Chris McCandless

Christopher Johnson McCandless was born in Inglewood, California, and spent his early childhood in El Segundo, California. He was the elder child of Wilhelmina Marie "Billie" McCandless (née Johnson) and Walter "Walt" McCandless, and had a younger sister named Carine, born in July 1971. McCandless also had six half-siblings from Walt's first marriage, who lived with their mother in California and later in Denver, Colorado. In 1976, the family relocated to Annandale, Virginia, where McCandless's father was hired as an antenna specialist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). McCandless's mother worked as a secretary for Hughes Aircraft. The couple established a consulting business out of their home, specializing in Walt's area of expertise.[https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wild-chris-mccandless-sisters-journey-escape-traumatic-childhood/story?id=26743275 'Into the Wild' Chris McCandless' Sister Says He Was Determined to Cut Ties with Parents]. Eric Johnson, Gail Deutsch, Jasmine Brown, Alexa Valiente and Lauren Effron. ABC News. 9 November 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2022

Carine McCandless alleged in her memoir The Wild Truth that her parents inflicted verbal and physical abuse upon each other and their children, often fueled by her father's alcoholism. She cited their abusive childhood, as well as his reading of Jack London's The Call of the Wild, as the motivating factors in her brother's desire to "disappear" into the wilderness.{{Cite book| last=McCandless |first=Carine |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/957994010 |title=The wild truth |date=November 17, 2015 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-232515-0 |oclc=957994010}} In a statement released to the media shortly before the memoir was released, Walt and Billie McCandless denied their daughter's accusations, stating that her book is "fictionalized writing [that] has absolutely nothing to do with our beloved son, Chris, his journey or his character. This whole unfortunate event in Chris's life 22 years ago is about Chris and his dreams."

In 1986, McCandless graduated from W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia.{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Preston |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/23/AR2007102302042.html |title=Remembering an Athlete Who Never Returned From the Wild |date=October 25, 2007 |newspaper=The Washington Post}} He excelled academically, although a number of teachers and fellow students observed that he "marched to the beat of a different drummer." McCandless also served as captain of the cross-country team, where he would urge teammates to treat running as a spiritual exercise in which they were "running against the forces of darkness ... all the evil in the world, all the hatred."{{cite magazine |first=Jon |last=Krakauer |author-link=Jon Krakauer |url=http://hudson.k12.oh.us/cms/lib08/OH01914911/Centricity/Domain/1167/Krakauer%20article%20McCandless.pdf |title=Death of an Innocent: How Christopher McCandless Lost His Way in the Wilds|magazine=Outside |date=January 1993 |access-date=2008-04-04 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303095400/http://hudson.k12.oh.us/cms/lib08/OH01914911/Centricity/Domain/1167/Krakauer%20article%20McCandless.pdf |url-status=dead}}

In the summer of 1986, McCandless travelled to Southern California and reconnected with relatives and friends. While he was there, McCandless learned that his father had lived for a time in a bigamous union with his second wife; he had also fathered a child with his first wife after the birth of his children by his second wife.{{Cite book |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |title=Into the Wild |publisher=Anchor |year=1997 |isbn=0-385-48680-4 |location=New York City |page=166 |author-link=Jon Krakauer}}

McCandless graduated from Emory University in May 1990 with a bachelor's degree in the double majors of history and anthropology. McCandless was an academic high achiever.{{Cite book |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |title=Into the Wild |publisher=Anchor |year=1997 |isbn=0-385-48680-4 |location=New York City |page=21 |author-link=Jon Krakauer}} After graduating, he donated his college savings of over $24,000 (approximately ${{Inflation|US|24000|1990|r=-3|fmt=c}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) to Oxfam and adopted a vagabond lifestyle, working when necessary as a restaurant food preparer and farm-hand.{{Cite book |last=McCandless |first=Carine |title=The Wild Truth |date=2014 |publisher=Harper One |isbn=978-0-06-232514-3 |location=New York City}} An avid outdoorsman, McCandless completed several lengthy wilderness hiking trips and paddled a canoe down a portion of the Colorado River before hitchhiking to Alaska in April 1992.{{Cite book |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |url=https://archive.org/details/intowild00krak_1/page/5 |title=Into the Wild |date=1996 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-679-42850-X |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/intowild00krak_1/page/5 5, 32–36]}}

