About this project

B.R. Howard was contacted by UA’s Museum of the North, located in Fairbanks, AK to provide an initial conservation assessment of Bus 142.

This iconic bus was made famous by the book and film “Into the Wild”, which told the story of how Christopher McCandless spent the last 3 and half months of his life sheltered inside the bus deep within the wilderness.

McCandless’s story inspired thousands of hikers to make the trek into the forest to find the bus. Many of these explorers were unprepared for the expedition and the state government grew tired of having to rescue the stranded hikers. Decisions were eventually made to airlift the bus using a Chinook helicopter. It is now residing at the University of Alaska’s engineering department’s high-bay laboratory.

B.R. Howard is now working with the museum’s curators, and the engineering department to conserve the bus and prepare it for a permanent exhibit where it will continue to tell the story of McCandless and the adventurous, pioneering spirit that lives in the heart of every man.