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Everett Ruess

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Everett Ruess
BornMarch 28, 1914
Oakland, California
Died1934
Bluff, Utah, United States
Occupation(s)printmaker, artist, writer
Parent(s)Christopher Ruess and Stella Knight Ruess

Everett Ruess (March 28, 1914  – 1934) was an artist and writer who explored nature including the High Sierras, California Coast and the deserts of the American southwest, invariably alone. His fate while traveling though a remote area of Utah has been a Western mystery for many years.

In 2009, DNA evidence on some remains found seemed to match Ruess', but that identification was later challenged by the Utah state archaeologist and state physical anthropologist, who said that the remains seem to be those of an American Indian. [1]

(His surname is pronounced ROO-ess.)[2]

Art

Ruess was known for cutting linoleum prints of nature and associated with Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange. His prints show scenes from the Monterey Bay coast, the northern California coast near Tomales Bay, the Sierra Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.

Early life

Ruess was the younger son of his father Christopher, a Unitarian minister, and his mother Stella. Waldo was his older brother.[3]. The family moved often. As a child he turned to woodcarving, clay modeling and sketching in New York and near Chicago.

At 12 Ruess wrote essays, verse and began a literary diary that expanded into volumes with pages marked by weather and written in pencil to accommodate his travel adventures, thoughts and works.[4] In 1929, at 15 he was involved in a creative writing class at Los Angeles High School and later won a poetry award at Valparaiso High School, Indiana.[4]

Travels

Ruess traveled by horse and burro in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado during 1931, 1932, and 1934. He rode broncos, branded calves, explored cliff dwellings, trading his prints and watercolors. In 1934 he worked with University of California archaeologists excavating near Kayenta, took part in a Hopi ceremony, and spoke Navajo. Ruess trekked Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks and the High Sierra in the summers of 1930 and 1933.[4]

Disappearance

At the age of 20, he went into the Utah desert with two burros and never returned.[4] The horse corral he made at his camp (37°17′53.72″N 110°57′4.77″W / 37.2982556°N 110.9513250°W / 37.2982556; -110.9513250) in Davis Gulch, a canyon of the Escalante was the only trace he left. Some suspected he died accidentally by falling off a cliff or drowning; others thought he was murdered.[5][3] Still others believed he crossed the Colorado River to the Navajo Reservation in Arizona and married a Navajo woman.[3] In any case, his statements on life and adventure, combined with his unsolved disappearance, led to a kind of legendary status.[6]

At the time that Ruess explored the remote canyons of the Southwestern United States, aside from Native Americans, Mormon pioneers and local cowboys, he was likely among the first "outsiders" to venture so deeply and completely into what was then (and to some extent still is) largely an unknown wilderness.

The discovery of a grave site on Comb Ridge, near the town of Bluff, Utah, complete with bones and a few artifacts, has added to the mystery. It is believed by some that Ruess was attacked and murdered by two Ute Indians, possibly because they wanted his mules. The bones and teeth were said to match the race, age, size, and facial features of Everett. DNA testing used DNA from Everett's nieces and nephew for comparison.[2][7] In April 2009, DNA testing and comparison of the skull to photographs confirmed that the remains were of Ruess.[8][9][10]

However, in June 2009, Utah’s state archaeologist, Kevin Jones, raised concerns the remains may not belong to Ruess because dental records from the 1930s do not appear to match those of published photographs of the remains.[11]

Writings

Everett wrote no books during his life, but his journals, art, and poetry were later published in two books:

  • On Desert Trails (1940) ed. Hugh Lacy; El Centro, California: Desert Magazine Press; 2nd ed. 1950; 3rd edition (2000) ed. Gary J. Bergera; pub. Gibbs Smith, ISBN 0879058250
  • Everett Ruess:Vagabond for Beauty (1983), ed. W.L. Rusho, Peregrine Smith Books; 2nd ed. 1985, pub. Gibbs Smith, ISBN 0879052104

His books are illustrated by the woodcuts for which Ruess is admired. His story, along with that of Christopher McCandless, was retold more briefly in Jon Krakauer's book Into the Wild.

Everett's last letter to his brother, Waldo, said

... as to when I revisit civilization, it will not be soon. I have not tired of the wilderness... It is enough that I am surrounded with beauty... This had been a full, rich year. I have left no strange or delightful thing undone I wanted to do.[4]

California musician Dave Alvin wrote and performed a song about Everett Ruess on the album Ashgrove [12] and North Carolina roots musician Dana Robinson wrote and performed "Everett Ruess," on the 2008 album Round my Door.

Quotations

  • "When I go, I leave no trace."
  • "I have always been unsatisfied with life as most people live it. Always I want to live more intensely and richly. Why muck and conceal one's true longings and loves, when by speaking of them one might find someone to understand them, and by acting on them one might discover oneself?"
  • "I have not tired of the wilderness; rather I enjoy its beauty and the vagrant life I lead, more keenly all the time. I prefer the saddle to the streetcar and star-sprinkled sky to a roof, the obscure and difficult trail, leading into the unknown to any paved highway, and the deep peace of the wild to the discontent bred by cities." - from the last letter Ruess sent to his brother, dated November 11, 1934.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Solution to a Longtime Mystery in Utah Is Questioned" "New York Times", 4 July 2009. [1]
  2. ^ a b Roberts, David (2009-05). "Finding Everett Ruess". National Geographic Adventure Magazine. Retrieved 2009-05-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b c Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty, by W. L. Rusho, Publisher Gibbs Smith, p 204
  4. ^ a b c d e from Hugh Lacy's On Desert Trails, 1940
  5. ^ Krakauer, Jon (1997). Into The Wild. New York: Anchor. pp. 94–96. ISBN 0-385-48680-4.
  6. ^ [http://everettruess.net/legend.html The Legend
  7. ^ Roberts, David (1999). "What Happened to Everett Ruess?". National Geographic Adventure Magazine. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
  8. ^ DNA results may have solved 75-year-old Utah mystery 2009
  9. ^ Mysterious disappearance of explorer Everett Ruess solved after 75 years 2009
  10. ^ Johnson, Kirk (April 30, 2009). "A Mystery of the West Is Solved". The New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2009.
  11. ^ Foy, Paul (2009). "Inquiry reopened in discovery of poet's remains". The Associated Press. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
  12. ^ Dave Alvin's Ashgrove
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