The Disappearance of Lake Anjikuni Village is one of Canada’s most perplexing mysteries—a tale of an entire Inuit village vanishing without explanation. The story first surfaced in November 1930, when fur trapper Joe LaBelle stumbled upon what appeared to be a ghost town on the remote shores of Lake Anjikuni in the Northwest Territories.
LaBelle was familiar with the area and had visited the village before. He expected to find a bustling community of around 25 people preparing for the harsh Arctic winter. Instead, he found eerie silence. The snow-covered village lay abandoned, with food still hanging on drying racks, clothing neatly arranged inside empty tents, and no signs of a struggle. Even more unsettling were the sled dogs, found frozen to death and still tethered to their posts, as though their owners had vanished without a second thought.
As LaBelle explored further, he made a disturbing discovery. The village’s burial ground had been disturbed. Graves were found empty, with the contents mysteriously missing. Alarmed, LaBelle hurried to the nearest telegraph office and contacted the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP). Officers reportedly visited the site and confirmed his findings: an entire community gone without a trace, leaving behind no footprints, no equipment, and no signs of where they might have gone.
News of the event spread quickly after it was published in a 1931 newspaper article. The NWMP received numerous inquiries about the disappearance but soon issued an official statement denying any knowledge of the incident. This discrepancy cast a shadow of doubt over LaBelle’s claims. If the police had indeed investigated the site, why were they now denying it? And if the report was fabricated, why did LaBelle stick to his story?
Over the decades, theories about the vanished village have proliferated. One theory suggests the community fell victim to forced relocation by the Canadian government, a practice not unheard of during that time. Others speculate that the villagers succumbed to an extreme and sudden blizzard, though this fails to explain the disturbed graves. Some locals whisper about ancient Inuit legends of malevolent spirits, while more modern theorists point to the possibility of extraterrestrial involvement.
Skeptics argue the story is nothing more than a hoax. The 1931 article that popularized the tale contained inaccuracies and exaggerated details. Historians have found no official NWMP records of an investigation, and some suspect LaBelle or the journalist who published the piece fabricated or embellished the account for attention.
Still, others insist that the truth is stranger than fiction. Stories of strange lights in the sky near Lake Anjikuni have circulated for generations. Some witnesses claim to have seen glowing orbs hovering over the area, adding fuel to the theory that something more otherworldly may have been responsible.
Was the disappearance of Lake Anjikuni Village a tragic case of forced relocation, an embellished tale that grew into legend, or evidence of something far beyond human comprehension? And what happened to the bodies from the disturbed graves?
Join us as we investigate the enigma of The Disappearance of Lake Anjikuni Village in our latest episode of Unsolved Canadian Mysteries, available now on Spotify and YouTube.