Nahanni Remembered

Monika Rohlmann is an environmental consultant in Yellowknife, Northwest
Territories.

The Nahanni River region lies mostly within the Northwest Territories,
but its mountainous terrain also spills into the Yukon and northern
British Columbia. Back in the 1930s, the region witnessed the heroic
travels of miners who followed the gold rush west and north into the
Yukon and Alaska. In their wake came stories of gold and fur;
apparently, there was plenty of both in the Nahanni river basin.

A.C. Lewis escaped the economic downturns of the 1930s by heading for
the north country. Growing up outside of Calgary, he had heard plenty
about the gold and furs and itched to be part of the action. He was to
find himself stationed deep in Nahanni country, working a trapline with
his friend Harry Vandaele; in the spring, the two men rode the wild
river current on a wooden raft. From the Nahanni, Lewis traveled to
Yellowknife and not only saw but participated in the beginnings of this
gold mining town.

A vivid and personal writer, Lewis shares with the reader not only his
wilderness and fur-trapping adventures but also the stories of others
who had traveled the Nahanni before him.