McCandless had a particular interest in classic literature. According to Krakauer, some of his favorite writers were Jack London, Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy and H. G. Wells.{{Cite book |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |title=Into the Wild |date=1996 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-385-48680-4 |location=New York |pages=45}} He was also heavily influenced by 19th-century American writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau, and was engrossed by his essay On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. McCandless highlighted a section on chastity in Thoreau's Walden, which has raised questions regarding his sexuality. There is no indication of McCandless having any romantic partners throughout his life, and he is believed to have remained celibate, although his sister Carine recalls how one night, as a teenager, McCandless drunkenly attempted to bring a girl up to his room, which awakened his mother Billie, who sent the girl home. While staying in Niland Slabs, a seventeen-year-old girl named Tracy pursued McCandless romantically; however, McCandless rejected her advances. Wayne Westerburg recalls McCandless stating that he hoped to get married and have a family in his future.{{Cite book |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |title=Into the Wild |date=1996 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-385-48680-4 |location=New York |pages=41, 66}}

McCandless left Virginia in the summer of 1990, driving a Datsun west in an apparent cross-country trip to California. His car was in poor condition and suffered numerous breakdowns as he made his way out of the eastern United States. He also carried no car insurance on the vehicle and was driving with expired license plates. By the end of the summer, McCandless had reached the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, where a flash flood disabled his car. Fearful of fines or possibly even arrest due to lack of a valid license, registration, and insurance, McCandless removed the car's license plates, took what he could carry, and kept moving on foot. His car was later found, repaired, and put into service as an undercover vehicle for the local police department.{{Cite book |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |title=Into the Wild |date=1996 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-385-48680-4 |location=New York |pages=28–29}}

Traveling northwest, McCandless then hitchhiked into the Sierra Nevada mountains, where he broke into a closed cabin to steal food, supplies, and money. Throughout the winter of 1990 and in 1991, McCandless appears to have lived in hermit camps with other vagrants in the Sierra Nevada region. He was suspected of burglarizing other cabins when food and money ran low, but only one case was ever positively confirmed by authorities after his death.{{cite news |last1=Medred |first1=Craig |title=The beatification of Chris McCandless: From thieving poacher into saint |url=https://www.adn.com/voices/article/beatification-chris-mccandless-thieving-poacher-saint/2013/09/21/ |access-date=30 April 2022 |work=Alaska Dispatch News |date=20 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220430021400/https://www.adn.com/voices/article/beatification-chris-mccandless-thieving-poacher-saint/2013/09/21/ |archive-date=30 April 2022}}{{cbignore}}

In early 1991, McCandless left the Sierra Nevada and hitchhiked in a circular course south through California, into Arizona, and then north to South Dakota. Completely out of cash with no means to support himself, he obtained a job as a grain elevator operator in Carthage, South Dakota. He worked at this job for the remainder of 1991, until one day suddenly quitting and leaving his supervisor a postcard, which read:

Tramping is too easy with all this money. My days were more exciting when I was penniless and had to forage around for my next meal ... I've decided that I'm going to live this life for some time to come.

McCandless eventually followed the Colorado River all the way to Mexico, where he crossed the international border through a spillway at the Morelos Dam. After encountering waterfalls, through which he could no longer navigate in a canoe, McCandless abandoned his river journey and spent a few days alone at the village of El Golfo de Santa Clara, in the state of Sonora. Finding Mexico intimidating, with no way to support himself, he attempted to re-enter the U.S. and was arrested for carrying a firearm at a border checkpoint. McCandless was briefly held in custody but released without charges after his gun was confiscated. Following this experience in Mexico, McCandless began hitchhiking north, eventually winding up back in South Dakota.

