Finding Everett Ruess

In 1930, 16-year-old Everett Ruess set out from California and traveled by horse and burro through Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado, maintaining a journal and bartering the exquisite artworks he created for goods. Then, in 1934, he disappeared. A contributing editor to National Geographic with 20 books to his credit, Roberts first probed the enduring mystery of Ruess's disappearance in a 1999 story for the magazine, then again in 2009 when it appeared that Reuss's remains had been found. (False alarm.) Ruess is such an enduring legend in the Southwest that annual "Everett Ruess Days" are held in Escalante, UT; there is even a species of dinosaur, Seitaad ruessi, named after him. Ruess is frequently compared to Christopher McCandless, whose story Jon Krakauer told in Into the Wild; Krakauer wrote the introduction here. An intriguing tale with lots of regional promotion; could break out into something big.