In the shadow of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in Fort McPherson lies the final resting place of the infamous Lost Patrol. Here visitors can pay homage to one of the tragic episode in Northern history.

It began on a lonely trail straddling the Yukon and Northwest Territories over a century ago. Inspector Francis Fitzgerald and his three constables departed on an 800-kilometre dogsled journey from Fort McPherson to Dawson City. They never arrived. 

Their corpses were found by search parties that spring — as were their diaries, which told a ghastly tale of desperate meandering as the patrol became lost and their food ran out. Fitzgerald and his men eventually tried to retreat to the Northwest Territories, but their hunger won out. They died just 40 kilometres shy of Fort McPherson.