Into the Wild...

A thirty-five year old amateur photographer, McCunn told friends that the main reason for the trip was to shoot pictures of wildlife. He flew into the country with five hundred rolls of film, .22 and .30-30 caliber rifles, a shotgun, and fourteen hundred pounds of provisions. His intention was to remain in the wilderness through August. Somehow, though, he neglected to arrange for the pilot to fly him back to civilization at summer's end...

...In late August, as the days grew shorter and the air turned sharp and autumnal in the Brooks Range, McCunn begun to worry when nobody arrived to fly him out. "I think I should have used more foresight about arranging my departure" he confessed in his diary...

...Week by week he could feel the accelerating advance of winter. As his food supply grew meager, McCunn deeply regretted tossing all but a dozen shotgun shells into the lake. "I keep thinking of all the shotgun shells I threw away about two months ago. Had five boxes and when I kept seeing them sitting there I felt rather silly for having brought so many (as a war monger) ...real bright. Who would have known I might need them just to keep from starving."

Then, on a brisk September morning...McCunn was stalking ducks with what remained of his ammunition when the stillness was rocked by the buzz of an airplane, which soon appeared overhead. The pilot, spotting the camp, circled twice at a low attitude for a closer look. McCunn waved wildly with a fluorescent orange sleeping bag cover. The aircraft was equipped with wheels rather than floats and thus couldn't land...

...McCunn was certain he'd been seen and had no doubt the pilot would summon a float plane to return. ...he recorded in his journal that "I stopped waving after the first pass. I then got busy packing things up and getting ready to break camp."

But no plane arrived that day, or the next day, or the next. Eventually McCunn looked on the back of his hunting license and understood why. Printed on the little square of paper were drawings of emergency hand signals for communicating with aircraft from the ground. "I recall raising my right hand, shoulder high and shaking my fist on the plane's second pass. It was a little cheer - like when your team scored a touchdown or something". Unfortunately, as he learned too late, raising a single arm is the universally recognized signal for "all OK, assistance not necessary". The signal for "SOS; send immediate help" is two upraised arms.

"That's probably why after they flew somewhat away they returned for one more pass and on that one I gave no signal at all (in fact I may have even turned my back to the plane as it passed). "They probably blew me off as a weirdo."

McCunn was later found, frozen, dead from a 30-30 shot to the head. His last journal entry contained the following.

"I can't go on like this, I"m afraid. Dear God in Heaven, please forgive me my weakness and my sins. Please look over my family."

Edited by Danny, from "Into the Wild" (page 81-84)


Almost all men, and those that seem to be very miserable, love life, because they cannot bear to lose sight of such a beautiful and lovely world. The ideas, that every moment whilst we live have a beauty that we take not distinct notice of, brings a pleasure that, when we come to the trial, we had rather live in much pain and misery than lose. - Jonathan Edwards