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GeorgAz
Joined: 04 Jan 2003
Posts: 815
Location: Scottsdale
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 Posted: 4/16/2009, 3:46 pm Post subject: Finding Everett Ruess/ mystery may be solved |
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Check out National Geographic's Adventure magazine (April/May).
Skeletal remains found on Navajo Reservation may belong to Everett. Looks very possible so far; waiting on further DNA tests. |
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Deborah
Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 297
Location: Tucson
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| Posted: 4/16/2009, 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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Cool, in 1999 we went down Davis Gulch in the Escalantes, but didn't get as far as the Area he disappeared in. I have his book of letters called Everett Ruess, A Vagabond for Beauty.
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Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. - Rachel Carson |
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rayhiker
Joined: 16 Dec 2005
Posts: 86
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Shawn
I'll sell you map to Lost Dutchman mine!
Joined: 03 Jan 2003
Posts: 2592
Location: Ahwatukee, AZ
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| Posted: 4/17/2009, 5:58 am Post subject: |
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Wow, what a story. Not what has been rumored over the years. The last tale I heard of all this was that people feared he was there looking into cattle rustling and some one did him in because of that.
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azbackpackr
Hi Tech Wizardess
Joined: 31 Dec 2005
Posts: 3639
Location: Needles CA
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| Posted: 4/18/2009, 6:02 am Post subject: |
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| That's a sad story. I have that book also, A Vagabond for Beauty. |
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Al_HikesAZ
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Posts: 263
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
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| Posted: 4/27/2009, 9:45 am Post subject: |
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Here's an update from yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune
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DNA results may have solved 75-year-old Utah mystery
By Ben Fulton The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 04/26/2009 07:10:42 AM MDT
Photo of Everett Ruess and his horses in Canyon de Chelly, 1932. Scanned from Everett Ruess, A Vagabond for Beauty by W.L. Rusho
He was a 20-year-old California native whose love for Utah's redrock country, longing for solitude and vivid prose fueled the imaginations of environmentalists, artists and writers from Wallace Stegner to Jon Krakauer.
Now, 75 years after he last was seen near Escalante in November 1934, the mystery of Everett Ruess' fate and final resting place may at last be solved.
The latest issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine makes a case that a small burial site discovered last summer near Comb Ridge, a canyon area in southeast Utah, contained the remains of the legendary wanderer and vagabond.
Salt Lake City writer W.L. Rusho, author of a 1983 book on Ruess, said DNA test results received since the article's publication apparently confirm the find. He learned of the test results from Ruess' nephew Brian.
"They [National Geographic] said there was a one in 10 billion chance that it was not Everett," Rusho said Friday. "In other words, it was virtually certain this was Everett Ruess."
Brian Ruess, a 44-year-old software salesman who lives in Portland, Ore., said he had seen only the summarized data of DNA tests on the remains and didn't want to comment beyond saying, "I know it comes as a relief to some of my siblings. It would have mattered a great deal to my father."
National Geographic Society spokeswoman Caryn Davis said definitive results of DNA tests, along with other genetic and forensic tests, will be released Thursday by National Geographic.
The April/May article in Adventure by David Roberts recounts how Denny Bellson, a Najavo from Shiprock, N.M., embarked on a search for Ruess' remains after his sister said their grandfather, Aneth Nez, told her about the murder of a young white man by three Ute Indians he witnessed from afar while walking the area in the 1930s. Nez told his granddaughter, Daisy Johnson, of how he then buried the young man after his attackers left him for dead and took his two burros.
Forensic anthropologists at the University of Colorado at Boulder re-created a skull using bone fragments found at the site. A photo-illustration accompanying Roberts' article matches jaw and facial bones from that skull with surviving photographs of Ruess, noting that the resulting jawbone and teeth are both "a perfect match for Ruess."
Rusho said that while he's prepared to accept that Ruess' remains have at last been identified, unanswered questions remain.
Chief among them is how Ruess ended up in Comb Ridge near Chinle Wash when his last letter to his parents in Los Angeles said he would instead head southwest toward Lee's Ferry, Ariz. In addition, an investigative mission by John Upton Terrell in 1935 at the request of The Salt Lake Tribune found that not one Navajo had heard of or seen a young white man enter their country.
