Where is the body of John Franklin? Inuit historian thinks he knows

The man who guided searchers to the wreckof John Franklin's flagship may have one more surprise left up his
parka sleeve.

"I believe that Franklin is in a vault on King William Island,"says Louie Kamookak, an Inuit historian who has spent 30 yearscorrelating stories collected from elders with European logbooks andjournals.

The mystery that surrounds the Franklin Expedition is one of thegreat legends of Arctic exploration. The ships Erebus and Terror setout from England in 1845 with 129 men to search for the NorthwestPassage, but they never returned.

Little by little, the Franklin story is coming together.

Artifacts and graves found throughout the 19th and 20th centurieswere joined by several more bodies discovered in the 1980s. Theships were found in 2014 and 2016.

But where is the grave of John Franklin?

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Kamookak relates two stories passed down through generations thatmay offer tantalizing clues.

"One group of Inuit said they saw a burial of a great chiefunder the ground, under stone."

This was remarkable for the hunters, as Inuit traditionallyburied their dead on the surface, wrapped in caribou skins and undera cairn. They investigated the site, expecting to find somethingsimilar. All they found was a flat stone.

"They said he was a great shaman who turned to stone," saysKamookak.

In another account, a group of travelling Inuit came across alarge wooden structure.

"They managed to get a cross piece they took for a sled. The manwho was telling the story said there was a flat stone and he couldtell the stone was hollow."

Given that other expedition graves have been found on land,Kamookak believes Franklin's is there too.

"I don't think they would have an ocean burial for him."

If he's right, Franklin is probably still lying beneath thetundra on King William Island's rocky and windswept northeast coast.

If he's wrong, chalk up one more mystery in a tale that's beengenerating questions for 170 years.