In April 1992, McCandless hitchhiked from South Dakota to Fairbanks, Alaska. After his death, witnesses stated they had seen McCandless in Alaska first at Dot Lake, with several other sightings in Fairbanks. McCandless was stated to be traveling with a "big backpack" and would give a false name if asked his identity. He was described as very suspicious of people around him, unkempt, and smelling due to lack of hygiene. One witness described McCandless as "generally strange, weird, with a weird energy".

McCandless was then last seen alive at the head of the Stampede Trail on April 28 by a local electrician named Jim Gallien. Gallien, who had given McCandless a ride from Fairbanks to the start of the rugged track just outside the small town of Healy, later said he had been seriously concerned about the safety of McCandless (who introduced himself as "Alex") after noticing his light pack, minimal equipment, meager rations, and obvious lack of experience. Gallien said he had deep doubts about "Alex's" ability to survive the harsh and unforgiving Alaskan bush.

File:The replica of the school bus that Chris McCandless lived in, this one was used for the filming of Into the Wild.jpg]]

Gallien tried repeatedly to persuade McCandless to delay the trip, at one point offering to detour to Anchorage and buy him suitable equipment and supplies. However, McCandless ignored Gallien's persistent warnings and refused his offers of assistance (though he did accept a pair of Xtratufs, two sandwiches, and a packet of corn chips from Gallien). Gallien dropped McCandless off, believing he would head back towards the highway within a few days as hunger set in.{{Cite book |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |title=Into the Wild |publisher=Anchor |year=1997 |isbn=0-385-48680-4 |location=New York City |author-link=Jon Krakauer}}

After hiking along the snow-covered Stampede Trail, McCandless came upon an abandoned bus (about {{convert|28|mi|km}} west of Healy at {{coord|63|52|5.96|N|149|46|8.39|W|display=inline}}) alongside an overgrown section of the trail near Denali National Park. McCandless, according to Krakauer, attempted to continue "heading west until [he] hit the Bering Sea." However, he was deterred by the thick Alaskan bush and returned to the bus, where he set up camp and lived off the land. He had {{convert|4.5|kg|lb}} of rice; a Remington Nylon 66 semi-automatic rifle with 400 rounds of .22LR hollowpoint ammunition; a number of books, including one on local plant life; some personal effects and a few items of camping equipment. Self-portrait photographs and journal entries indicate he foraged for edible plants and hunted game including porcupines, squirrels, and birds such as ptarmigans and Canada geese. On June 9, 1992, McCandless illegally stalked and shot a moose. However, the meat spoiled within days after he failed in his efforts to preserve it. McCandless would experience profound regret as a result of this experience, expressing in a journal entry "I now wish I had never shot the moose. One of the greatest tragedies of my life."

It had been speculated that McCandless was responsible for vandalizing several cabins in the area that were stocked with food, survival equipment, and emergency supplies, however was not considered a viable suspect by the National Park Service.Into the Wild, p. 197

McCandless's journal documents 113 days in the area. In July, after living in the bus for a little over two months, he decided to head back to civilization, but the trail was blocked by the impassable Teklanika River swollen with late-summer runoff from the Cantwell Glacier; the watercourse by that stage was considerably higher and swifter than when he had crossed in April.{{efn|Medred disputes Krakauer's account of the Teklanika's flooding: "Krakauer claims McCandless 'noted in his journal that it rained for a week straight.' The journal contains no such note. Krakauer claimed it was this period of rain that caused flooding and prevented McCandless from crossing the Teklanika River and walking to safety. Weather records for nearby Denali National Park and Preserve show no heavy rains for what Krakauer specifies as the period of time in question. ... The McCandless family book has a picture of the Teklanika. It is nowhere near full flood."}} McCandless did not have a detailed topographical map of the region and was unaware of the existence of an abandoned, hand-operated cable car that crossed the river {{convert|1/2|mile|m}} downstream from where he had previously crossed. At this point, McCandless headed back to the bus and re-established his camp. He posted an S.O.S. note on the bus, stating: {{blockquote|Attention Possible Visitors. S.O.S. I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August ?{{Cite web |url=https://christophermccandless.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/chris-mccandless_sos_lancastria.jpg |title=Scan of Chris McCandless' note |website=christophermccandless.info |access-date=August 7, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113204007/http://www.christophermccandless.info/images/chris-mccandless_sos_lancastria.jpg |archive-date=November 13, 2012 |url-status=dead}}}}

