Uh oh (car insurance, condo, lawyer)

[Music_Man]

Originally Posted by Parnassia

I've been involved with historical artifact preservation and evaluation. It is more complex than most people realize. Which nuances do you preserve? Which do you simply document but then allow to degrade and disappear? The objects, many totally ordinary everyday objects, even trash can become culturally important in spite of themselves. A hiking boot worn and discarded by John Muir. The camera and the surveyor's fieldnotes that first documented the glacier that eventually carved Glacier Bay; a destination for millions of visitors from around the globe. Those things will mean more to some than others, but they all make up history. Governments follow prescribed processes and apply quite specific criteria to determine what is worthy of preservation and what isn't. They try to take personal bias and emotion out of it but that's difficult. Sure, maybe someone will generate some revenue because of the exhibit but that's really not the point. Whether other people agree or disagree about the object's actual worth is opinion. AFAIK the decision to fund all this work surrounding this wreck of a bus wasn't put to public vote was it?

Think about all the southern civil war monuments that have been torn down. History is history and should be preserved, but a idiot that got himself dead isn't worth it.

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by Music_Man

Think about all the southern civil war monuments that have been torn down. History is history and should be preserved, but a idiot that got himself dead isn't worth it.

Look, I don't necessarily disagree with you but the point I was trying to make is that it isn't just up to you or me. Enough people felt this event and its aftermath deserved some degree of memorialization strongly enough and the event met some entity's criteria closely enough that the grants came into being. No different than grants created for other purposes. If the decision had made it onto a ballot all voters could have weighed in. It didn't. There may have been some private fundraising going on in the background that helped leverage it too.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

Does anybody really believe they airlifted that piece of junk out of the wilderness for safety reasons? If you do I think I have a bridge To Nowhere in Alaska to sell you. Of course they lifted it out to restore it and make money off it.

As for the $500,000 price tag, that is on the low side. Even with volunteer labor you could not restore this bus for less money. People spend more than a half a million dollars to restore cars, and a bus is much bigger.



How Much Does it Cost to Restore a Car_ [Complete & Partial]

It is not a full restoration like you have pointed out. A full restoration would be done to have the body, chassis, motor, and everything else in pristine condition, which is not the case this time. Those who said that most of the money will be spent by management are correct. There will be planners trying to figure how to do the work, then lots of money will be spent having some firm-probably from the Lower-48-coming up with the best idea to make the project profitable, advertisement, and the rest. This was a bus that was abandoned years ago. It has wood a stove, and hunters or anybody wandering about used it as a shelter ever since. It would not make any sense to restore it to pristine condition, since it will be a tourist or visitor attraction, probably at UAF. More than likely what would be done would be to clean it inside and out and make it safe for people to step-in if they want, not just to drive it around town. There will be placards telling the significance of the now "historical event that took place in it (the bus), and so on, and will probably be placed in some kind of platform or stand instead of on its tires. The window glass would have to be repaired to prevent visitors (pilgrims) to kill themselves in remembrance of the sacrifice done by...the person who died in it.

Even in some of the high schools in Fairbanks a bunch of "tax payer's" money has been spent on murals that have been painted by people from the Lower-48 instead of local painters, who could have done it for half the price.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

There is not that much difference. Okay it won't be restored to a running condition. That will only save the cost of an engine. But paint alone will cost tens of thousands of dollars. Rust removal even more. Rebuilding damaged and missing parts still more. This project will take years to complete.

It makes no sense to remove the rust and paint it to make it look like a new bus. The bus was not in a "restored" condition when the guy used it for shelter and died in it. It was rusted already, the tires were flat, several windows broken, and probably some engine parts missing-just like happens to vehicles that have been abandoned in the "bush" for decades.

Maybe you are thinking about this kind of restoration?
https://www.alaska.org/detail/founta...ue-auto-museum

[2Q&Lrn&Hlp]

Originally Posted by rayinak

it makes no sense to remove the rust and paint it to make it look like a new bus. The bus was not in a "restored" condition when the guy used it for shelter and died in it. It was rusted already, the tires were flat, several windows broken, and probably some engine parts missing-just like happens to vehicles that have been abandoned in the "bush" for decades.

exactly! They ought to leave it just as it is

& allow it to continue to fall apart as it was doing when first rediscovered

& used as cover!

[TamaraSavannah]

So what's the interest in it?


I read about McCandless in Outside magazine. Tragic, certainly no "My Side of the Mountain", but what's the point? Admittedly, I have looked in on his case to learn about rabbit starvation but other than that. Have the book, haven't gotten around to reading it, never saw the flick. For one thing, I don't such flicks do justice to the book. I mean, is Reese Witherspoon anything like Cheryl Strayed (Wild) but of course, would someone like Cheryl sell the movie?


Back to Mr. McCandless.......so what's the interest?

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

I suppose that if people are dying while trying to get to the site, then it makes at least a small amount of sense to remove the bus to a safer location.

