Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-05-13
Hher Nearly Thirty
Years of Search,
the Rich Strike
Made Back TN 1906
Has Come to Light
and Another Yukon
Rush Is in the
Making.

r OUR murders and lost gold mine! Dead
Mans Valley in Northern Canada still
- holds the secret-of the murders. The
gold mine has been located:
Late in 1888 word flashed that the
missing mine had been found. Only
few months remained of the year. But the
secret was out. BY December 81 the Canadian
government had registered approximately 100
claims.
Now the rush is on. Another Yukon gold
rush is in the offing But this time it will be
faster for airplanes have been flying in steadily
in larger numbers.
The tributaries of the South Nahanni River
in the Northwest territories, near the boundary
of British Columbia and the Yukon Territory,
are alive today with prospectors who have
answered the call Of another placer gold field
not so many hundred miles from where the
great Yukon gold rush took place IS years ago.
In February, 1909, word came to the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police-then the Royal
Northwest Mounted Police-that two prospectors
had been missing since the Summer of 1906
Relatives had hunted for them, had found
their dead bodies but had failed to find papers
and gold which they we're known to be carry
ing The circumstances looked like murder.
Will and Frank Mcleod, born at Ford Lizard
in Northern British Columbia. had started out
in 1905 to look for placer gold in the noun
tains north Of their home, in what is still
remote part of Canada. They crossed through
a wild country, unknown, unmapped, probably
never before travelled by white man. They
struck fast-fowing rivers with canyon walls.
They travelled in waters where IS miles day
was considered fast going by those who came
after them. They made portages over noun
talnS.
THEY pitched camp here and there. They
hunted with prospectors' and spade.
They went on. Till one day they found some
thing. They built sluice boxes and hauled their
gold pans out of their pack sacks.
They built a shelter and worked day after
day. They stored up nuggets dust and gold
fakes Their treasure chest became bulkier
and bulkier. Then, before the first SHOWS were
ON them, they hid their find, hid their tools and
started for home.
Their find they kept secret. Yes, they had
picked up a little bit here and there, but MOTH
ing much inquiring friends were told. But next
Spring Will and Frank Mcleod started out,
taking with them this time, the story goes,
Scotch engineer named Weir.
In 1908 Charles Mcleod brother OF the
two prospectors, found their bodies, wrapped
up in blankets. No gold maps, nothing was
found near them, except watch which hung
on a tree Charley buried his two brothers,
marked their grave. The Mounties started on
the trail the following Spring.
Corpl. A. H. L. Meilor left Smiths Landing
on the Slave River, and set out across region
he had never travelled before to Fort Lizard.
He had a hard trip, through swift rivers,
white foaming mountain streams but he made
the South Nahanni River, and headed for the
spot where the Mcleod brothers had been re-
ported buried. There the opposite bank Of
the river he found couple Of prospectors, the
vanguard of many to come in the following
years.
They were waiting for the river to go down
q bit. 1t was July and the melting SHOWS made
travel on the river impossible. They knew
nothing about the McLeods, except the grave
which thew had seen