Posted on 06/19/2020 12:55:55 PM PDT by libstripper
A 1940s-era bus where a 24-year-old adventurer starved to death in the Alaskan wilderness has been removed after tourists died while trying to reach it. A US Army helicopter airlifted the vehicle from the spot just west of the Teklanika River, where it had been left to rust for more than half a century. The bus was made famous by Into The Wild, a book and film that told the story of Chris McCandless' death after he lived inside it for 114 days during the summer of 1992.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Place the bus near the bridge to nowhere, now it can be the “bridge to the bus.”
It was a former Fairbanks city bus, towed there decades earlier for a construction camp and then abandoned. I think it was later used as a hunting shelter.
When I was growing up, I used to watch the Partridge Family and I would fantasize about the Partridge Family bus coming to my house to pick me up and put me in the band. I even penned a fan letter to Rueben Kincaid back in 1971 (I was 9 years old) asking him to put me in the band - because I was a way better drummer than that Chris kid.
In response to my letter, I got a thank you note and an 8x10 glossy of Keith Partridge (David Cassidy). Yuck. I would rather have had one of Susan Dey.
Gaia worshipers may be momentarily surprised by what happens when they meet their goddess in person. Then they die.
The remake was going to be called “Into the CHAZ”, but the CHAZ people changed the name of their Utopia.
My sibling lived in one when in Alaska with his “partner”. Worked construction jobs and anything he could find.
How are the tourists going to pet the moose, the brown bears and scratch behind the buffalo's ears now?
As you said - Nature is dangerous. Don't get et, you touristy numbnuts.
And the bus you rode in on...
I saw the movie and thought it was a mostly pointless depiction of an utterly self-absorbed brat who Darwin Awarded himself.
Agreed.
Like you, I actually read the book, and I never got the impression that he was a leftist or a commie or anything of the sort. Actually he was non-political - his motivation was to completely separate from his parents (the father in particular) and prove his independece. If you read the book or google "Chris McCandless father" you will see what kind of abusive and bizarre situation he and his sister grew up in.
The book was rather inspiring to me in the sense that this kid was totally self sufficient and independent. He saved something like ten grand by the time he was 19 or so, but donated it all to charity, started from zero, went on the road and lived on the cheap working odd jobs and living on rice and beans to prove himself as a completely independent individual...really an ideal conservative libertarian in a sense; almost like a character in an Ayn Rand book. He never went on welfare, that would have been against what he was trying to prove. Very few people have the guts to throw away all security and start over with no safety net to prove to themselves that they have what it takes.
The comments here disappoint me in how uninformed they are, but some of that may be because people are basing their opinions on Sean Penn's movie - the book was much better.
JK is a good storyteller, but he seems to place the blame on many others for the ‘96 disaster, namely Boukreev. Anatoli saved 3 lives that day; I don’t think JK rescued anyone.
i think I’ll skip that one- the wilderness one was depressing enough-
Yep- liberalism is truly a mental disease- in many cases-
I've just read his old stuff, "Into the Wild" and "Into Thin Air." Both were very good.
“ A shrine to stupidity.”
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Haven’t seen movie. How or why did the guy die?
My suggestion is Denali National Park. Make it the central exhibit on the risks of wilderness travel and include a theater that’s continuously running “Into the Wild.” The bus is necessarily going to be a tourist attraction and it’s important to place it somewhere it can be safely accessed.
I agree with everything but a continuous loop of Into the Wild. I’d rather a looped documentary about the bus itself and how it was used as shelter for hunters and hikers and lessons on the dangers of the Alaskan Wilderness. Maybe set it up the way McCandless used it.
...Mostly I don’t want to spotlight Sean Penn if the time could be more productively used in educating people!
He went out into the wild without really knowing how to survive, and slow-starved to the point he couldn’t recover from food poisoning.
After all the headaches it’s caused the local authorities over the years, my guess is that it winds up “accidentally” scrapped.
Starved to death basically.
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