McCandless's final written journal entry, noted as "Day 107", simply read, "BEAUTIFUL BLUE BERRIES."{{cite news |last1=Medred |first1=Craig |title=Examining Chris McCandless, 20 years after he went 'Into the Wild' |url=http://www.adn.com/article/chris-mccandless-example-20-years-later |access-date=30 April 2022 |work=Alaska Dispatch News |date=12 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724142354/http://www.adn.com/adventure/article/chris-mccandless-example-20-years-later/2012/08/21/ |archive-date=24 July 2016}}{{cbignore}} Days 108 through 112 contained no words and were marked only with slashes, and on Day 113, there was no entry.{{Cite magazine|last=Hewitt |first=Bill |date=October 5, 1992 |title=End of the Trail |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20108737,00.html |magazine=People |publisher=Time, Inc. |volume=38 |issue=14 |issn=0093-7673 |access-date=October 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202220026/https://people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20108737,00.html | archive-date=February 2, 2011}} The exact date and time of his death are unknown. Near the time of his death, McCandless took a picture of himself waving while holding a written note, which read:

{{Blockquote|text=I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!Into the Wild, page 216|author=|title=|source=}}

On September 6, 1992, a hunter who was looking for shelter for the night came upon the converted bus where McCandless had been staying. Upon entering, he smelled what he thought was rotting food and discovered "a lump" in a sleeping bag in the back of the bus. The hunter radioed police, who arrived the following day. State troopers found McCandless's decomposing remains in the sleeping bag. This hunter, Gordon Samel of Alaska, was shot to death in 2014 by police after leading them on a high-speed chase.{{Cite news |last=Quinn |first=Steve |date=March 13, 2014 |title='Into the Wild' hunter fatally shot by police in Alaska |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/world/uk/into-the-wild-hunter-fatally-shot-by-police-in-alaska-idUSBREA2D06D/ |work=Reuters}}

In his book Into the Wild (1996), Jon Krakauer proposes two factors that may have contributed to McCandless's death.

Krakauer wrote McCandless could have died of "rabbit starvation", officially known as protein poisoning, from over-relying on lean meat for nutrition.Into the Wild, page 188

Krakauer also speculated that McCandless might have been poisoned by a toxic alkaloid called swainsonine, after eating sweet-vetch seeds (Hedysarum alpinum or Hedysarum mackenzii) containing the toxin, or possibly by a mold that can grow on them, when he put them into a plastic bag.{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-chris-mccandless-died |title=How Chris McCandless Died |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |date=September 12, 2013 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=July 25, 2019}} Swainsonine inhibits the metabolism of glycoproteins, which leads to starvation despite ample food consumption.

In an article in the September 2007 issue of Men's Journal, correspondent Matthew Power states that extensive laboratory testing showed there were no toxins or alkaloids present in the sweet-vetch seeds McCandless had been eating. Thomas Clausen, then-head of the chemistry and biochemistry department at University of Alaska Fairbanks, said, "I tore that plant apart. There were no toxins. No alkaloids. I'd eat it myself."{{Cite web |url=http://www.mensjournal.com/feature/M162/M162_TheCultofChrisMcCandless.html |title=The Cult of Chris McCandless |last=Power |first=Matthew |author-link=Matthew Power |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071124084905/http://www.mensjournal.com/feature/M162/M162_TheCultofChrisMcCandless.html |archive-date=November 24, 2007 |access-date=2008-08-02 |df=mdy-all}}. Men's Journal, September 2007. Retrieved Jan 03, 2011 Further, there are no accounts in modern medical literature of a person being poisoned by this species of plant.{{cite web |date=2007-08-21 |title=The Call of the Wild: Into the Wild Debunked |url=http://www.tifilms.com/wild/call_debunked.htm |access-date=January 12, 2021 |website=Terra Incognita films |df=mdy-all}} Power argued that McCandless "couldn't catch enough food to survive, and simply starved to death".

