TextSearch

Canada is a land full of vast natural beauty and thriving, unspoiled wilderness. Much of the wild landscape here is a world full of natural wonders that have managed to remain

The Mysterious Valley of the Headless Corpses Posted on 11/28/2017 by EraOfLight — Leave a reply Canada is a land full of vast natural beauty and thriving, unspoiled wilderness. Much of the wild landscape here is a world full of natural wonders that have managed to remain pristine and nearly untouched by human beings, with mountains, valleys, forests, whole swaths of land that have remained for the most part unexplored. It is from these unconquered northern lands that have long sprung various stories of mystery and strange phenomena. Surely one of the more bizarre mysteries from the Canadian wilderness comes from Nahanni National Park, a place also known ominously as “The Valley of Headless Men.” The name is not merely a spooky nickname for a remote, mysterious land, for the area is long known for having people disappear only to turn up without their heads. Nahanni National Park is part of the Mackenzie Mountain region located in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, approximately 500 km (311 mi) west of Yellowknife. Nahanni is from the language of the indigenous Dene people that have inhabited the region for millennia, and means “The People Over There,” in reference to tribe of mountain dwelling people known as the Naha, who were once known to raid lowland settlements before mysteriously vanishing. The roughly 11,000 square mile park is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is undeniably full of breathtaking natural wonder and beauty. The park is surrounded by majestic peaks and dotted with geysers, sinkholes, deep canyons, caves, gorges, and pristine forests. Within these stunning vistas lies Virginia Falls, a magnificent giant of a waterfall that crashes down 96 meters (315 feet) into the roiling water below, twice as high as the more well-known Niagara Falls. Meandering through the center of the valley is the South Nahanni River, which carves a scenic path through the park and has formed four dizzyingly high canyons that line its turbulent waters. The South Nahanni River’s course takes it over waterfalls, through deep gorges, and across natural hot springs, including an area of boiling whirlpools known as Hell’s Gate, before ending its journey in a thunderous crescendo down Virginia Falls. The South Nahanni River is a very rare example of what is called an antecedent river, meaning that it was powerful enough to maintain the same course it had before the mountains around it formed, which it carved as they slowly sprung up across the landscape. This results in the rather remarkable sight of mountains that seem to follow the flow of the river rather than the other way around. Along the river’s path through hot spring areas are places permeated with warm air that never freeze and are home to lush topical worlds full of atypical plants for the region such as ferns, wild cherries, and roses, which form oases of green surrounded by frigid snow and ice in the winter. The river is the centerpiece of the valley, and is the destination of most tourists who come to Nahanni National Park, where they canoe or do white water rafting along its challenging, treacherous rapids while surrounded by awe inspiring scenery and rugged wilderness. The Nahanni National Park has managed to remain relatively pristine, untouched, and unexplored due to a lack of any tourist accommodations, and no roads leading in. The remote park is only accessible by boat or plane. The Nahanni Valley has been steeped in folklore and mystery since it was first inhabited around 9 to 10 thousand years ago. Many tribes were afraid to settle within the region as they believed it to be an evil, haunted place inhabited by various spirits, specters, and devils. Those who did come here, such as the native Dene people, told of mysterious creatures lurking in the vast forests, and were plagued by the enigmatic, aggressive, and violent Naha tribe of the mountains. This tribe was said to consist of fierce warriors who wore masks and armor adorned with frightening imagery and were known to brutally decapitate their victims. Warriors of the Naha tribe were said to be larger than normal men and to wield strange and powerful weapons that no one had ever seen before. The fearsome Naha tribe itself has become one of the area’s many mysteries, as the whole tribe is said to have suddenly and inexplicably disappeared from the face of the earth, and it has never been ascertained just what happened to them. They have seemingly just vanished without a trace. When European fur traders first came to the valley in the 18th century, they were impressed by the legends and beauty of the valley, and word quickly spread about this far flung wilderness. As more European settlers found their way to the valley, it was soon seen to be a potential path to riches, as many explorers believed it to possess vast reserves of untapped gold. Subsequently, the region saw an influx of miners looking to either find gold in the South Nahanni River basin or attempting ...