Monument of Prosperity

The Fairbanks City Bus 142 inspires people of all abilities and experiences to move into the wild to discover the infinite amount of new life provided by the wilderness. Unfortunately the publicity that was created around Chris McCandless’ fatal journey through the Alaskan bush has encouraged incapable hikers to attempt to experience the same journey that McCandless took. Located on the Stampede Trail, this bus symbolizes the fight for survival and the prospect of independence brought on by the wilderness. Following the production of Into the Wild, this bus has become both a monument and a destination that many people have attempted to visit.

    Obviously, the Stampede Trail is not for beginners. Parts of the trail include crossing a glacial river called the Teklanika river. This is the river that caused McCandless to return to the bus. Crossing the Teklanika river proves to be difficult when your hike is not planned properly or you fall out of luck. In an article published by Aric Halfacre, an experienced Stampede Trail hiker, he suggests that the Teklanika has some very unpredictable conditions. In this article, he writes “The main threat posed by the Teklanika is it's depth and current. At times it is high enough to easily take a hiker off their feet. The water is then so cold that you face a number of risks ranging from loss of gear, through hypothermia, to having your muscles cramp and being unable to swim.” Halfacre began to show the number of obstacles that one could face as they hike the Stampede Trail. Through his entries, he shows that the trail is not a joke and that in order to be successful, one must truly know how to hike and to survive in the wilderness.

    Being an inexperienced hiker, Chris McCandless failed when he faced the Teklanika River. When he entered the Alaskan bush, the Teklanika was very manageable. He found that “Sixty-seven days earlier in the freezing temperatures of April, it had been an icy but gentle knee deep creek, and he’d simply strolled across it. On July 5, however, the Teklanika was at full flood, swollen with rain and snowmelt from glaciers high in the Alaska Range.” (p. 170) Once McCandless reached the river, he experienced the dreadful and unexpected wrath of the river. Due to its constantly changing conditions, there was no way to predict whether the river would be high or low. His only option was to return to the bus, the place he would die. McCandless shows his decision in a journal entry when he writes “Disaster… Rained in. River look impossible. Lonely, scared.” McCandless decided that he would die if he were to attempt to cross the river, a decision that both Krakauer and other hikers agree was the right decision. Krakauer shows this when he writes “He probably understood that if he was patient and waited, the river would eventually drop to a level where it could be safely forded. After weighing his options, he settled on the most prudent course.” (p. 171)

    Although the Teklanika river has caused serious problems to young hikers and adventurers pursuing the travels of McCandless, it was not the only life-threatening endeavor that each traveler would face. In an article published by ABC News about the conflicting interests of the book and movie Into the Wild, Neal Karlinsky shares an eye-opening statement on what should be expected as one steps foot on the Stampede Trail. He shares this statement by the Greater Healy-Denali Chamber of Commerce when he writes “"Here's the map. Here's where you gotta go. This is where you park. This is where you walk. This is where you maybe drown. This is where you maybe get eaten by the bear and the mosquitoes get you. And that's where you die." Public officials in cities surrounding the trail believe that the tourism created by the bus is great, but that many people who come are not fully aware of the harshness of the trail. The map and brief story that they provide hikers with shows that the hike is most certainly not for everyone and that it does not guarantee survival or reaching the bus in general.

    As officials and locals have met people attempting to make the same journey that McCandless made, there has been much debate to whether the bus should be relocated to an more easily accessible location. There are multiple opinions to this argument as some officials suggest that the current location of the bus may be causing more harm to adventurers than good, and locals suggesting that the location is beneficial to them because they are able to use it as a “last survival” house if it is needed. Laugman, the official who spoke about the map in the ABC News article suggests “I don't want to see us, through this media push and this tourism push, actually put people in harm's way.” Underprepared hikers are dying on the Stampede Trail alike McCandless. As they search for independence in the wild, they fail to remember the power of nature. This power is recognized by locals to the bush whom some of which believe that the bus should stay. In an article published by the Alaska Dispatch News, Sean Doogan and a spokeswoman for the Alaskan State Trooper suggest “The bus isn’t any more a draw to the foolish than any other place in Alaska. “We get one, maybe two calls a year to go out there,” said Megan Peters, spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers. That’s about as many as are rescued from Flattop Mountain -- a popular Chugach State Park hiking destination minutes from downtown Anchorage.” According to the Alaska Dispatch News, about the same amount of people visit the bus and fail as people climb to a popular hiking mountain and need to be rescued. The bus has most certainly become a monument of the struggle and joys found in the wilderness through its recently published book and movie.

    Many people enter the Stampede Trail without the ability to survive the trail. Locals and officials have both recognized certain hiker’s lack of intelligence regarding life-threatening endeavors on the trail such as the Teklanika River. Through their conversations and the conversations of other scholars, there is a significant debate over whether the bus should be removed. I believe the biggest reason behind this is the power of somebody’s experience and someone’s happiness. The bus becoming, in a sense, a monument and shrine for Chris McCandless proves that as people, we yearn for happiness like no other. Our drive encourages us to do things we would not normally do such as hike across dangerous terrain. Reaching the bus isn’t about checking it off your bucket-list, but it is about experiencing something new, something fresh, and something life changing.