Column Chronicles: More mysteries of the Yukon

More mysteries of the Yukon

Frank Cotolo
June 23, 2022

Here is another quixotic tale from the Yukon. There is barely a human population on the frozen spread of northwest Canada called the Yukon, but there are enough to partake in weird stories, as were written by Canadian explorer Wes Billfold in the late 1880s.

He wrote:

The ice that lines the mountains and the flatlands of the Yukon is the grave of many people who have not survived the wicked weather, with winds that blind a man and take the spaces between his fingers so that all he can wear is mittens.

Such is what happened to Oragamy Pumper, a man hungry for gold, He came to the Klondike in the Naughty Nineties. I met him in the Arctic Saloon and he said to me, "I ain't afraid of no snow or ice or freezing winds."

"Good, cause you got to save all of your fear for Kruz, the ghost of the Klondike," I said.

"I don't believe in that story of Kuz."

I bought him a strong drink and wished him luck. I never saw him again but a loner met Oragamy in the Klondike.

"So the ghost," said the loner, "appeared in a sheet of snow that came in on a sweeping wind and knocked Oragamy over. We'd just had food and neither of us could digest so we stayed up and played hotsy totsy, an game gold diggers played when they couldn't sleep. I was beating him when I noticed there's a storm coming. He wanted to keep playing hotsy totsy but I said no, Oragamy, we got to take shelter cause storms bring Kuz, the Klondike ghost. He laughed when in came the wind and the snow and Kuz. I saw his long arms and wiry hair and pointed ears and sharp claws and red eyes so I ran. When I looked back I saw Oragamy being eaten by Kuz and I heard Oragamy screaming 'You can't kill me, I don't believe in you.' That was that."

Legend has it that Kuz keeps killing. I guess that was just one of the mysteries of the Yukon.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.