But the thing is a wreck that people are trying to see. There is absolutely no reason to restore it to pristine factory new condition. There is no reason for it to run.

Does the state really believe that it will generate enough tourist visits to justify the investment?

You are correct. More money will be spent on other than restoration. The bus is not a cabin that contains personal objects and tools that belonged to the deceased. This bus was used as a shelter by hunters and others who traveling though that area. It was rusty, had broken windows, flat tires, parts missing, and so on, as it usually happens to any vehicle that has been abandoned for decades already. It probably has a few bullet holes, and who knows what kind of trash on the floor. I haven't looked inside of it, but am willing to bet that several seats have long been removed to create room for the wood stove and other things. The person who drove it to that spot years ago probably used it for shelter, too.

Here is one answer about the bus:
https://busfoundation.org/answers-on..._bus_get_there

How did the bus from Into the Wild get there? The green and white bus, which is a 1940s original International Harvester, was once used for transportation through the Fairbanks City Transit System. Later on, the Yutan Construction Company purchased the bus, removed its engine, and turned it into a shelter.

This is a well-written story about McCandless not being prepared for the trek:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/chris-mccandless

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by TamaraSavannah

So what's the interest in it?


I read about McCandless in Outside magazine. Tragic, certainly no "My Side of the Mountain", but what's the point? Admittedly, I have looked in on his case to learn about rabbit starvation but other than that. Have the book, haven't gotten around to reading it, never saw the flick. For one thing, I don't such flicks do justice to the book. I mean, is Reese Witherspoon anything like Cheryl Strayed (Wild) but of course, would someone like Cheryl sell the movie?


Back to Mr. McCandless.......so what's the interest?

Interest in the bus, or McCandless?

As far as I know the interest in McCandless started with the book about his trek to Alaska, and peaked with the movie. But the whole thing relates to human emotions that persuade others to sympathize with McCandless' state of mind in the wilderness of Alaska. Now people from around the world go on pilgrimages leading to the location where he died. I am assuming that some people will still travel to the location where the bus sat before it was airlifted to Fairbanks, because what is most important to some is to re-live some of McCandless' emotions of his trek to the bus and nearby areas. I don't think moving the bus will stop the pilgrimage once and for all.

I imagine that a lot of people, specially older ones who aren't interested in hiking in the wilderness would be more interested in the bus at UAF, and some of the younger or older ones who enjoy hiking and camping in the outdoors will still make it out there. If you read the second article I posted above, there is a place to make it across the stream without having to wade through it. It is not too far downstream from the trail leading to the bus.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/chris-mccandless

What he didn’t know was that there was a hand-operated tram a mile downriver that would allow him to make the crossing quite easily. Better yet, there was a cozy cabin stocked with food and supplies six miles south of the bus, marked on most maps of the area.

Bu he decided to leave the map in the truck of the person who gave him a ride to the trail by the road. The person also told him that he wasn't properly prepared for the trek, but he didn't listen. With the map at hand he could have hiked 6 miles to the cabin, or even to the cable-cart (whatever it's called) instead of trying to cross the river.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by RayinAK

It makes no sense to remove the rust and paint it to make it look like a new bus. The bus was not in a "restored" condition when the guy used it for shelter and died in it. It was rusted already, the tires were flat, several windows broken, and probably some engine parts missing-just like happens to vehicles that have been abandoned in the "bush" for decades.

Maybe you are thinking about this kind of restoration?
https://www.alaska.org/detail/founta...ue-auto-museum

I believe they will want to restore it to at least 1992 condition. At that time I believe it was a well maintained hunter's - hiker's shelter. From pictures I have seen from that time period, the paint was good,the glass was intact and rust was minimal. As I recall in the last few years before it was recovered it suffered extensive vandalism and bullet holes. I'm sure they will repair all of that. They are not going to put a rusted out hull of a bus in a museum. That is just not going to happen. They will make it look as close as possible to what it looked like when Christopher McCandless stayed in it. That means repairing 30 years of vandalism and decay. That's a big job.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

I believe they will want to restore it to at least 1992 condition. At that time I believe it was a well maintained hunter's - hiker's shelter. From pictures I have seen from that time period, the paint was good,the glass was intact and rust was minimal. As I recall in the last few years before it was recovered it suffered extensive vandalism and bullet holes. I'm sure they will repair all of that. They are not going to put a rusted out hull of a bus in a museum. That is just not going to happen. They will make it look as close as possible to what it looked like when Christopher McCandless stayed in it. That means repairing 30 years of vandalism and decay. That's a big job.

While I do believe that the bus will be restored to a certain point, back in 1992 it was in pretty bad shape already. Take a look at the photo of McCandless sitting on the ground leaning agains the bus, or just the "exact replica" used in the movie. That said, I don't think there is enough room to put the bus inside the museum, so it will probably be placed outdoors somewhere. The museum is quite small compared to other museums in the lower-48.
Here you go (donations are accepted too):
https://www.uaf.edu/museum/exhibits/...hibits/bus142/