‘Back to the Wild’: More on Christopher McCandless

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  04.01.11 | 12:44 PM ET

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that members of the McCandless family recently traveled to Alaska to visit the old school bus where one of their own, Christopher McCandless, died. The visit was part of a promotional effort for a new book (and accompanying DVD), Back to the Wild, which will showcase McCandless’ photos and writing. Profits from the book will go to a non-profit aimed at helping “new mothers in need.”

As always, McCandless and his bus are a contentious subject in Alaska. After describing the parents’ visit, News-Miner writer Dermot Cole adds:

I have long believed that the junked bus ought to be moved, largely because it’s an attractive nuisance. With people ripping off additional parts of the bus as time goes by, it makes more sense to move it closer to Healy or somewhere else.

Year after year, a steady stream of unprepared people risk their lives trying to get to what would otherwise be seen as an example of environmental blight instead of a shrine.

 


Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


3 Comments for ‘Back to the Wild’: More on Christopher McCandless

Morgan 04.02.11 | 12:24 AM ET

I find it fascinating that people idolize a broken-down vehicle rather than viewing it as merely an inanimate object.

zed 04.20.11 | 5:29 PM ET

well if you remove the bus…....those in search will still find a way to create another shrine….as in the word’s of another expired ..Mallory…why climb everest…coz its there….
atleast the bus has no one seeking its previous driver and how it got there….McCandless is just a means on the quest ..not an end

Jane 05.03.11 | 8:39 AM ET

The bus isn’t the first tourist attraction that is the bane of locals’ existence. Sometimes you just have to let people have their fascinations and tolerate them.

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