Although some may see them as a cult, they, for the most part, see themselves as an extended family one that reunites whenever the icons of “their west” beckon.
This time it was yet one more gathering for the Everett Ruess crowd but it could just as easily have commemorated Maynard Dixon or Wallace Stegner or Neal Cassady or Edward Abbey or any other with a sense of the spiritual landscape. Within such mindsets, all is one.
We’re back here, of course, taking up Everett for the umpteenth time in this space, due to the recent discovery of his DNA-certified remains and the unresolved questions surrounding the astoundingly-shocking event. Everett’s ruse was that he gave us the slip.
Whoda thunkit? The 75-year old question as to where Everett has been hanging out since he disappeared from Davis Gulch has been answered. But who could have guessed it would be in a crevice gravesite on Comb Ridge above Chinle Wash near Bluff. You can’t make this stuff up.
The positive identification, which most all involved now take as irrefutable, did not end the various speculations surrounding his vanishing act, however. Rather, it opened up an entirely new can of worms. Why he headed east and how he negotiated so many twisted and tortuous miles without his original burros top the list.
There is also the story passed down through the Navajo oral tradition which led to the discovery of the burial site and the tribal taboos involving even subtle interactions with the dead. For many, these unanswered questions are a blessing. Worse-case-scenario has always been to wake up one day and find the Everett Ruess mystery totally solved.
The packed house of Ruess buffs attending the forum down at the University of Utah last week turned the event, which featured most all the major players, into a combination wake and inquest. Everett affects people that way. We’re not exactly obsessive, but we’re also more than just casual observers.
The Glen Canyon Institute, which wants Glen Canyon fully restored to its original state — in other words Lake Powell fully evaporated or drained, whichever comes first — sponsored the gathering. They probably felt they would have fellow travelers in the crowd and, most likely, they did.
David Roberts, who broke the story of the gravesite discovery and the ensuing DNA test results for National Geographic Adventure magazine a couple of months back, gave an overview and introduced the other speakers, who each provided special insights.
Navajo Denny Bellson of Bluff repeated the story his sister had told him about their grandfather witnessing a murder back in the early 1930s and his subsequent crevice-burial of the “real young anglo dude.”
After locating the site and Googling missing persons from the 1930s in southern Utah, Bellson came upon the Everett Ruess legend and contacted Vaughn Hadenfeldt of “Far Out Expeditions,” also in Bluff, and took him out to Comb Ridge.
Hadenfeldt then brought mountain guide, filmmaker, writer, and close friend Greg Child into the mix and it was they who contacted their mutual friend and fellow Ruess fancier Dave Roberts. They would all tell their stories at the forum and the one thing that stood out was their common initial levels of skepticism.
Every unidentified body that turned up in southern Utah over the years, of course, just had to be Everett Ruess. The discoveries turned into a cliché. It was like “the boy who cried wolf.” Nobody believed it anymore.
It was the same, probably even more so, for Everett’s surviving relatives. His nephew Brian and niece Michelle had heard all the stories and, along with their father, Everett’s brother Waldo, had suffered deep disappointment each time around.
They were equally doubtful when Roberts brought them up to speed relating to the recent events along Comb Ridge. The DNA test results, as with most everyone else, however, brought them around.
Sharing family anecdotes, samples of Everett’s previously unseen art works, and the family’s position on burial at sea for their legendary uncle, they appeared to achieve a sense of, if not closure, at least equilibrium. Bud Rusho, author of the Ruess biography “Vagabond of Beauty” and editor of his journals and letters, added his own take on the recent revelations.
Another such gathering is scheduled in late September to kick off this year’s Escalante Arts Festival. Forensic anthropologists and microbiologists will join longtime Ruess historian and famed myth-debunker Ken Sanders, who’ll take time off from his rare-book shop and “Antiques Road Show” appraisal duties in order to sit in.
Knowing Ken, he’ll keep whatever Ruess mysteries remain unsolved slowly simmering on the front burner. Now there’s a cult leader worth his salt.
Jay Meehan is a culture junkie and a free-lance writer with a background in commercial and community radio, among other pursuits. He has been a columnist and feature writer for various Park City publications going back to 1973.