6/21/2021 Out of the wild and into history: Notorious bus finds a better home than the end of the Stampede Trail | Editorials | newsminer.com https://www.newsminer.com/opinion/editorials/out-of-the-wild-and-into-history-notorious-bus-finds-a-better-home- than-the/article_bc3b1bec-d0b5-11eb-bbc3-cbe8e8425eb8.html Out of the wild and into history: Notorious bus finds a better home than the end of the Stampede Trail Jun 20, 2021 News-Miner opinion: The Museum of the North is moving to refurbish Fairbanks Transit Bus 142, a rusting, dilapidated hulk made famous by Jon Krakauer’s 1996 book “Into the Wild” and a later movie with the same name, which depicted the starvation death of 24-year-old hapless adventurer Christopher McCandless. The green and white relic is to be the centerpiece of an exhibit slated to open in 2023 that will tell the story of how the 1946 International Harvester K-5 became a global cultural icon with a starring role in an enduringly Alaskan story. Because of the bus’s condition, it will be a daunting task. McCandless in 1992, on a two-year solo journey, crossed the Teklanika River near the decrepit bus, then used for shelter by hunters and hikers, but he could not get back across the river. He died of starvation after living for about 114 days at the bus, which had been dumped on state land near the Denali National Park and Preserve boundary along the Stampede Trail in about 1960. His body was found by moose hunters Sept. 6, 1992. https://www.newsminer.com/opinion/editorials/out-of-the-wild-and-into-history-notorious-bus-finds-a-better-home-than-the/article_bc3b1bec-d0b5-11eb… 1/2 6/21/2021 Out of the wild and into history: Notorious bus finds a better home than the end of the Stampede Trail | Editorials | newsminer.com Over the years there have been scores of rescues and searches for adventurers bound for or from the bus. At least two hikers died trying to cross the Teklanika River near the long abandoned relic that served as a beacon for trekkers from all over the world trying to retrace McCandless’s footsteps. The Alaska Department of Transportation and the Alaska Army National Guard collaborated last year to airlift the bus out of the wild. Denali Borough officials long had wanted the graffiti-covered bus removed because of the deaths, rescues and searches associated with it. McCandless’s death, and the controversy following publication of “Into the Wild,” a controversy that continues even today, is not seen by all Alaskans as a heroic tragedy, but rather a gritty, cautionary tale about what happens to those who venture into Alaska’s wilds unequipped and unprepared. The good news is that the bus has been hauled out of the wilderness. That alone likely will save lives over the coming years. If the exhibit draws people to the museum, and those who view the exhibit when it opens learn from it, well, from where we sit, that is even better news. https://www.newsminer.com/opinion/editorials/out-of-the-wild-and-into-history-notorious-bus-finds-a-better-home-than-the/article_bc3b1bec-d0b5-11eb… 2/2.