The most famous part of Chris McCandless’ travels is the final one, but, as Men’s Journal notes, McCandless roamed the U.S. for a total of two years and saw many places before that final, fateful journey along the Stampede Trail. Per Encyclopedia Britannica, at one point he even navigated the Colorado River all the way to Mexico.

Sometimes, McCandless decided to take a long stop before he resumed his travels. He worked in Arizona for a while and spent some time in Salton City, California. His arguably most notorious pit stop was in Carthage, South Dakota, shortly before his canoe escapades on the Colorado River. There, he met a man called Wayne Westerberg, and worked at his grain elevator. McCandless’ relationship with Westerberg proves that he wasn’t living completely outside social norms. In fact, the two became good enough friends that before McCandless started his final adventure, he sent Westerberg a postcard that said he intended to go “into the wild.” Both Jon Krakauer’s book about McCandless and Sean Penn’s movie about him use this line as their titles.

The most important visual image of Chris McCandless’ sad fate is, without doubt, the bus he died in. Per CNN Travel, the vehicle that acted as McCandless’ makeshift base camp during his final struggle for survival is an old International Harvester that used to serve as Fairbanks City Transit bus 142. At some point, it was decommissioned and relocated into the deep wilderness to serve as a cabin of sorts for a road construction project. Per Outside Online, the bus was dragged into the middle of nowhere by a tractor. Originally, the bus was just one of several that were retrofitted to provide temporary accommodation for workers, but the others were removed after the road project ended. Bus 142 remained where it was because of a broken axle. 

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, McCandless’ original intention was to keep on hiking until he reached the Bering Sea, but the plan changed after he happened to discover the bus on his travels. It was no doubt a fine headquarters for a young man in search for adventure, and McCandless called it the Magic Bus in his notes. Some have noted that the area has a pretty peculiar atmosphere, thanks to its “eerie quiet” (per Men’s Journal).

As the New Yorker explains, Chris McCandless’ body was found on September 6, 1992. Based on his diary markings, he’d been dead for around 19 days. Per Outside Online, the body was discovered in a sleeping bag, decomposed and emaciated.  

McCandless had clearly been aware that he was in a bad way. In fact, a desperate note that he’d attached to the door of the bus outright stated that the young man was “injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is no joke.” He also used his real name to sign the note, instead of the Alexander Supertramp moniker he’d adopted. Per the New York Times, McCandless’ supplies in the bus consisted of a rifle, a camera and some film, and a bunch of books. He had used one of the books as a journal. 

Starving away in a rusting bus far away from civilization seems like a tragic and fairly awful way to go, but at least there’s a chance that McCandless managed to make peace with himself and his fate in the end. “I have had a happy life and thank the Lord,” one of his final diary entries read. “Goodbye and may God bless you all.”

It’s easy to think that Chris McCandless starved to death, considering that his normal weight was around 140 pounds, but by the time he was found, his mortal remains weighed a measly 67 pounds (per the New Yorker). Still, “Into the Wild” writer Jon Krakauer has long suspected that McCandless wasn’t quite as inept a survivalist as his detractors tend to assume, and that other forces contributed to his death.

McCandless himself blamed wild potato (Hedysarum alpinum) seeds for his weakened state in the weeks before his death. Krakauer originally suspected that there may have been a mixup, and that McCandless had confused wild potato with the reportedly poisonous wild sweet pea. The writer later revised his theory and attributed the young adventurer’s death to a starvation-inducing toxin known as swaisonine. In 2007, however, this theory was completely and utterly debunked by biochemist Thomas Clausen, who tested wild potato seeds for potentially harmful stuff and found none. 

In 2013, Krakauer introduced another theory about McCandless’ possibly potato seed-induced death, based on research by Ronald Hamilton. This version indicates that the reason behind McCandless’ weakened state could be a neurotoxin known as ODAP, which, according to Hamilton, can weaken and even paralyze young men in conditions similar to McCandless’. In 2015, the writer was involved in a study that suggested an amino acid called L-canavanine could be the culprit (via Science Direct).

As Jon Krakauer’s book became successful, and Chris McCandless’ story got out there, the notoriety of the wanderer’s final months started living a life of its own. Per Treehugger, many people were so moved by the story that they actually started hiking to the site of Bus 142, and over the years, the deteriorating vehicle saw more and more foot traffic from devoted McCandless fans. Things got so bad that the people in the area started calling these travelers “McCandless pilgrims,” and their numbers could exceed 100 per year. 

The problem, of course, is that the trail between the bus and civilization hasn’t gotten any less dangerous after McCandless’ death. The Teklanika River can still be incredibly difficult to cross, and, as the BBC notes, the authorities have had to rescue many pilgrims. Two people even died trying to reach the site. In 2020, the state of Alaska finally decide that enough was enough. The bus was clearly important to many people, but since it was attracting people to dangerous situations, it was clear that something had to change. 

The solution was an impressive one: The bus was airlifted from its precarious position in the wilderness and transported to a less perilous location. According to Backpacker, Bus 142 is set to receive a new home as the centerpiece of an exhibition at the University of Alaska’s Museum of the North, in Fairbanks.