Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska That damned bus got hauled away!

Thought this would be of interest. Sorry for the BBC source, it is what it is.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53106441?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Bgnl.newsletters%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D&xtor=ES-213-[BBC%20News%20Newsletter]-2020June19-[top+news+stories]

At least they were economical about it and only used a helicopter... instead of towing it out during the winter... shessssshhhh

Good training op for the guard guys I guess. If they're gonna be flying anyways, they might as well strap a bus on.

I like that some hippies somewhere are crying about this.....

shame to see a landmark go

I thought they were using it up there as a tourist trap, you know to catch the dumb ones.

Just think of the money that will be saved by not having to rescue hippies every now and then.

that sucks look how many stupid people it got rid of

It is not a landmark, it is an eyesore. It should never have been left there by the construction company in the first place. Glad it is finally gone, hope it is in a landfill.

Reduce/Recycle/Re-Use

I dunno. Things aren't landmarks at first. They become landmarks over time for various reasons.

Seems like those who live in AK disdain the bus. Those from other places tend to romanticize about what it was. Almost a symbol of who we want to be. Jealous that we don't live there (AK). When I visited Alaska last year via RV I envied those who lived there (thanks again for your hospitality watch4bear). I watched Into The Wild shortly after I got home. Our Denali guide spoke about it. Everyone goes to Alaska for about the same reasons. Even the cruise ship crowd.

HECK, I HAD A TIME SHARE ON THAT THING !!

Laughing!

There is an outfit out there that specializes in breaking time share deal. Probably too late for you.

Interested in a leaky tent?

When that movie came out, I was living in Eugene (yes) and went to see it, like the premier or some damned thing. All the old hippies were just gushing with old hippy cheer. "What a wonderful story" "This is what it means to be free" "He was so brave"....

Alaskan Death Temple will need to find another home! Thinking artificial reef ...

They should move it to Black Rock City and charge admission.

The outsider owned Denali Lodge spent quite a bit to copy it for their brewpub or some such... maybe they can double their serving space if they drag it there....

Brilliant!

Why not Jim Creek?

Cause the locals would think it is just another TV to shoot.

HECK , MOVE IT TO ANCHORAGE !! You could rnt it out to at least 6 family of beaners.....

I heard yesterday there is consideration what to do with it - " probably a museum somewhere".

WTF- a scrap yard takes junk. Junk isn't worthy of emulation or a showcase. Cube it and send it to Japan. It can come back as an operational vehicle.

Not that there isn't already plenty of junk in museums, etc.

Ever notice how a centuries-old campfire ring is a "historical artifact", but you can get your rear in trouble for making a new one? Ironic, at best.

There is an old bus above the forks of Healy Creek, sort of across the way. Lynn Castle drove it up there for a hunting camp, I heard. I've stayed in it, sheep hunting. Comfy,(spring beds) but some butthole knocked the windows out. Nothing a little visqueen and duct tape won't fix for a short stay. BTDT.

You can glass for sheep and caribou right from the bus, and I have. A much nicer proposition from what I have heard (never been there) of the Bus to Nowhere,

Exactly.

the same ones that think Tim Tredwell was a griz expert.

Darwin is going on vacation.

I’ve been there too. I’ve shot several rams in the area and I arrowed a nice big ‘almost’ B&C ram a mile or so from there in 2004, I camped outside of that bus a couple nights. I stash a bunch food in there and haul a camp around there hunting for a couple days at a time. Russel Annabel used to hunt there, he wrote about his hunts there. I’ve found some old camps up on the sides of the mountains, wondered if any were his. I was told that bus was dragged in behind a dozer while thy made that old trail in the mid 50’s. There’s a carcass of and old bulldozer over the pass in the Wood River area, could be the one that dragged the bus in maybe. When I first saw that bus in the mid 80s, there was a chain hooked up under it, like it had been dragged.

Ah, refreshed memory! I think I was told at one time it was dragged up as u say, not driven.

Thanks.

Any more info on the move in? When they made the trail? Sorry, don't know the area. Did they drag it across the river? (Down South here, lol).

The trail goes way back to gold rush days IIRC......early 20th century stuff......miners working the Kantishna country.

The killer bus trail? Dunno - probably Vern nailed it.

The Healy Creek bus was just dragged up the stream bed. I've taken my 4X4 truck to the Healy Cr. forks - as far as legally allowed for any vehicles, still miles shy of that bus. Tho I've seen a-holes up to the bus on 4 wheelers. Tempted to put a round into their machines when they were away, but I overcame the urge.

