If you have heard of or visited Dead Man’s Flats, you have likely heard of the Marret Family. Francois Marret was found guilty of murdering his brother Jean with an axe.
Francois went on to spend the rest of his days at an asylum in Brandon, Manitoba. We know where the story ends, but where did it begin? Dig far enough, and you’ll find there was a lot more to the Marret family than meets the eye.
Thanks to Yvette Guilhem, we now know more about the mystery surrounding the Marrets. Guilhem’s aunt looked into the Marret children’s outcome after they moved from France to North America.
Eager to continue her aunt’s work, Guilhem searched far and wide for any information on the children. Through her research, Guilhem discovered that the Marrets had six children, not four as most people believe.
The children’s parents were Pierre and Anne Marret. Pierre raised cattle in the heart of France’s Auvergne Mountains.
Pierre and Anne gave birth to their first child in 1868. The child was named Jean, but he died early in life in 1872. As if trying to fill the void left behind by the death of their firstborn, Pierre and Anne named their next child Jean too.
After Jean came Louis, Francois, Eugenie, and Joseph, in that order, unfortunately, Joseph died in his infancy.
The surviving three boys, Jean, Francois, and Louis, went on to join the French army. But in 1898, Jean and Louis decided to leave the military to pursue the Gold Rush in Canada.
The two arrived in Canmore, Alberta, in December 1898. Jean worked a few jobs in Canmore, but his first was as a night guard to the dynamite stores at the Canmore Mines.
Eventually, Jean went on to run a dairy farm with Louis in what is now known as Dead Man’s Flats. Meanwhile, Francois was living a very different life back in France.
Francois was discharged from the French army in 1901 on the charge of homosexuality. With the hopes of turning things around for himself, Francois made the trip to Canmore to join his brothers.
Around this time, Louis moved to the Yukon in pursuit of gold. Francois helped Jean out on the dairy farm for a while before deciding he wanted to work in the Canmore Mines.
Locals thought of Francois as “quiet, odd, gentle, and reclusive,” according to the Heritage Resources Committee. On the other hand, Jean was described as polite, peaceful, and hard-working.
While Jean was fitting in, Francois started sticking out like a sore thumb in Canmore. On May 10, 1904, Francois asked to borrow an axe from Canmore resident Ella May Loder.
Little did she know, Francois would use this axe the following day to murder Jean while he slept. At the age of 32, Jean’s life was ended by his own brother.
The rest is history, as they say. But what of Louis and Eugenie? Well, Louis ended up striking gold at Baker Creek in the Yukon. In fact, Louis made himself $420,000 between January 1905 and 1906.
Set for life, he moved to Port Orchard near Seattle, Washington, where he married Dorothy Thompson in 1926. The couple adopted a little boy named Louis Patrick, who grew up to be a musician before passing away in 1998.
Eugenie decided to stay in France, where she raised two orphan children as her own. Not much else is known of Eugenie.
The Marrets were a mysterious family. While some family members were blessed with riches, others were haunted by their misfortune. Either way, The Marret family left a lasting impression on Canmore and Dead Man’s Flats.
