Chris McCandless
Christopher "Chris" McCandless was an American adventurer born on February 12, 1968, in El Segundo, California. After graduating from Emory University in 1990, he chose to abandon his conventional lifestyle, donating his savings to charity and embarking on an itinerant journey across North America. McCandless eventually traveled to Alaska, where he aimed to explore the Stampede Trail. He settled in an abandoned bus, known as Fairbanks Bus 142, where he lived for several months, struggling to find sufficient food.
Tragically, McCandless was discovered dead on September 6, 1992, with his remains indicating starvation as the likely cause of death, although various theories about contributing factors have emerged. His story garnered significant media attention, especially through Jon Krakauer's 1996 book "Into the Wild," which explored McCandless's motivations and experiences. His life and death sparked a mix of admiration and criticism, with some viewing him as a symbol of courage and others labeling him as reckless. McCandless's journey has since become a point of interest for many, turning the trail and the bus into attractions, though this has also led to safety concerns and fatalities among unprepared visitors.
Chris McCandless
Hiker
- Born: February 12, 1968
- Birthplace: El Segundo, California
- Died: August 1, 1992
- Place of death: Stampede Trail, Alaska
Significance: After donating his assets to charity and dedicating himself to an itinerant lifestyle, Chris McCandless was found dead in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992, prompting decades of speculation about his experiences in Alaska and the cause of his death.
Background
Christopher “Chris” Johnson McCandless was born in El Segundo, California, on February 12, 1968. He was one of two children born to entrepreneurs Walt and Billie McCandless. He also had six half siblings on his father’s side.
McCandless spent much of his childhood in Annandale, Virginia, and attended W. T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia. After graduating from high school in 1986, he enrolled in Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. There he studied anthropology and history. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1990.
Itinerant Lifestyle
Not long after his graduation from Emory, McCandless decided to donate his savings to charity, dispose of most of his possessions, and leave his previous life behind in favor of an itinerant lifestyle. Traveling first by car and later by foot and hitchhiking, he traveled throughout North America, spending time in states such as Arizona and South Dakota as well as in Mexico.
McCandless was particularly drawn to Alaska, where he had previously vacationed for a time, and in early 1992 he traveled through Canada and into Alaska. There, he planned to hike the Stampede Trail, a challenging trail located in central Alaska, near the border of Denali National Park. However, trail and weather conditions prevented McCandless from hiking the full trail, and he instead took residence in an abandoned bus, Fairbanks Bus 142, that had housed construction workers in the 1960s and had been used as an emergency shelter by hunters and hikers since the 1970s. McCandless lived in the bus for several months, during which time he hunted local game and foraged for edible plants but struggled to obtain adequate food. Prevented from returning the way he had come by the level of a nearby river and his failing health, he remained in and around the bus until his death.
Death and Discovery
On September 6, 1992, a group of hunters seeking refuge in the bus discovered McCandless’s remains and reported the discovery to authorities. As the remains weighed only sixty-seven pounds, far less than McCandless’s last known weight, his death was initially ruled to have been caused by starvation.
Over the years following his death, however, journalists and medical professionals proposed a variety of factors that might have caused his death or contributed to his eventual starvation. Some suggested that McCandless had been poisoned by plants he had eaten or by mold that had grown on poorly stored food and that the effects of the poisoning may have prevented him from gathering food or simply killed him altogether. Another hypothesis was that McCandless had unknowingly eaten plant matter containing an amino acid that prevents humans from metabolizing nutrients, which, along with his limited food supply, could have resulted in his starvation.
In a journal found in the bus following McCandless’s death, McCandless himself blamed his failing health on wild potato seeds he had eaten. Along with rolls of film filled with McCandless’s photographs and various notes found at the scene, his journal proved essential to investigators and journalists seeking to understand McCandless’s motivations in traveling to Alaska and construct timelines of the events leading to his death.
The life, death, and discovery of McCandless became the focus of significant media attention by late 1992. Perhaps the most notable media coverage came from Jon Krakauer, a journalist who published an article about McCandless in Outside magazine in 1993 and went on to write about him for publications such as the New Yorker. In addition to magazine journalism, Krakauer published the 1996 book Into the Wild, which chronicles McCandless’s departure from his previous life, journey to Alaska, and death. A film adaptation of Into the Wild was released in 2007 and featured actor Emile Hirsch in the role of McCandless. More than two decades after his death, McCandless’s sister, Carine, published another book dealing with McCandless, The Wild Truth (2014), which delves into the siblings’ childhoods and the experiences with domestic abuse that she believes prompted her brother to break with his family and seek meaning in the wilderness.
Impact
The attention devoted to McCandless within the media and popular culture made him a well-known but controversial figure. While some considered him inspiring for his rejection of contemporary society and dedication to his ultimate path, others, including some residents of Alaska, characterized him as irresponsible and unprepared for wilderness survival.
In the years following McCandless’s death, and particularly after the releases of the book and film versions of Into the Wild, the Stampede Trail and Fairbanks Bus 142 became tourist attractions for travelers, not all of whom were prepared to undertake the dangerous hike. The costs of that tourism included multiple search-and-rescue missions to extract lost or injured hikers as well as occasional deaths. Consequently, the Alaska Army National Guard removed the bus from its longtime location in June 2020. The University of Alaska Museum of the North later announced plans to display the bus in an outdoor exhibit in Fairbanks.
Personal Life
The exact date of McCandless’s death is unknown. However, evidence collected from Fairbanks Bus 142 suggested that he died in mid-August 1992.
Bibliography
Estabrook, Rachel. “Chris McCandless’ Sisters Explain Why He Went ‘Into the Wild.’” Colorado Public Radio, 19 Nov. 2014, www.cpr.org/show-segment/chris-mccandless-sisters-explain-why-he-went-into-the-wild. Accessed 17 Oct. 2020.
Krakauer, Jon. “How Chris McCandless Died.” The New Yorker, 12 Sept. 2013, www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-chris-mccandless-died. Accessed 2 Sep. 2022.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. Villard, 1996.
Slotnik, Daniel E. “Christopher McCandless, Whose Alaskan Odyssey Ended in Death.” The New York Times, 30 Aug. 2016, www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/obituaries/archives/christopher-mccandless. Accessed 2 Sep. 2022.
Williams, Sophie. “Into the Wild: Why Tourists Are Risking Their Lives to Visit a Bus.” BBC News, 1 Mar. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50003559. Accessed 2 Sep. 2022.