Dempster Highway

Km 378 - Mad Trapper

In the winter of 1932 one of the most desperate manhunts in the history of the north took place. It began when the RCMP approached a trapper on a routine check. He had only recently arrived in the area and his name was thought to be Albert Johnson. Johnson wounded one policeman and fled, pursued over rugged terrain for more than a month in temperatures as cold as 45 below zero. Finally, Johnson killed an officer and injured another before being killed himself in a shootout on the Eagle River, approximately 50 miles downstream from here. In the most bizarre twist to an already bizarre story, the name Albert Johnson was never confirmed. His true identity remains a mystery to this day.

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