The infamous bus from John Krakauer’s 1996 true story novel “Into The Wild” and its subsequent 2007 film adaptation by Sean Penn has been removed from the Alaskan wilderness via helicopter this week.
The book and film followed Christopher Johnson McCandless, a Virginia-born graduate who cut off communication with his family and began traveling across the Western United States.
In 1992 he hitchhiked to the Stampede Trail in Alaska and died of starvation in a derelict camping bus left by a construction company sometime around the week of August 18th 1992 – surviving for 113 days in the wild. Emile Hirsch starred in the Penn-helmed film.
The bus has become a sought out marker for thrill-seeking tourists and according to the U.S. Army around fifteen people have had to be rescued and two have died on their treks to find it along the Teklanika River.
It had become such a safety concern that the Department of Natural Resources decided to remove it and did so by airlifting it out with a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. The bus has been placed at a secure site, and discussions are being held to possibly display the bus at a safe location for the public.
Source: Variety
