Mccandless Essay
Unidentified man found dead in forest
Weighting only 67 lbs. when found
By: Lana Da Silva
September, 17 1992
Stampede trails – A terrible tragedy happened on the trails of the Stampede. Three men hunting for game, decided to end their journey as they do every year and like so many others like them by taking shelter at an abandoned bus which rests on the trails just twenty-five miles from the Denali national park boundary. When they arrived at their destination, there was a decaying odour of flesh in the air and to their surprise, taped to the door of the bus was a note pleading for help. Inside, the body of a man immersed in a blue sleeping bag.
Ken Thompson an auto body owner in Healy, his employee Gordon Samuel, and a long-time friend Freddie Swanson, were not expecting the day to turn out the way it did. Traveling along the rugged terrine of the Stampede trails, battling natures elements as they hunt for game, something the local men are accustom to. But what they were about to encounter would be something the hunters and peaceful towns people of Anchorage would never forget.
On September 6th when the men reached the 1940s vintage International Harvester the only one left of three, by the construction company Yuton in 1963. According to Ken Thompson they were greeted by “a guy and a girl from Anchorage standing fifty feet away, looking kind of spooked.” The couple whose names are unknown to us were frozen in their steps, as far as we know neither of them entered the bus their eyes staring directly at the S.O.S taped to the slightly ajar door of the vehicle, too startled by the note and by the rotting odour to investigate any further. As Gordon Samel braved himself to approach the bus to assess the situation, at first glance Samuel notices a Remington riffle, a plastic box of shells, a stack of 8 or 9 books and in the back of the bus on top of a jerry-built bunk, laid a blue sleeping bag, which, to Samel, the bag seemed occupied.
“It was hard to be
Weighting only 67 lbs. when found
By: Lana Da Silva
September, 17 1992
Stampede trails – A terrible tragedy happened on the trails of the Stampede. Three men hunting for game, decided to end their journey as they do every year and like so many others like them by taking shelter at an abandoned bus which rests on the trails just twenty-five miles from the Denali national park boundary. When they arrived at their destination, there was a decaying odour of flesh in the air and to their surprise, taped to the door of the bus was a note pleading for help. Inside, the body of a man immersed in a blue sleeping bag.
Ken Thompson an auto body owner in Healy, his employee Gordon Samuel, and a long-time friend Freddie Swanson, were not expecting the day to turn out the way it did. Traveling along the rugged terrine of the Stampede trails, battling natures elements as they hunt for game, something the local men are accustom to. But what they were about to encounter would be something the hunters and peaceful towns people of Anchorage would never forget.
On September 6th when the men reached the 1940s vintage International Harvester the only one left of three, by the construction company Yuton in 1963. According to Ken Thompson they were greeted by “a guy and a girl from Anchorage standing fifty feet away, looking kind of spooked.” The couple whose names are unknown to us were frozen in their steps, as far as we know neither of them entered the bus their eyes staring directly at the S.O.S taped to the slightly ajar door of the vehicle, too startled by the note and by the rotting odour to investigate any further. As Gordon Samel braved himself to approach the bus to assess the situation, at first glance Samuel notices a Remington riffle, a plastic box of shells, a stack of 8 or 9 books and in the back of the bus on top of a jerry-built bunk, laid a blue sleeping bag, which, to Samel, the bag seemed occupied.
“It was hard to be