1932 Yukon Nuggets

The Mad Trapper

He was called the Mad Trapper of Rat River. There is no compelling evidence that he was mad. There is plenty of evidence that he wanted to be left alone. But when he wounded a Mountie, his days as a loner were over.

When Albert Johnson arrived in Fort McPherson on July 9, 1931, he refused to talk to anyone about anything except that he was going to trap on the upper Rat River. Later in the year, native trappers in the area complained to the RCMP that a strange white man was lifting their traps and hanging them in the trees.

On Boxing day, 1931, Constable Alfred King, of the Arctic Red River detachment, set out by dog team to investigate the complaint, and to see if Johnson had a license to trap. It took two days to reach the cabin, but Johnson wouldn't come out. So King travelled another 80 miles to Aklavik to pick up a search warrant.

King returned to the cabin with another constable and two native guides. As he approached the cabin, Johnson fired a shot through the door. The bullet struck King in the chest. Constable McDowell bundled King up on the sled and rushed him back to Aklavik in just over 20 hours. King survived.

On New Years Day, 1932, another posse headed by Constable Edgar Millen was sent to find and arrest the trapper. But Johnson was now on the run. During the month of January, Johnson and the posse came into frequent contact, but each time the trapper out-shot and out-foxed the posse on his way to freedom. On January 30th, Johnson and Millen met face to face in a bush-covered ravine. Millen was killed with a single bullet shot to the head.

Now the Mounties were determined to get their man. An even bigger posse headed by Inspector Eames, along with native trappers, army signal corpsman, and an aircraft piloted by Wop May, were involved in this incredible manhunt. They marvelled at the way he could elude the posse and survive in the incredible cold of a northern winter. They figured he was heading to Alaska. They eventually followed him to the Eagle River in the Yukon. Here, on the morning of February 17, the posse cornered Johnson.

They surrounded Johnson, who had piled snow around him in the middle of the river. Army signal corpsman Earl Hersey was wounded in the shootout which lasted less than half an hour.

Johnson now lay dead in the snow. He had taken 17 direct hits before he died. Albert Johnson took whatever secrets he had with him to his grave in the little cemetery in Aklavik.

 

A CKRW Yukon Nugget by Les McLaughlin.