ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The notorious bus that served as the ultimate camp for doomed adventurer Christopher McCandless could be preserved as a museum piece as part of a plan announced Thursday through Alaska officials.
The University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks introduced the bus to space, which passed through the state last month from its six-decade rest site near Denali National Park.
The 1940s bus had attracted enthusiasts of the 1996 e-book “Into the Wild” and the 2007 film of the same name. Over the years, many others have walked to spend time on the abandoned bus, where McCandless spent 114 days before starving to death in 1992.
Many of those who made pilgrimages to the site were endangered, leading the state to transport the bus by air from the marked path through 24-year-old McCandless.
Two hikers drowned as they crossed rivers. Others were rescued after being injured or stranded. In February, five Italian tourists, adding one with frozen feet, were rescued and in April a stranded Brazilian tourist was evacuated by helicopter.
The museum’s offer allows the state to commemorate all those who took refuge on the bus by avoiding the “spectrum of profits” of the tragedy, Alaska’s herbal resources commissioner Corri Feige said in a statement.
“I who give Bus 142 a long-term home in Fairbanks at the UA North Museum can help maintain and tell the stories of all those people,” Feige said. “You can honor all lives and dreams, as well as the deaths and pains associated with the bus, and do so with respect and dignity.”
Reporting through Yereth Rosen in Anchorage; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Edwina Gibbs
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