In 2013, a new hypothesis was proposed. Ronald Hamilton, a retired bookbinder at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania,{{Cite web |url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/09/how-chris-mccandless-died.html |title=How Chris McCandless Died |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |date=September 12, 2013 |website=The New Yorker Blog: Page-Turner |access-date=December 12, 2014}} suggested a link between the symptoms described by McCandless and the poisoning of Jewish prisoners in the concentration camp at Vapniarca. He put forward the proposal that McCandless starved to death because he was suffering from paralysis in his legs induced by lathyrism, which prevented him from gathering food or hiking.{{cite web |url=http://www.christophermccandless.info/Ronald-Hamilton/ronald-hamilton-intothewild1.html |title=Theory on Chris McCandless' Death - Ronald Hamilton 1 |website=Christopher McCandless}} Lathyrism may be caused by oxalyldiaminopropionic acid (ODAP) poisoning from seeds of Hedysarum alpinum.

The ODAP, a toxic amino acid, had not been detected by Clausen's previous studies of the seeds because he had suspected and tested for a toxic alkaloid, rather than an amino acid, as no scientist had previously suspected that Hedysarum alpinum seeds contained this toxin. The protein would be relatively harmless to someone who was well-nourished, with access to a normal diet, but would be toxic to someone who was malnourished, physically stressed, and on an irregular and insufficient diet, as McCandless was.{{cite web |url=http://health.wusf.usf.edu/post/when-edible-plants-turn-their-defenses-us |title=When Edible Plants Turn Their Defenses On Us |date=October 24, 2013 |website=Health News Florida |access-date=January 12, 2021}}

In September 2013, Krakauer published an article in The New Yorker following up on Hamilton's claims. A sample of fresh Hedysarum alpinum seeds was sent to a laboratory for HPLC analysis. Results showed that the seeds contained 0.394% beta-ODAP by weight, a concentration well within the levels known to cause lathyrism in humans, although the interpretation of the results has been disputed by other chemists.{{Cite journal |last=Drahl |first=Carmen |date=October 28, 2013 |title=Chemists Dispute How 'Into the Wild' Protagonist Chris McCandless Died |url=http://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i43/Chemists-Dispute-WildProtagonist-Chris-McCandless.html |journal=Chemical and Engineering News |volume=91 |issue=43 |pages=30–31}} The article notes that while occasional ingestion of foodstuffs containing ODAP is not hazardous for healthy individuals eating a balanced diet, "individuals suffering from malnutrition, stress, and acute hunger are especially sensitive to ODAP, and are thus highly susceptible to the incapacitating effects of lathyrism after ingesting the neurotoxin".

In March 2015, Krakauer co-authored a scientific analysis of the Hedysarum alpinum seeds McCandless ate. Instead of ODAP, the report found relatively high levels of L-canavanine (an antimetabolite toxic to mammals) in the H. alpinum seeds and concluded "it is highly likely that the consumption of H. alpinum seeds contributed to the death of Chris McCandless."Krakauer, J., et al. (2015). "Presence of l-canavanine in Hedysarum alpinum seeds and its potential role in the death of Chris McCandless." Wilderness & Environmental Medicine. {{doi|10.1016/j.wem.2014.08.014}}

{{See also|Stampede Trail#Bus 142}}File:Stampede Trail airlift.jpg airlifting the bus via a Boeing CH-47 Chinook on June 18, 2020]]

