The Mad Trapper of Rat River; A True Story of Canada's Biggest Manhunt

by Dick North

• ISBN13: 9781592281176
• ISBN10: 1592281176
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2003-11-01
• Publisher: The Lyons Press

Summary

They called it The Arctic Circle War. It was a manhunt the likes of which we will never see again. The quarry, Albert Johnson, was a loner working a string of traps in the far reaches of Canada's Northwest Territories, where winter temperatures average forty degrees below zero. The chase began when a Mountie came to ask Johnson about allegations that he had interfered with a neighbor's trap. No questions were asked. Johnson shot Officer Millen dead through a hole in the wall of his log cabin. A vicious firefight ensued. When the Mounties returned with reinforcements, Johnson was gone, and The Arctic Circle War had begun. It was a forty-eight-day odyssey across the harshest terrain in the world. On Johnson's heels were a corps of Mounties and an irregular posse on dogsled, supplied by airplanes dropping food. Johnson, on snowshoes, seemed superhuman in his ability to evade capture. The chase stretched for hundreds of miles, and during a blizzard crossed the Richardson Mountains, the northernmost extension of the Rockies. It culminated in the historic shootout at Eagle River. There will never be another chase like it.

Author Biography

DICK NORTH has worked as a seaman, a fisheries officer, and a newspaper editor in Alaska and Canada's Yukon. He is also the author of Trackdown and The Lost Patrol. He is currently the curator of the Jack London Exhibit and Interpretation Center in Dawson City, Yukon.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Foreword	p. xi
Maps	p. xii
Prologue	p. 1
Albert Johnson	p. 5
The Stranger	p. 7
Rat River	p. 15
Across the Mountains	p. 39
Final Shootout	p. 49
Arthur Nelson	p. 61
Dease Lake	p. 63
Teslin, Ross River, and the Lost McHenry Gold Mine	p. 73
Mayo, Lansing, and Russell Creek	p. 81
The Lost Porcupine Mine	p. 93
Bad Guy?	p. 99
Or Victim?	p. 109
Fifty Years of False Leads	p. 115
The Early Clues: A Shortcut to Nowhere	p. 117
He Walked with a Stoop	p. 133
In the Wake of an Elusive Scandinavian	p. 141
Bill Johnson and the Black Lake Mystery	p. 155
The Ex-Cop Hypothesis and Another Cold Trail	p. 165
The Mysterious Disappearance of Zane Grey's Guide	p. 175
The Eccentric Carpenter from Anyox	p. 181
The "Wrong Man" Theme	p. 189
A Northern Legacy of the Wild West	p. 195
The Badlands Immigrants	p. 197
On the Trail of a Wyoming Horse Thief	p. 211
The Road to Folsom Prison	p. 225
Fingerprints-Let the Sleeping Dog Lie	p. 233
The Net Tightens	p. 259
Another Run at Exhumation	p. 271
The Missing Link	p. 287
Bibliography	p. 291
Savage Arms Company	p. 297
Dental Chart of Johnson	p. 299
Personal Effects	p. 301
Vital Statistics and Modus Operandi	p. 305
Personal Interviews	p. 315
Portion of the Sills Report	p. 319
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.