The Cult of Everett Ruess: Beauty Has Always Been My God
This is part 3 of the 4 part series over the inspiring and mysterious young writer, poet, amateur archaeologist, painter, traveler, wanderer, and adventuring vagabond for beauty that is Everett Ruess who explored extensively California and the American Southwest with his outstretched thumb, on the back of pack animals, and on his feet. He’d camp, hike, bushwhack, meet many famous artists and archaeologists, Navajos, Hopis, Mormons, bootleggers, and many a cowboy. He’d paint and write about the infinite beauty of the California Coast, the Sierra Nevadas, and The American Southwest. But at 20 years old, Everett Ruess would disappear off the face of the Earth in Southern Utah, in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Since then, a “cult” has risen up from his missing proverbial ashes. This “cult” pours over his writings, letters, poetry, and artwork which influences many of us to also write, explore, and see the beauty of nature that surrounds us if we look for it. Especially, in the American Southwest.
This third episode covers his last and final adventure as he once again heads to the American Southwest. He will say goodbye for the last time to his parents before being dropped off in Kayenta by his brother. From there he will explore more Anasazi/Ancestral Puebloan ruins in Monument Valley & Canyon de Chelly. He will hike and ride through the Lukachukai & Carrizo Mountains near the Four Corners. He’ll explore Navajo Mountain & Rainbow Bridge. Everett will join a team of Archaeologists in the Tsegi Canyon System near modern Navajo National Monument. He’ll explore the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, the deep recesses of the Grand Canyon, the tall red hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, & the wild land around Escalante in Utah. All the while, Everett’s letters home become more beautiful and grandiose & his art becomes more refined. By the end of November, though, some sheepherders near the Hole in the Rock Road will be the last people to ever see Everett Ruess…
This series is more than a biography of Everett and his mystery, it’s also a reflection on the act of adventuring itself and why we do it despite the danger and the potentiality of death. It’ll make you grateful for your friends and family. It might make you sad. I promise it will choke me up a few times. But most of all, this retelling of Everett’s tale will absolutely make you want to tear off into the unknown and explore the American Southwest.
If you enjoy hearing about grand vistas, the challenge of adventure, resilience in the face of hardships and loneliness, if you like to listen to descriptions of beauty, and if you like a good mystery, this is the series for you.
I made this image using a picture I took from Skeleton Point in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, and a woodblock Everett Ruess made of a man (Everett, obviously) and two burros.
Map of Everett’s Third Adventure
Selected Sources:
Putting Everett Ruess to Rest: Perhaps a Final Conclusion to a 1934 Desert Mystery, By Andrew Gulliford Fort Lewis College
Mormon Country by Wallace Stegner
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty by W.L. Rusho
Finding Everett Ruess: The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer by David Roberts