The converted green and white bus where McCandless lived and died became a well-known destination for hikers. Known as "The Magic Bus", the 1946 International Harvester was abandoned by road workers in 1961 on the Stampede Trail. A plaque in McCandless's memory was affixed to the interior by his father, Walt McCandless.{{Cite book |last1=Sainsbury |first1=Brendan |title=Lonely Planet: Alaska |last2=Benchwick |first2=Greg |last3=Bodry |first3=Catherine |publisher=Lonely Planet |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-742-20602-8 |edition=11 |page=274}} McCandless's life became the subject of numerous articles, books, films, and documentaries, which helped elevate his life to the status of modern myth.{{cite web |last=Saverin |first=Diana |title=The Chris McCandless Obsession Problem |url=http://www.outsideonline.com/1920626/chris-mccandless-obsession-problem |website=Outside Online |access-date=June 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150503005056/https://www.outsideonline.com/1920626/chris-mccandless-obsession-problem |archive-date=2015-05-03 |date=December 18, 2013 |url-status=unfit}}{{cbignore|bot=InternetArchiveBot}} He became a romantic figure to some, inspired by what they see as his free-spirited transcendentalism, but to others, he is a controversial, misguided person.{{Cite web |url=https://evaholland.atavist.com/chasingsupertramp |title=Chasing Alexander Supertramp |last=Holland |first=Eva |date=December 5, 2013 |website=Atavist |access-date=February 25, 2016 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304124908/https://evaholland.atavist.com/chasingsupertramp |url-status=dead }}{{Cite book |last=Ottum |first=Lisa |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tr2aCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA253 |title=Romantic Ecocriticism: Origins and Legacies |publisher=Lexington Publishing |isbn=9781498518024 |editor-last=Hall, Dewey W. |pages=253–270 |chapter=The Miseducation of Chris McCandless |date=March 15, 2016 }}

"The Magic Bus" became a pilgrimage destination for trekkers who would camp at the vehicle. Some of these experienced their own difficulties, or even died attempting to cross the Teklanika River.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/newlywed-swept-away-alaska-trying-reach-wild-bus-n1035306 |title=Newlywed swept away in Alaska trying to reach 'into the Wild' bus |date=July 27, 2019 |access-date=July 27, 2019 |work=CBS News |agency=Associated Press}} According to one historian, the bus had become "a latter-day lieu de mémoire" — a "site of memory" that both "stored and secreted communal remembrance."{{Cite web |last=Clulow |first=Adam |date=2021-01-22 |title=Revisiting Into the Wild |url=https://notevenpast.org/revisiting-into-the-wild/ |access-date=2024-12-02 |website=Not Even Past |language=en-US}}

On June 18, 2020, various government agencies coordinated with an Alaska Army National Guard training mission to remove the bus, deemed a public safety issue after at least 15 people had to be rescued and at least two people died while attempting to cross the Teklanika River to reach the bus.{{cite web |last=Herz |first=Nathaniel |title=Helicopter removes 'Into the Wild' bus that lured Alaska travelers to their deaths |url=https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/06/18/helicopter-removes-into-the-wild-bus-that-lured-alaska-travelers-to-their-deaths/ |website=Alaska Public Media |access-date=June 27, 2020 |date=June 18, 2020}} It was flown via CH-47 Chinook helicopter to Healy, then driven via flatbed truck to an undisclosed location.{{cite web |last=LaCount |first=Seth |title=Alaska National Guard airlifts "Into the Wild" bus from Stampede Trail |url=https://www.dvidshub.net/news/372418/alaska-national-guard-airlifts-into-wild-bus-stampede-trail |website=Defense Visual Information Distribution Service |publisher=Alaska National Guard Public Affairs |access-date=June 27, 2020 |date=June 18, 2020}}{{Cite web|title=Nearly 30 years after 'Into the Wild' hiker's death, infamous bus removed from Alaska wilderness |url=https://www.ktva.com/story/42266323/nearly-30-years-after-into-the-wild-hikers-death-infamous-bus-removed-from-alaska-wilderness |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621000218/https://www.ktva.com/story/42266323/nearly-30-years-after-into-the-wild-hikers-death-infamous-bus-removed-from-alaska-wilderness |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 21, 2020 |date=June 18, 2020|access-date=2020-06-19 |work=KTVA}}{{cite web |last=Holland |first=Eva |title=Alaska Airlifts 'Into the Wild' Bus Out of the Wild |url=https://www.outsideonline.com/2415017/alaska-airlifts-wild-bus-out-wildhttps://www.outsideonline.com/2415017/alaska-airlifts-wild-bus-out-wild |website=Outside Online |access-date=June 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200624233738/https://www.outsideonline.com/2415017/alaska-airlifts-wild-bus-out-wild#close |archive-date=2020-06-24 |date=June 18, 2020 |url-status=unfit}} On September 24, 2020, the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks announced it was the permanent home of McCandless's "Magic Bus 142", which will be restored and exhibited outdoors.{{Cite web |last=Osborne |first=Ryan|title=Famous McCandless 'Bus 142' moved to UAF's Museum of the North |url=https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2020/09/24/famous-mccandless-bus-142-moved-to-uafs-museum-of-the-north/|access-date=2020-09-25|website=alaskasnewssource.com|date=September 24, 2020 }} It was exhibited indoors for two years, until October, 2023, but as of 2024 is being kept in storage until sufficient funds for restoration are raised.{{cite web | url=https://www.uaf.edu/museum/collections/ethno/projects/bus_142/process/index.php | title=The Road to Exhibition | Museum of the North }}

