The SnowSTAR 2007: Barrenlands Traverse skirted one of the Far North’s mysteries: The Mad Trapper of Rat River.
In the hard winter of ‘31, Albert Johnson just wanted to be left alone when Royal Canadian Mounted Police visited his shack on the Rat River in the Yukon Territory. But when he refused to answer questions about whether he was vandalizing rival traps, and shot and wounded a Mountie, the Canadian police returned and blew up the cabin with dynamite.
The Mad Trapper of Rat River emerged from a foxhole in the cabin floor with his rifle blazing.
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And so began one of the most celebrated manhunts in the history of the Far North, ending on Yukon Territory’s Eagle River in the Richardson Mountains when Johnson was brought down by nine shots from a posse of Mounties and Native trackers in frigid February cold. He had never spoke a word before his death.
“Our path led us very close to the this location,” reported SnowStar 2007 expedition leader Matthew Sturm in an audio dispatch filed March 27, “probably in weather that was a bit warmer. It was only Minus 30 last night.”
On its 12th day, the expedition left the Porcupine River and entered the craggy and cold Richardson Mountains — the divide between the Yukon River watershed and the drainage of the MacKenzie River.
“These mountains represent one of the major terrain obstacles for the expedition, but they are following a very well-known trail through a very historic travel corridor,” wrote basecamp manager Dave Andersen, the most recent dispatch. “It is fun to think about all the people, sled dogs, trade goods, hikers and snowmobiles that have made their way across these mountains along this very same trail.”
The expedition is about a quarter of the way through a 3,000-kilometer (1,864-mile) snowmachine journey across the tundra of Alaska and Canada, from Fairbanks to Baker Lake in the far reaches of Nunavut.
Along the way, the five Americans and three Canadians will visit dozens of historic Arctic sites, 11 villages and two diamond mines. They will stop to take detailed measurements of snow and climate, visit schools, gather traditional knowledge — and then share their insights with students and teachers across the world through daily on-line dispatches.