In the summer of 1931, a mysterious stranger arrived in the Fort McPherson area, apparently having travelled overland from the Yukon. He was a tough, competent bush man who clearly wanted to be left alone. He told Constable Edgar Millen of Arctic Red River that his name was Albert Johnson and he planned to go to the Rat River country northwest of Fort McPherson, but he revealed little else.
In December, an Indian trapper complained that Johnson had sprung his traps. When the police tried to investigate, Johnson shot Constable A.W. King, gravely wounding him. Thus began the "Arctic Circle War" -- a manhunt that lasted 54 days and spanned 150 miles of the northern Yukon and the Mackenzie Delta region of the Northwest Territories, through blizzards, winter darkness, and temperatures averaging minus 40 degrees Celsius. In the course of the pursuit, Johnson was involved in four shoot-outs, wounding another man and killing Constable Millen.
The mixed force of police officers and white and Gwitchin trappers finally caught up with Johnson on February 17, 1932, on the Eagle River in the northeastern Yukon. In a final armed confrontation, he was shot dead. His true identity remains a mystery to this day.
The pursuit of the Mad Trapper borrowed from both the old north and the new, marking a turning point in northern policing. While much of the hunt was conducted by men and dog teams, using bush skills that had served the north well for centuries, the pursuers on the ground were assisted by an airplane and the news was carried to the outside world almost instantaneously by radio.
Legendary bush pilot W.R. "Wop" May, a hero of World War I, used his Bellance monoplane to track Johnson for the police on the ground. He also flew wounded Staff Sergeant Earl Hersey to a hospital in Aklavik, undoubtedly saving the officer's life. It was the first time police in the north had used an airplane in an investigation, and it led to the creation of the RCMP Air Wing.
Radio also played a prominent role in the manhunt. Two-way radio was used to alert those living in isolated cabins in the areas Johnson was passing through, to communicate between police patrols and detachments, and to exchange information between the pursuers and the spotting plane. Long-wave radio broadcasts carried news of the manhunt to the outside world, causing a boom in radio sales throughout North America.
Finally, the Johnson case, which began as a dispute over trapping rights, led to the establishment of the system of registered traplines still used today in the Yukon and Northwest Territories.
