Into the Wild
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, a moose hunter found his decomposed body.

Christopher McCandless was born in California. He had 6 half-siblings from his father’s earlier marriage. His parents fought a lot and always wanted to divorce. His father had not actually divorced from his first wife. Eventually Chris found this out, and it could have been a factor about his views of society. He envisioned separating from the organized society to go on the road and just live. He dreamed of an “Alaskan Odyssey” where he would live off the land in the Alaskan Wilderness. Christopher graduated from Emory in Atlanta Georgia on May 12, 1990. At school, his teachers noticed him as unusually strong willed. He was always a devoted Christian. He was an athlete, captain of the cross-country team.

In 1990, he donated $25,000 given to him for his law degree to a charity to prevent hunger. Near the end of June he burned all the cash in his wallet, ripped his I.D. in half, sold his apartment, and went on the road. His parents sent him many letters, and he told the post office to hold them back. Since he had no phone, his parents did not know what was going on, so they went down to Atlanta to find out that Chris had moved out a while ago. They were very worried. He began travelling under the name Alexander Supertramp. People who ran into him said he was intelligent, and he loved to read. By the end of summer, he made his way down to Arizona, where he paddled down the Grand Canyon, California, and South Dakota where he worked at a grain elevator. He survived a flash flood in Arizona, and his car was ruined, so he abandoned it. So from then on, he had to hitchhike.

Christopher hitchhiked and rode in train cars all the way to Fairbanks, Alaska. Jim Gallien, a local man who gave him a ride from Fairbanks to the beginning of stampede trail, last saw him alive on April 28, 1992. He was concerned about “Alex” who did not have that much supplies and hardly any experience for a trip like this. He tried to persuade him not to go, and even offered to drive Chris to Anchorage to get better supplies. But he refused. After hiking the trail, Chris found an abandoned bus used as hunting shelter. He began to live off the land, and he started making a journal. He only had ten pounds of rice, a .22 rifle, books, and some camping gear. He assumed he could hunt and go looking for plants. For several weeks, he hunted porcupines, squirrel, birds, and even a moose. On September 6, 1992, moose hunters found Christopher’s body inside the bus. He survived for about 119 days in the wilderness, all while keeping a journal. He died because he ate a poisonous root, which had side effects of starvation, nausea and death. He died on August 18, 1992. But when he died he was at peace, and he was happy.