Nahanni National Park Reserve
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How it came to be
Nahanni National Park Reserve protects the canyons of the South Nahanni River in Canada's Northwest Territories. People are estimated to have first lived here 9,000 to 10,000 years ago, and the Dene have used the land for thousands of years. In the late 19th century Mountain Indians came down the river each spring in moose-hide boats to trade furs at the forts.
Prospectors worked the river in the Klondike era but found no significant gold. Around 1908 the headless bodies of the Métis prospectors Willie and Frank McLeod were found, giving rise to legends of haunted valleys and a lost mine. From 1964 the Montreal explorer Jean Poirel made several expeditions and found more than 250 caves, and in 1972 he guided Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau through the region.
The park was inscribed in 1978. The river drops 90 metres at Virginia Falls. On 9 June 2009 the Government of Canada and the Dehcho First Nations announced legislation to enlarge the park to 30,050 square kilometres, and the park reserve is managed co-operatively with the Dehcho First Nations.
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