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In the Fall of 1946, the Canadian press began to circulate stories of lost miners and hidden riches in a far northwest "Tropical" Valley. Weary of war news and the post-war depression, these fanciful tales of mysterious occurrences caught the public's attention, and a young cub reporter for the Vancouver Sun, Pierre Berton, who wrote many of them, had the bold notion of racing against his literary competitors for the honor of being first on the scene in the now infamous South Nahanni Valley.
Encouraged by his editor, young Berton approached Russ Baker, a veteran
bush pilot who was promoting his newly formed charter air service, Western
Pacific Airlines. Although no plane had ever landed in the remote Nahanni in
winter, Baker was eager to try. In January, Baker, Berton and Vancouver Sun
photographer Art Jones flew north to Prince George on a commercial flight and
were met by Ed Hanratty, Baker's mechanic, with a Junkers monoplane.
It was a horrendous winter with recorded temperatures below minus sixty.
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Pierre Berton, Russ Baker, and Art Jones |
The four men flew north in hundred mile leaps, landing to repair a cracked cylinder or to fly a pregnant woman to a remote hospital. At each stop, Berton radioed back a dispatch to Hal Straight, his editor, and these were syndicated worldwide. By February, as they approached the forbidden land, some one hundred papers were following the adventure. At Fort Liard, they picked up an additional man, RCMP constable Jim Reid, as a witness, and headed on to Nahanni Butte where they were greeted by Gus and Mary Kraus. The front pages on February 16, 1947 newspapers declared:
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"Headless Valley, NWT (delayed - INS) - We landed today bang in the center of "Headless Valley," the much talked about, much disputed core of the wild Nahanni country - our plane bounced on the rough ice like a prewar golf ball. It is the first time that a plane on skis has landed in this mysterious valley of the north." |
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Hauling aviation fuel |
Art Jones and signs by DMV cabin cache |
As their Junkers' engine idled on the frozen river, the men quickly set up a prepared set of road signs, took photographs, and entered a small cabin where a surprise awaited them as told by Berton on Feb. 17th:
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"In the heart of this weird valley, deep in the grim sawtooth Nahanni Mountains
where men have died for their gold, we found, of all things, a pin-up girl.
"Are you listening, Rita Hayworth? More important, is your press agent listening?
"Miss Hayworth, let us be the first to tell you that you are the official queen of 'Headless Valley.' For it was your pretty head and scantily-clad torso that we found staring right at us out of a tattered and crumbling cabin in the forbidden valley. "Who placed you here in this empty, forgotten log shack in this dead and silent banshee wind we have no way of knowing, but very nice you looked smiling at us from a sun-soaked California beach as you adjusted the zipper on you white-necked bathing suit. Believe us, Miss Hayworth, you brought the only breath of the tropics that has ever kissed the snow-locked wastelands that stretches across the 10 miles of this valley of dead men." |
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In Charlie Cholo's cabin, Pierre Berton with pinup of Rita Hayworth |
Over the objections of Officer Reid, Berton removed the photograph "for historic value" suggesting he would send it to Miss Hayworth for her autograph. They immediately took off again and flew further upriver to Pulpit Rock at the "Gate" before heading out. Once back in Vancouver, the newspaper had the series declared the greatest newspaper adventure story since the war, and Berton became the Nahanni's latest publicist.
Return to True History
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