Vanished Beyond the Map - by Adam Shoalts (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Canada's greatest modern-day explorer sets out into the arctic wilderness to solve a mystery more than 100 years old.

In November 1910, explorer Hubert Darrell vanished in the uncharted wilds of the Northwest Territories. A prospector who had been swept up in the Klondike Gold Rush, Darrell later made his name as an expert guide, trapper, and restless wanderer who ventured where few others dared. At a time when travel by dogsled in the North was the norm, Darrell became legendary for traversing thousands of kilometres alone and on foot; ranging over mountains and across windswept tundra from Alaska to Hudson Bay. During his epic journeys, he helped rescue sailors trapped in sea ice, led Mounties on their patrols, and even guided some of the era's most famous explorers. Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach the South Pole, held Darrell in awe, remarking once that with men like him, he could go to the moon. Contemporaries regarded Darrell as the hardiest, most competent explorer of his day. Despite clues reported by Inuit trappers and Mounted Police inquiries, his fate remains a mystery. While his disappearance sparked headlines around the world, Darrell's name would soon also vanish from the history books, ironically, just as surely as he had in the wild.

Yet Darrell left behind a trail of letters, journals, and hand-drawn maps. With these faded clues and his zeal for adventure, Adam Shoalts retraces Darrell's forgotten routes through the wilderness, searching for cabin ruins and old campsites. He unearths water-stained records and tracks down elderly individuals in the hopes that they might remember someone who'd known Darrell. Part detective story, part biography, and part first-person adventure narrative, Vanished Beyond the Map combines expeditions with historical research to solve one of exploration history's enduring cold cases--the mystery of Hubert Darrell.

Review Quotes

Praise for Vanished Beyond the Map

"Unputdownable."
--Journalist David McGuffin, Explore Podcast

"In his latest gripping narrative, Canadian adventurer and bestselling author Adam Shoalts embarks on a journey to uncover the fate of a long-lost northern explorer who vanished without a trace more than a century ago. . . . This book is not poetry, but it has an iambic pentameter to it. There is a natural flow, mimicking a heartbeat and the rhythms of speech, with the ongoing drama question, "What happened?" It moves right along throughout."
--BayToday

Praise for Adam Shoalts:

"Rare insight into the heart and mind of an explorer, and the insatiable hunger for the unknown that both inspires and drives one to the edge. Adam Shoalts, twenty-first-century explorer, calmly describes the things he has endured that would drive most people to despair, or even madness."
--Col. Chris Hadfield, astronaut, author, space station commander

"Doing things the easy way has never been my style. There is no adventure in that! In Alone Against the North, Adam Shoalts does nothing the easy way. He travels to places no one has ever seen before and as a result comes back with an amazing story. As gripping to read as it must've been exciting to live!"
--Les Stroud, Survivorman

"Adam Shoalts is Canada's Indiana Jones--portaging in the north, dodging scary rapids, plunging into darkness, and surviving to tell the tale."
--Toronto Star

"Shoalts has done an elegant job of...reminding us of the vast and brooding influence of geography on our history."
--Globe and Mail

"Shoalts's love of nature, cool professionalism, and almost archaically romantic spirit draw us into his adventures.... Shoalts is a knowledgeable and observant guide."
--Quill & Quire

"Modern-day explorer Adam Shoalts...reminds us that our world is full of mystery, possibility, and awe."
--CBC

"A tremendous trek.... Shoalts has perpetually melded history, geography, anthropology, and storytelling to bring Canadians into his canoe.... the charity and kindness of complete strangers Shoalts meets along the way becomes an enduring theme in the book. It is inspiring to read..." --Winnipeg Free Press

"Adam Shoalts has captured the world's imagination."
--The Royal Canadian Geographical Society

"Explorer Adam Shoalts's remarkable solo foray...is the kind of incredible effort that fosters legends."
--Winnipeg Free Press

"Epic....this trip was like no other."
--The Hamilton Spectator

"Prepare to be wowed!"
--Horizon Magazine

"Epic.... the adventure of a lifetime."
--Global News

"Engaging."
--Nature

About the Author

ADAM SHOALTS is a historian, archaeologist, geographer, and Westaway Explorer-in-Residence at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Shoalts holds a PhD from McMaster University where his research examined the influence Indigenous oral traditions had on fur traders in the subarctic and Pacific Northwest. He is also the author of the national bestsellers Alone Against the North, A History of Canada in Ten Maps, Beyond the Trees, The Whisper on the Night Wind, and Where the Falcon Flies. He enjoys long walks in the woods. Follow his adventures on Facebook and Instagram.