Wondering Why an Itinerant Wanderer Captivates

A spoiled, self-centered teen goes on a four year odyssey of travel, writes a few journals, does some pretty decent art work and becomes a legend. The title Finding Everett Ruess: The Life and Unsolved Dissapearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer caught my interest. Expecting a travelogue of an adventurer that I had not yet heard of, I was at first disappointed and then pleasantly surprised. The book pulled me in. While at first I was put off by the arrogant and condescending attitudes of a spoiled, insulated kid, as Everett was transformed by his travels into a thoughtful young man, I too was pulled into the book and the life of this beguiling young soul.

The story of Everett speaks to a wanderlust in many of us. Everyone at some point in their lives would like to toss everything aside and travel. While most of us will never do it, the bottom line is that Everett did. The idea of wandering beautiful solitary landscapes, writing prose and creating art appeals to many people at a real level in the bustle of the modern world. The three combined make Everett a compelling character, because we gain so much vicarious pleasure from the idea of his existence.

From the age of 16 until his disappearance at age 20, Everett traveled through the wild and lightly settled places of California and the Southwest. He painted with watercolors and carved block prints, many of which can be seen here. His block prints especially reflect his personality and provide an outward manifestation of the inner world of this complex loner and wanderer. The bitonal blocks reflect a lonely art deco ethos that draws the eye into imagined space frozen in time.

Everett is also compelling for his Forest Gumpian tendency to search out famous artists of the day from Ansel Adams to Maynard Dixon and Dorothea Lange . His brief intersections with so many notable artists of the day adds to the mystique. Everett was the bold impresario of a life lived for its own sake. At an age when most people are just trying to figure the world out, Everett moved forth with a drive and assurance of someone many years his senior. If he had lived, who would he have become?

The Everett Ruess phenomenon precedes and has similarities to the famous Chris McCandles story brought to life by the masterful writing of John Krakauer. I admit that I haven't yet read the book or seen the movie, despite the fact that I am a fan of Krakauer's writing. The idea of an ill prepared, naive youth trekking into the wild, filled with romantically benign notions about nature never appealed to me. After reading about Everett, I am compelled to visit it just because of the parallels that the author of this book draws.

The thing about explorers is that they are often exploring regions that are both occupied and understood by local people. The term "explorer" is often an appellation used to denote Westerners traveling into regions unknown to Westerners. In this case, much of the territory traveled by
Everett is land occupied and known intimately by various American Indian tribes who have an intimate and ancient relationship with it. I was very much put off by Everett's initial condescension toward Indians and the theft of artifacts. But as Everett grew and traveled, his respect for the Native inhabitants of the Southwest grew into an admiration. He transcended the intellectual prison that so many Anglo-Americans at this time were stuck in, even working to learn the Din'e language. One of the prevailing myths surrounding the disappearance of Everett involves stories of a white man who married and had  a family with a woman from one of the local tribes. It makes for an interesting story. Unfortunately, Everett more likely suffered some type of accident in that rugged, unforgiving country and was never heard from again. Although, the compelling explanation spun by the author regarding an event witnessed by a Din'e man is thought provoking.

The myth of American wilderness is a false one that is difficult to shake. Writers like Vine Deloria Jr., William Cronon and many others have worked to dislodge the idea from the American consciousness. There is no true wilderness, only land that seems that way. In the minds of many, it remains a persistant artifact that is deeply embedded in the idea of what we think of as America. There is much to be said for the way this erroneous concept has informed so much about American history. That story is left for another day.   Everett and his story continue to be caught up in our romantic fascination  with a wilderness that only ever existed in our imagination.