More importantly, Rusho said, is that Ruess once swore never to travel the Utah desert without horse or burro. Rusho recounts in his book Vagabond for Beauty that a March 1935 search team found two burros in Davis Gulch four months after Ruess' disappearance. Gail Bailey took the animals to his home in Escalante, Rusho said.
Rusho asks how Ruess could have traveled the 60 or so miles of rough terrain from Davis Gulch to Comb Ridge without burros.
"The only way he could have done it was to go deep into Navajo country, circle the mountain and come around another way. He could have done that and maybe pick up another animal on the way. Maybe Navajos would have helped him, but why in the world was there no evidence of any Navajo knowing about it?" Rusho asks. "We maybe lost the mystery of where he ended up, but we have a new mystery of how he got there."
Roberts disputes Rusho's account in his magazine article, stating that residents of Escalante said Bailey discovered the burros before search parties had been out to search for Ruess.
Also intriguing is a link between "NEMO" inscriptions found in Grand Gulch and Davis Gulch. NEMO was an alias that Ruess chose toward the end of his life.
The Davis Gulch inscription was found in 1935 and has been submerged by Lake Powell, but photographs match it to the other inscription found in the 1960s.
Speaking from Portland, Brian Ruess said he hopes his late uncle's message of the wilderness' spiritual dimensions remain intact, even if the mystery of his final resting place has been solved.
"It [the burial find] does create almost as many questions as it seemingly answers," he said. "Now that the mystery is removed, I hope we don't lose sight of the man." |
So I guess we will see more stories later this week as the National Geographic updates their story.
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Anyone can make a hike harder. The skill comes in making it easier. Dosatéhigo nasádo |
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Shawn
I'll sell you map to Lost Dutchman mine!
Joined: 03 Jan 2003
Posts: 2592
Location: Ahwatukee, AZ
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| Posted: 4/27/2009, 10:26 am Post subject: |
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This whole story is incredible! Thanks for posting it.
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The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see. |
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Deborah
Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 297
Location: Tucson
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| Posted: 4/27/2009, 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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Wow!
Long Live Evert Ruess and Ed Abbey!
May the spirit of wandering remain alive.
All who wander are not lost- JRR Tolkien
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Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. - Rachel Carson |
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PageRob
Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Posts: 859
Location: Page, Az.
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| Posted: 4/27/2009, 7:16 pm Post subject: |
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According to the NatGeo article, he was seen with burros in Chinle Wash, and it casts doubt on the old story of the burros in Davis Gulch belonging to Ruess. Good article, I recommend reading it.
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Anywhere is within walking distance if you spend the time. |
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RedRoxx44
Queen of the Walkabout
Joined: 15 Jan 2004
Posts: 1167
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| Posted: 4/30/2009, 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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It appears confirmed as close as possible that it is Ruess. I find it ironic the family plans to cremate and scatter his ashes over the pacific ocean. Perhaps they feel he rested long enough in the canyon country he loved.
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You can rest when you're dead |
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azbackpackr
Hi Tech Wizardess
Joined: 31 Dec 2005
Posts: 3639
Location: Needles CA
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| Posted: 4/30/2009, 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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| What?!? That's very odd, isn't it? Perhaps they feel he should be somewhere else, they may not like the canyon country because it is where they lost him. |
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Deborah
Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 297
Location: Tucson
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| Posted: 5/1/2009, 6:00 am Post subject: |
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If you read his book Everett spent alot of time on the Ocean. He loved some of the beaches in California.
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Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. - Rachel Carson |
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Shawn
I'll sell you map to Lost Dutchman mine!
Joined: 03 Jan 2003
Posts: 2592
Location: Ahwatukee, AZ
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| Posted: 5/27/2009, 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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I just read the article--fascinating!
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PageRob
Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Posts: 859
Location: Page, Az.
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| Posted: 5/27/2009, 9:30 pm Post subject: |
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The family also didn't want to turn his death site into a shrine for vagabonds and wanderers.
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Anywhere is within walking distance if you spend the time. |
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azhiker96
Joined: 05 Jan 2003
Posts: 1419
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| Posted: 5/27/2009, 9:34 pm Post subject: |
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Now that's a great point. If the site were well known it would likely accumulate lots of stuff.
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It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. -- Carl Sagan |
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