scrambling once more for his whereabouts.
Speaker 1: After a tip off, he is said to have eventually
Speaker 1: tracked him down to a small farm just outside of Viking, Alberta.
Speaker 1: As the story goes, Wea is said to have seen
Speaker 1: Charlie approaching his home, at which point he made a
Speaker 1: run for the barn and bolted himself inside. A shot
Speaker 1: was then heard, but before Charlie could enter the barn
Speaker 1: to investigate, it promptly went up in flames. The remains
Speaker 1: of Weir's body were later found among the ashes. After
Speaker 1: returning a few more times to the Nahani Valley in
Speaker 1: the hope of determining what exactly had happened to his brothers,
Speaker 1: or indeed the rich seam of gold they'd apparently found
Speaker 1: their Charlie McLeod eventually gave up the ghost. He died
Speaker 1: in Coquitlam, British Columbia in nineteen sixty nine. Others tried
Speaker 1: to find the gold too, with many also losing their
Speaker 1: lives in the process in often strange and unusual circumstances.
Speaker 1: To this day, although the memory of the Mcloud's unsettling
Speaker 1: story lives on with new names such as dead Men's
Speaker 1: Valley since being bestowed on the place where their bodies
Speaker 1: were found, the mystery of their deaths remains unexplained. In
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, Pierre Trudeau's government designated Nahanni Valley a
Speaker 1: Canadian National Park outlawing for good all serious prospecting in
Speaker 1: the region. Thank you to Thomas Aldred for suggesting this
Speaker 1: week's episode. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to
Speaker 1: help support us, you can now do so via Patreon.
Speaker 1: To receive access to add free episodes, just go to
Speaker 1: Patreon dot com Forward Slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained,
Speaker 1: the book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never
Speaker 1: before been covered on the show, is now available to
Speaker 1: buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
Speaker 1: and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including
Speaker 1: the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts,
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like
Speaker 1: to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast
Speaker 1: dot com or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at
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