Three Dozen Log Cabins

In the 1940’s, bus #142 was part of the Fairbanks Transit System. In the 60’s it was hauled into the Alaskan wilderness by a construction company to serve as shelter during a short-lived road project. It sat abandoned and forgotten until 1992 when an ill-prepared, inexperienced tramp stumbled by. 24-year-old Chris McCandless meant to hike solo to the Bering Sea. Thick Alaskan brush halted his trek, but by then the Teklanika River was too swollen to cross back to civilization. He starved here, about 30 miles from the nearest road. Within weeks of the body’s discovery, Jon Krakauer published an article romanticizing McCandless’ life and death. Then there was a novel and a feature movie. Suddenly bus #142 became the object of pilgrimage to many more “free spirits,” several of whom also died or had to be rescued as they tried to reach it. June 18 a National Guard helicopter airlifted bus #142. For now, it’s safely in state-owned storage.