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The Headless Valley
The gold trip
In 1905, the McLeod brothers, Charlie, Willie, and Frank, carried a boat in pieces up rapids and past waterfalls to reach a river camp where the sand was full of gold. The boat capsized on the way out and took the gold with it. Charlie decided it was too dangerous to go back, so Frank and Willie returned a year later with a man named Robert Weir.
Two years passed with no word, and Charlie went looking. The route ran through Second Canyon, ten miles of deep water between sheer cliffs, with caves high up that no human has ever reached. The wind makes a screeching sound in the canyon, and the Naha tribe told of tall white creatures called the Wahila that lived in those caves.
The camp
At the end of the canyon stood the camp. Two badly decomposed men lay there without heads, one half out of the tent, reaching for a rifle propped against a tree. Carved into that tree were the words We have found a fine prospect, and a skeleton farther along the trail was believed to be Weir.
The legend grows
The place became known as the Headless Valley. Years later, prospector Martin Jorgensen was found headless in the ashes of his cabin, which had begun burning from the roof.
In the 1940s, a party searching for a missing prospector reported that an indigenous man walked out of the trees, warned them the Waheela were out that night, and wandered off. All night, ungodly screams and screeches came from Second Canyon, and by morning the party quit the search.
Why is the Nahanni region so remote?
The South Nahanni River runs through the Mackenzie Mountains in Canada's Northwest Territories, far from any road. Reaching the upper valley meant traveling by foot or boat through rapids and canyons, as the McLeod brothers did. The area is now protected as Nahanni National Park Reserve. In 1978 it was among the first sites placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Why do canyon winds sound like screams?
Wind funneled between narrow rock walls speeds up and splits around ledges, cracks, and cave mouths. Air passing over an opening can set the air inside it vibrating, the same way blowing across a bottle produces a tone. Gusts that rise and fall in speed shift the pitch, which gives the sound a wailing quality. Canyons and sea caves around the world produce howls and whistles in strong wind.
How big is the waterfall the brothers portaged?
Virginia Falls on the South Nahanni River drops about 96 meters, nearly twice the height of Niagara Falls. The river narrows before the drop and splits around a rock pillar at the lip. Boaters who travel the river must carry their craft around the falls on a trail, much as prospectors once did. Below the falls the river runs into a series of deep canyons.
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