Troopers/game wardens have been known to park a vehicle at the forks as a deterrent to further travel upstream during hunting season.

Stampede Trail is the (previous) home of the tard bus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stampede_Trail

I'll go haul a shrine in so there is something to see.

Just go stack some prayer rocks...

Maybe make it look like a grave...

Just buy the heli pilots a beer for having to risk their ass for more foolishness.

Thanks... Pretty good Wiki.


Maybe post up some pics (on the shrine) of edible plants too....

List of safe berries to eat: All.


I'd be happy to! Although if removing the bus slows down the pace of rescue operations on the trail, it might be worth it.

Having been to that bus several times over the years, i'm glad to see it gone. The damn thing wasn't serving any purpose out there other than getting idiots in trouble, it was an eyesore. Someone should put a sign at the parking lot letting people know that it's gone because sure as [bleep] someone is going to go out there thinking it's still there and will be in need of rescue. With the bus being gone now, someone will have a nice spot for a hunting camp come moose season.

The damned thing should have been burned as soon as they hauled McCandless' rotten ass out of it.

I was stationed in Alaska in 1992 when McCandless went missing, we were active Army and tasked, the unit flew a couple hundred hours of SAR out of Wainwright looking for him.

I know I flew over the bus several times, but I believe he was deceased by the time we were called in to look for him - not sure on the timing anymore.

We had at least one SAR task every year looking for somebody from the lower 48 that wandered off into the woods.

Worst situation was an active duty soldier that left his young kids to "look over the hill", and got turned around - found everybody, but it highlights the idiot factor and the lack of understanding of how big / unforgiving the Alaskan Wilderness is.

bus lives matter

Take the bus to Chitna,, haul in downstream and hang it off the cliff across from the rail road tunnel...

A cairn of rocks with a turd on top should do it.

I like it!

Anchorage 4th Avenue could use it for a homeless camp!

Spent a few days in Anchorage in February. It was pretty thick with derelicts. Fugg that, I'd head south if shelter challenged, Santa Cruz maybe! Montana is pretty tough on them too, thankfully.

Oh no, it's not nice and plush enough for the homeless in Anchorage. Berky thinks they deserve a nice house with heat, running water, internet and cable, And we should pay for it for them.

Actually Spendowitz thinks the city should buy three large structures for them and let us pay for them...

Lower 48 they are taking down statue's. here they want to save sean penns bus... WTF

With a little ingenuity, any of the motels in Denali could rent it by the night !
Or the NPS could spend a million taxpayer dollars building an addition the the visitors center for it !

I'm sorry for all of this controversy. Send it to Chop.

My son is on orders at the moment with the Guard and talked to some of the crew that hauled it out. He said they told him it was more like a whore house inside of it then a bus someone died In.

if this bus is-a-rockin...

I bet the fine folks in Geneva Woods will accept the homeless folks with open arms...

Mayor wants Anchorage to be like San Francisco ... only thing missing is the tech tax base.

And I am sure you know SF is his hometown.

Yeah, don't they die off in the winter time?

Only some...

If only....

I was thru Denali headquarters tourist trap a few days ago.

Ghost town - allmclosed up - bring your "vacancy" sign to hang on the bus...

Don't quit your day job, either.

At one time, some of the street folk would crawl into a dumpster and snuggle in to keep warm. It was a good idea until
one got compacted.

Damn! Was looking for an apartment...

Mostly snowbirds living the transient dream...

The state should put that bus on a big pull over on the Parks Hwy. and rent it out by the night to tourists. Hell make up a big wooden sign and say it may be haunted. I'm sure tourists would pay to sleep in it and post about it on all the knuckle head social medias out there. A "rent a can" would be a good idea and maybe a can of spam and pilot bread, but that's all it!

The state should put that bus on a big pull over on the Parks Hwy. and rent it out by the night to tourists. Hell make up a big wooden sign and say it may be haunted. I'm sure tourists would pay to sleep in it and post about it on all the knuckle head social medias out there. A "rent a can" would be a good idea and maybe a can of spam and pilot bread, but that's all it!

That's thinking outside the bus!

You can say that again.

There is a copy (another Fbx transit bus of same vintage) at the brew pub in Healy.

that's true ...a fellow would hike there with these out of country chics to get laid...bouth the times she's about to nut ..u tell her your on a deadman bed ...hang on !

