THE FATE OF
FRANK AND WILLIE McLEOD
As so much has been
written about the deaths of Frank and Willie McLeod, it's easy to be misled. Were they
murdered by their partner, Robert Weir, and did he escape with their gold? Did younger
brother, Charlie McLeod, really meet Weir in a bar years later where, over drinks, Weir
confessed to killing the brothers, and did Charlie pursue his brothers' murderer until the
trail lead to an Alberta farm field where Weir committed suicide in a burning haystack?
Having carefully gone thru all the firsthand reports and a wide array of supporting
documentation, a clear picture does emerge. Their troubles began when their boat drifted
away from them while they were camped in Deadmen's Valley in the Fall of 1905.
The McLeods had been looking for Nahanni gold all their lives. Their father, Murdoch, was
the Hudson's Bay Company's factor at Fort Liard where the boys were raised. They knew the
country and its people well, and they knew the stories of Little Naha and others finding
gold up the Nahanni. When their father's eyesight began to fail him in 1899, everyone
moved south to Edmonton - everyone except for young Frederick, who stayed to fulfill the
family's HBC contract obligations at Ft. Liard. After a while, his brothers, Frank,
Willie, and Charlie returned to the North to work for the HBC and to look for the gold. In
1903, the three brothers went over the mountains from the upper Liard to work on the
creeks of the Flat River. They came out in 1904 with a small quantity of placer gold, lots
of tall tales, and penniless. Charlie returned south, but Frank and Willie convinced
young Bobbie Weir, a newly-arrived steamboat engineer, to break his contract with the HBC,
back their venture and join them. They left for the Nahanni in the Spring of 1905.
Some of the local Natives did see them at Fort Liard, and later on that same season on the
Nahanni. When they didn't return in the Fall, it was assumed that they were wintering in
the country and would show up the following year. But they didn't return in 1906, nor in
the next year. A boat like the one they had left in was reported found in 1907 in a large
driftwood pile in the valley between First and Second Canyons, and Fred McLeod was
alerted. He sent a message out to the rest of the family in Edmonton. The following year,
Charlie and his younger brother Danny came up with three other men to take a look. In the
valley, they met Billy Atkinson and his wife, Mary Adele Lafferty. Mary had made a
disturbing find at an old camp on the valley's north side. She led the men to a site near
one of the Native trails. There, among scattered camping gear, was a rolled-up HBC blanket
with the remains of two men huddled together as if for warmth. Their heads had been
disturbed, probably by scavenging animals.
The bodies were identified as Frank and Willie by the distinctive gold watch and wedding
band found with them, and they were buried where they were found. But, there was no
trace of Bobbie Weir, the HBC steamboat engineer, who had joined the brothers on the
prospect. What had become of him? No one knows for sure; however the decomposed body of a
white man was found about a half-mile away by a Native hunting party the following year in
1909. In neither case did the RCMP do a first-hand investigation. Rather, the men of the
1908 McLeod party were interviewed at Telegraph Creek while on their way out, and rumors
were reported by others. It seems that after the death of their father Murdoch, Charlie
and Dan McLeod blew the story into murder and mayhem with a lost gold mine as a lure to
attract investors.
Albert believed that the McLeods had lost their boat when a weasel or a wolverine had
chewed thru the babitche (rawhide) cord that was used at the time to tie a boat to shore.
Albert had actually seen just such an occurrence himself, and had to run into the river to
recover his own canoe. As the men were unprepared for winter and the mountain passes were
already covered in snow, they camped along one of the valley's trails in the belief that
they would meet a passing Native hunting party. But, they stayed too long and were
unable to proceed.
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