McCandless is the subject of Into the Wild, a 1996 nonfiction book by Jon Krakauer that was adapted into a film of the same name in 2007.{{Cite news |date=2016-08-30 |title=Christopher McCandless, Whose Alaskan Odyssey Ended in Death |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/obituaries/archives/christopher-mccandless |access-date=2025-04-01 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

McCandless has been a polarizing figure since his story came to widespread public attention with the publication of Krakauer's January 1993 Outside article. While the author and many others have a sympathetic view of the young traveler,{{Cite web |url=http://outsideonline.com/outside/magazine/0393/letters.html |title=Letters |website=Outside Online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100919001102/http://outsideonline.com/outside/magazine/0393/letters.html |archive-date=September 19, 2010 |access-date=2010-12-05 |df=mdy-all}} others, particularly Alaskans, have expressed negative views about McCandless and those who romanticize his fate.George Mason University English Department. Text and Community website. Christian, Peter. [http://nmge.gmu.edu/textandcommunity/2006/Peter_Christian_Response.pdf Chris McCandless from a Park Ranger's Perspective]. Retrieved August 26, 2007.

Sherry Simpson, writing in the Anchorage Press, described her trip to the bus with a friend, and their reaction upon reading the comments that tourists had left lauding McCandless as an insightful, Thoreau-like figure:

Among my friends and acquaintances, the story of Christopher McCandless makes great after-dinner conversation. Much of the time I agree with the "he had a death wish" camp because I don't know how else to reconcile what we know of his ordeal. Now and then I venture into the "what a dumbshit" territory, tempered by brief alliances with the "he was just another romantic boy on an all-American quest" partisans. Mostly I'm puzzled by the way he's emerged as a hero.{{Cite web |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~nidus/archives/spring2003/manmadecold.html |title=A Man Made Cold by the Universe |last=Simpson |first=Sherry |publisher=Anchorage Press |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040328080406/http://www.pitt.edu/~nidus/archives/spring2003/manmadecold.html |archive-date=2004-03-28 |access-date=15 February 2013}}

Krakauer defends McCandless, claiming that what critics point to as arrogance was merely McCandless's desire for "being the first to explore a blank spot on the map." He continues: "In 1992, however, there were no more blank spots on the map—not in Alaska, not anywhere. But Chris, with his idiosyncratic logic, came up with an elegant solution to this dilemma: He simply got rid of the map. In his own mind, if nowhere else, the terra would thereby remain incognita."{{Cite web |url=http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/02.15.96/krakauer-9607.html |title=North to Alaska |last=Young |first=Gordon |date=Feb 1996 |publisher=Metroactive.com |access-date=2010-12-05}}

Krakauer's approximately 9,000-word article "Death of an Innocent" (January 1993) was published in Outside.{{Cite news |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |url=http://chsenglishap3.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/5/2/13523052/death_of_an_innocent-original_outside_magazine_article.pdf |title=Death of an Innocent |date=January 1993 |work=Outside}} Chip Brown's full-length article on McCandless, "I Now Walk Into the Wild" (February 8, 1993), was published in The New Yorker.{{Cite magazine |last=Brown |first=Chip |date=February 8, 1993 |title=I Now Walk Into the Wild |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/02/08/i-now-walk-into-the-wild |magazine=The New Yorker |page=38 |issn=0028-792X}} Jon Krakauer's non-fiction book Into the Wild (1996) expands upon his 1993 Outside article and retraces McCandless's travels leading up to the hiker's eventual death.

