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NNSL Photo

Frankie Drygeese showing the results of what he does best. Relatives discovered his body less than a kilometre from Trout Rock Lodge, where he lived, Friday morning. He was a master fishing guide, regularly requested by clients at the lodge. - NNSL file photo

Popular guide found dead in the bush

Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 03/03) - Family and friends are grasping for answers after an elder with extensive bush knowledge was found dead, Friday, on a snow covered trail less than a kilometre from home.

The body of Frankie Philip Drygeese, 55, was discovered by relatives who were checking their fish nets near Trout Rock Lodge, about 17 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife.

Drygeese grew up in the area, and had worked at the lodge as a fishing guide since it opened in the early 1990s.

His brother-in-law, Mike Francois, was among the four relatives, including Drygeese's two sisters and longtime friend and guiding partner, Jonas Noel, who discovered his body.

"You could see the house," said Francois. "We saw something on the road (trail). There was a little snow on top. He was not really frozen, but he was dead."

He said they were planning to head out to the lodge with Drygeese on Thursday from Yellowknife, but when they went looking for him he was nowhere to be found.

"That day we were looking for him uptown," said Francois.

"We went around three or four times where he used to go, but we didn't find nothing so we took off."

When found Friday morning, he was wearing only running shoes, jeans, a light spring coat, a ball cap, and no mitts. A blizzard with wind gusts up to 50 kilometres an hour blew heavily the night before, leading some to wonder if Drygeese perished from the cold while attempting to make the 15-kilometre walk to the lodge from Highway 3.

Francois thinks Drygeese likely caught a ride in town to the trailhead in an attempt to catch up with them, but said he doesn't understand, considering the weather conditions at the time, why he was so inadequately attired.

"(Had) he been drinking?" asked Francois, "How come he had no gloves, no nothing?"

Police say it is too early to determine an exact cause of death. An autopsy has been ordered, but it will likely be some time before the results are known.

Lodge owner Ragnar Wesstrom said Drygeese had been in Yellowknife for the last eight weeks. While at the lodge, he said Drygeese stayed away from alcohol, but that was not always the case when he ventured into Yellowknife.

He added that it bothers him immensely thinking that someone might have dropped him off on the side of the highway, intoxicated and improperly dressed for the cold.

"What I want to know is who dropped him off in a blizzard?" wondered Wesstrom. "It's just insane, the whole scenario. He only had 800 metres left. Maybe he had a heart attack, we don't know."

Strong words for government

Wesstrom also had strong words for the territorial government, whom he accused of reaping the rewards from taxes on alcohol sales, but doing little to combat addictions.

"What happened to him was a tragedy that should've never happened," said Wesstrom.

"He had a demon when he came to town, and that demon was alcohol. Our government has to realize that addiction is a disease, and they have to put more money and effort into getting some programs and facilities up and running in the NWT."

Regardless, both Wesstrom and Francois said Drygeese will be sadly missed by family and friends. He was known as a quiet, gentle man who never raised his voice against anybody.

Wesstrom said returning clients regularly asked for him when they visited the lodge to catch lunker pike.

"He was our No.1 guide," said Wesstrom.

"He guided people from all over the world. Lots of those guests made me promise them before they gave me a deposit that they were going to get Frank back. That's how special he was.

"He wasn't just a guide and a friend to us, he was family."

Drygeese is survived by three sisters and two sons.