The Angikuni Lake Vanishing

Angikuni Lake is located in Nunavut, Canada. It is one of several lakes along the Kazan River and is known for its Lake trout, Northern pike, and Arctic grayling fishing.

In 1930, a reporter in The Pas, Manitoba wrote about a small Inuit fishing village situated on the bank of the river. A fur trapper named Joe Labelle claimed that he had arrived at the village on his way through and found it abandoned. In addition to a couple of nearly starved sled dogs, he found seven additional dogs dead and a grave that appeared to have been dug up. The stones around the grave remained undisturbed, so he didn't feel that the dogs had done it.

Adding to the mystery, it appeared that the villagers had simply disappeared, leaving behind sewing that was still in progress and food hanging over firepits. There were no signs of footprints to indicate any recent activity. Even their firearms and kayak had been left behind. It was if they had left in a hurry, but there was no sign as to where they might have gone.

He found it so disturbing that he reported it to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) rather than just shrugging it off before moving on in his travels. When the police conducted an investigation into the situation, they could find no evidence of the missing people. It's as if the entire population of the village vanished without explanation.

The story appears in the 1959 book Stranger than Science written by Frank Edwards. There are also versions in Majestic by Whitley Strieber and Phantoms by Dean Koontz. Numerous other sources have reported on this story over the years, some as fact and some embellished with mysterious lights flashing in the sky, empty graveyards, and more than a thousand missing villagers.

Some of these retellings contradict to the original report of there only being six tents and roughly 25 to 30 men, women, and children who had vanished. How this number was determined is unknown, but we can assume it is based on the contents left behind in tents indicating who and how many lived in each.

Journalist Emmett E. Kelleher reprinted the original story in a November 27, 1930 edition of the "Danville Bee" which caused a stir among its readers. The RCMP received a number of inquiries related to the story, forcing Sergeant J. Nelson to issue a statement in January 1931. In his statement, he wrote that he could find "no foundation for this story."

Sergeant Nelson further noted that Joe Labelle had taken out his first trapping license that same season. He expressed doubts that he would have even been in the territories he had mentioned in the article reprinted by Kelleher. One photo he used dated back to 1909, leading Nelson to insist that Kelleher was noted for "colorful stories."

This seems to be the last anyone heard anything about the story until it once again resurfaced in Edwards' 1959 book. Further statements by the RCMP have blown off the story as just another urban legend, claiming that it was a work of fiction created by Edwards' book, despite it having been reported on back in 1930. It is their assessment that the village could not have even existed in the area noted due to the remote location and conditions found there. Like Sergeant J. Nelson in 1931, they continue to insist they have no evidence of the events ever having taken place.

Still, the story remains in circulation to this day. It is neither proven nor disproven, but it is intriguing to think that an entire village of people may have just disappeared without a trace and no one believes they ever even existed.

What do you think? Are you a believer or is it just a tall tale?