McCandless's story was adapted by screenwriter Chip Johannessen into a 1998 episode of Chris Carter's television series Millennium, titled "Luminary."{{cite web |url=https://millennium-thisiswhoweare.net/guide/episodes/profiles/212/luminary/ |title=LUMINARY - MILLENNIUM EPISODE PROFILE |website=Millennium |access-date=January 12, 2021}}

An eponymous 2007 film adaptation of Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn with Emile Hirsch portraying McCandless, received a number of awards, including Best Picture from the American Film Institute.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/352389/Into-the-Wild/details |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203045225/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/352389/Into-the-Wild/details |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 3, 2013 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |date=2013 |title=Following His Trail to Danger and Joy |access-date=January 12, 2021}} Ron Lamothe's documentary The Call of the Wild (2007) also covers McCandless's life story.{{cite web|url =https://www.sfgate.com/thingstodo/article/Movie-Call-of-the-Wild-2520681.php|title =Movie: 'Call of the Wild'|first =Reyban|last =Harmanci|website =SFGate|date =September 26, 2007}}

The book Back to the Wild (2011) compiles photographs, postcards and journal entries by McCandless. A PBS documentary uncovering some additional information, with interviews, titled Return to the Wild: The Chris McCandless Story, first aired on the PBS network in November 2014.{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/show/return-wild/ |title=Return to the Wild |publisher=PBS |access-date=January 12, 2021}}

In 2014, Carine McCandless, Chris' sister, published The Wild Truth, a memoir of her life.{{Cite book |last=McCandless |first=Carine |title=The wild truth |date=2014 |publisher=HarperOne |isbn=978-0-06-232514-3 |location=New York, NY}} It detailed their abusive home life, providing further context to Chris' actions.{{Cite web |last=McAlpin |first=Heller |date=November 11, 2014 |title=Behind The Famous Story, A Difficult 'Wild Truth' |url=https://www.npr.org/2014/11/11/363120048/behind-the-famous-story-a-difficult-truth |access-date=March 19, 2024 |website=NPR}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|2950577}}

{{Sister project links|collapsible=yes|display=Chris McCandless|wikt=no|c=Category:Christopher McCandless|commonscat=Category:Christopher McCandless|n=no|q=Christopher McCandless|s=no|author=no|b=no|voy=no|v=no|d=Q312005|species=no|species_author=no|m=no|mw=no}}

• {{Cite web |url=https://www.freewheelings.com/visiting-into-the-wild-magic-bus/ |title=Christopher McCandless – Finding the Christopher McCandless Bus |website=freewheelings.com|date=March 25, 2010 }}
• [http://www.christophermccandless.info ChristopherMcCandless.info] Website on Christopher McCandless.
• [https://archive.today/20101111171909/https://www.chrisspurpose.org/ Chrisspurpose.org ] {{mdash}} Christopher Johnson McCandless Memorial Foundation
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071012061942/http://www.emorywheel.com/detail.php?n=24325 Dispatches from the Wild] {{mdash}} Excerpts of McCandless's own articles published in the Emory Wheel student newspaper.
• The Wild Truth by [http://www.carinemccandless.com/ Carine McCandless], {{ISBN|978-0-06-232516-7}}, detailing what growing-up in the McCandless household was like.
• The Call of the Wild, a 2007 documentary about McCandless made by Ron Lamothe.
• Vagabond, a 1985 French film that deals with a similar theme

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCandless, Chris}}

Category:1968 births

Category:1992 deaths

Category:20th-century American diarists

Category:20th-century squatters

Category:Accidental deaths in Alaska

Category:American nomads

Category:Carter G. Woodson High School alumni

Category:Date of death unknown

Category:Deaths by poisoning

Category:Deaths by starvation

Category:Bradley University alumni

Category:Emory University alumni

Category:Hikers

Category:People from Annandale, Virginia

Category:People from Los Angeles

Category:People from El Segundo, California

Category:Unsolved deaths in Alaska