Valley of Headless Men: Mysterious Decapitations in Canada’s Nahanni Valley

The Northwestern Territories of Canada are truly one of Earth’s last true wild places. One of its special National Park Reserves, called the Nahanni Valley, is however a little bit wilder than most. It is home to some strange myths and mysteries and boasts a fearsome reputation for being a haunted and deadly place. This remote wild valley is not just inhospitable due to its rugged terrain, extreme weather, and predators, but is also deadly due to some unexplained circumstances. Over the decades, many unfortunate travelers and explorers have gone missing, or they turned up dead and beheaded. The number of decapitated bodies found within Nahanni Valley have earned it the nickname “Valley of Headless Men”. What is the explanation to this mystery?




The Nahanni Valley is a vast expanse of land in Canada’s Northwest Territories. It’s a land of jagged mountains, harsh forests and eerie fogs – a place steeped in supernatural lore and mystery, best reflected in its better-known moniker: ‘Valley of Headless Men’.

The Dene people who lived in the Nahanni for at least 10,000 years prior to the arrival of European explorers in the late 18th century had long spoken of mythical creatures, hidden tropical gardens and rivers that should be avoided at all costs. There may be good reasons for that. At least four headless bodies have turned up in the Nahanni Valley since the early 1900s.

Just as ominous, yet harder to quantify, the general, eerie feeling you get in the Nahanni Valley, that something is off – and it’s looking at you.

Where is the Nahanni Valley?
The Nahanni Valley is a region in Nahanni National Park, in the Dehcho region of the Northwest Territories, about 500 kilometres west of Yellowknife. It’s a huge, remote and inhospitable area that you can only visit by plane or boat. It’s well known for the South Nahanni River and four 3,000+ foot canyons, called First, Second, Third and Fourth Canyons respectively, which line the river.

It has some of the most diverse landforms in the country, with canyons, caves, tufa mounds and a waterfall twice the height of Niagara Falls all in the valley.

Animals thrive here too, given its remote location and general absence of humans. Bears, wolves, bison, caribou, owls and even the elusive wolverine all call the Nahanni home, within the mountains, plains, spruce and aspen forests of this massive area.

What is the Nahanni Valley Mystery?
There are at least five mysteries tied to the Nahanni Valley, but the most famous and likely the one you’ve heard, is the mystery of the headless bodies. That’s where the Nahanni gets its rather creepy moniker ‘Valley of the Headless Bodies’. People have vanished here, be they explorers, miners, plane pilots and others who simply dared set foot in this foreboding region.

More abstract, however, is the Nahanni’s reputation as being a place of evil, where men disappear after going downstream, tribes mysteriously vanish without a trace, giants that cook meals in the valley’s hot spring, and harbingers of doom when that spring is empty.

Frank and Willie McLeod: The First Headless Bodies
In 1904, brothers Frank and Willie McLeod left Edmonton, Alberta and came to the valley in search of gold. Making the journey in a particularly cold winter, with primitive gear, by train, boat and land, they reached Gold Creek and struck gold later that year.

With their fortune struck, they headed back to their home in Fort Liard.

But greed can get the worst of men at times, and the McLeod brothers, unsatisfied with their winnings, headed back to the Nahanni Valley in 1905 for a second expedition.

They never returned. And their fates were unknown until 1908, when their brother, Charlie McLeod, found their headless bodies on the edge of the river – with one of the corpses arms outstretched, still reaching for his gun

Their demise led to the location’s new name: Headless Creek. And the broader region in which it sits, now called ‘Deadman’s Valley’, hints at what happened to the McLeod Brothers some 100+ years ago.

Martin Jorgensen: Third Headless Body
The McLeod brothers don’t hold the distinction of being the only headless bodies found in the Nahanni Valley. In 1917, Yukon prospector Martin Jorgensen went missing shortly after he’d sent notice to his home that he’d ‘struck in rich’ while in the Nahanni. When searchers eventually found his body, they noted his cabin had been burned to the ground – and on a more gruesome note, like the McLeod brothers, he too was found missing his head.

It was the discovery of Jorgensen’s body, coupled with the McLeod’s morbid fate, that gave rise to rumours of head hunters in the Nahanni Valley, according to Canadian newspapers. And it was this same mystique, combined with the Nahanni Valley’s reputation of being a ‘subarctic El Dorado’ filled with golden nuggets, that inspired myths of ‘The Lost McLeod Mine’ and hundreds of prospectors to make the journey – many of whom never came home.

Nahanni Valley Monster
The Nahanni Valley is rich in lore and tales of mythical, sometimes macabre creatures that feast on those who enter the region. The Nahanni Valley Monster is one of them. It’s actually a collection of creatures said to inhabit the Nahanni Valley, including:

The Evil Spirit – A story told by native hunters who entered the valley in search of food and lived to tell about it. The Evil Spirit of the Nahanni Valley is said to haunt the region and make its presence known with otherworldly shrieks on cold and windy nights.

Giants – Giants are said to live in the Nahanni Valley – and cook their meals in Rabbitkettle hotsprings.

Prehistoric Monsters – Hunters and native trappers speak of mammoths, mastodons and prehistoric beasts in the Nahanni Valley – their tracks visible in snow and creek beds. Some frontiersmen may have even returned from the Nahanni wilderness with precious ivory tusks, and flesh still attached to the bone.

The Waheela – A huge, wolf-like creature linked to deaths, accidents, the unexplained and weirdness that happened to geologists and naturalists that entered the Nahanni Valley with renewed interest in the 1960s.

The Nuk-Luk – No, it’s not the Canucks rather heart-breaking playoff performance over the past 50 years (C’Mon guys, a Cup already, please??). Nuk-Luk is a short, half-naked sub-human creature spotted around the Fort Liard, Fort Simpsons and Nahanni Butte areas. He carries a stone club and has a long, dark beard.

Naha: The Vanished Tribe
Google ‘Nahanni Valley’ and you may see rumours of a vanished tribe that disappeared from the region. That’s the Naha – a nomadic, war-like people who lived in mountain caves, and frequently descended to raid Dene villages in the lowlands around the Liard and McKenzie rivers.

After years of beatdowns by the Naha, a group of brave Dene warriors had finally had enough and journeyed into Naha territory for a surprise ambush. But instead of fierce Naha, they found abandoned teepees – and nothing else.

The Naha tribe had literally disappeared.

Perhaps wisely fearing the giant cannibals and evil spirits of Nahanni mythology, the Dene warriors fled back to their settlements in the lowlands. And they saw no trace of the Naha again.