The Lost Patrol: Four Men, Fifteen Dogs, and Tragedy
On December 21, 1910, four officers of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police left Fort McPherson in the Northwest Territories on what should have been a routine mail delivery run to Dawson City, Yukon. Eight hundred kilometres in winter. Fifteen sled dogs. Thirty days of supplies.
They never arrived.
Inspector Francis Fitzgerald led the patrol. The problem was the guide, Special Constable Sam Carter, who had made the trip once before but in the opposite direction. When the trail branched, Carter guessed wrong. He missed the turn at Forrest Creek Trail that would have led them to Dawson. By January 12, the patrol was hopelessly lost, temperatures hovering between -45 and -62 degrees Fahrenheit.
They turned back toward Fort McPherson. By January 19, the food was gone and they began eating the dogs. Fitzgerald made his last diary entry on February 5.
A search party led by Corporal William Dempster found all four men dead, just 40 kilometres from Fort McPherson.
The tragedy permanently changed how the RCMP operated in the North. From that point on, experienced Indigenous guides were mandatory on every patrol. The knowledge that had kept Inuit alive in that landscape for generations was no longer optional.
The Dempster Highway, which today connects Dawson City to Inuvik, follows much of that original dog sled route.
These sources were referenced in the writing of this story:
National Police Federation: https://npf-fpn.com/the_locker/lost-but-not-forgotten-remembering-the-lost-patrol-114-years-later/
Royal Canadian Mounted Police – History of the RCMP: https://rcmp.ca/en/history-rcmp/famous-cases-events-and-people
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