The only down side is now it can be made into a monument somewhere more idiot yuppies can go worship stupidity and selfishness. It out to be sent to the crusher.

until you are a first responder and until you see the costs... but then again could let nature work and just refuse to respond....

And then set some wolverine traps around their carcasses!

Like the Democrats....."never let a good crisis go to waste"

Is 8 seconds a good ride?

I am glad the bus was removed.
Kid was a dimwit, and he lost his life as a result.
He had people who loved him.
I am dismayed by the heartlessness of some replies.
My Christian values preclude me from making light of a deceased person.

Mine don't. Death is universal. How we achieve? it counts.

On this plane. .

Now they think it is Museum-worthy!?!?!?

Some worthy video at the site...

‘Into the Wild’ bus will likely end up at the UA Museum of the North
Bus 142 was lifted from Stampede Trail in June of 2020.
Bus 142 was lifted from Stampede Trail in June of 2020.(Alaska Department of Natural Resources)
By Cheyenne Mathews
Published: Jul. 30, 2020 at 2:57 PM AKDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A bus removed from Stampede Trail by the state of Alaska in June may have a new home at the University of Alaska’s Museum of the North.

The bus is famous for its portrayal in Jon Krakauer’s novel “Into the Wild” as the setting where 24-year-old Chris McCandless died. The bus has captured the interest of many tourists and several died or were injured while trying to reach the bus.

The state had initially placed the bus in storage but released plans to negotiate placing Bus 142 with the UA Museum of the North on Thursday.

“Of the many expressions of interest in the bus, the proposal from the UA Museum of the North best met the conditions we at DNR had established to ensure this historical and cultural object will be preserved in a safe location where the public could experience it fully, yet safely and respectfully, and without the specter of profiteering,” Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Corri Feige said in a prepared statement.

The bus had initially been removed from its site near Healy because the DNR hoped to “reduce the risk of future tragedies.”


As recently as last summer, a woman from Belarus died on her way to the bus after she was swept away in a river. In 2010, another traveler died on their way to see the bus.

The bus was carried by an Alaska Army National Guard helicopter to an undisclosed location, and this is the first time DNR has released information about where the bus may end up.

The department said it has received dozens of proposals for the bus from various institutions and museums throughout Alaska and the United States but has ultimately decided to carry forward with a proposal from the UA Museum of the North.

The Director of the UA Museum of the North, Patrick Druckenmiller, sent a letter to DNR July 17 saying the organization would be the “appropriate repository for the bus.”

“As a unit of the University of Alaska, our museum supports the rights of free speech and academic freedom,” Druckenmiller wrote in the letter to DNR. “This is particularly relevant given the often strong and diverging reactions that the story of Bus 142 and Christopher McCandless represent to Alaskans.”

The decision was made with the expectation that any exhibition of the bus would enhance public safety, respect those who lost family in connection to the bus and reduce the financial burden on the state.

The proposal said the museum is considering placing the bus in a wooded area north of the building and posting interpretive signs for visitors to understand the history of the bus. This proposal means the bus would be publicly accessible and at no cost to visitors.

“I believe that giving Bus 142 a long-term home in Fairbanks at the UA Museum of the North can help preserve and tell the stories of all these people,” Feige said. “It can honor all of the lives and dreams, as well as the deaths and sorrows associated with the bus, and do so with respect and dignity.”

While the agreement is not finalized, Feige said the UA Museum of the North was an ideal candidate to hold the bus as it has experts that could restore and curate a display around the bus and would allow the department to continue owning the bus. This means DNR could also lend the bus out to be displayed in other locations.

Going forward, the two organizations will develop a memorandum on the expectations for the proposal. DNR expects a final agreement will be signed within the next several months.

The UA Museum of the North is located in Fairbanks as a research and teaching museum with 2.5 million artifacts and specimens in its collection, according to their website.

" we at DNR had established to ensure this historical and cultural object will be preserved in a safe location where the public could experience it fully, yet safely and respectfully, and without the specter of profiteering,"

It's a fuggin piece of junk!

Old Alaska would have built a bonfire on it.

Is museum of the north the big white berg on west ridge?

For anyone else wondering that is the apparent intended destination.

They should make it like the titanic display in Vegas! ...make it a trail thu the woods...make a stream crossing , at the stream crossing u check ..your card... and see if u made it across ...(on the cards ,use all the names over the years of the hippie hikers) ... then once at the bus , you check your card again to see if the national guard had to rescue you azz , or u got the dead dumb azz in the bus card......a display u can learn something from ...my 2bucksworth.