Product Review

At just 17 years old, with no Patagonia rain jacket, no North Face backpack and no National Geographic map, Everett Ruess descended onto the desert southwest. His passion for exploration and the desert landscape made him unique for his time, to say the least. Traveling with just his burro and his sidekick dog, Curly, Everett traversed the desert southwest and the high Sierras. Writing and sketching as he went, he left a record of his adventures and his thoughts about wilderness.

Through this correspondence and artwork, NEMO 1934 peers into the life of this vagabond artist. Everett's desire to set out from his comfortable suburban upbringing reflects the desire in us all to cast off our day to day lifestyles and disappear into obscurity. Making the canyon country his home, he spent the better part of 3 years exploring the endless cliff dwellings, Anasazi ruins and slot canyons. Taking enormous risk to get what he wanted, Everett pushed to the edge. He was constantly rewarded with breath taking vistas and untouched archaeological sites. Until November, 1934.

After his November, 1934 letter to his brother, Everett vanished into the canyon country near Escalante, Utah. A furious search came up empty and all kinds of rumors flooded the region. Was he murdered by renegade cattle rustlers? Did his intentionally disappear into a Navajo tribe? Did he have a climbing accident? Did he take his own life?

To this day these questions have not been answered. The only clue Everett left was a cryptic inscription on the wall of a remote canyon reading "NEMO 1934." His name lives on in the hearts on desert explorers all over the southwest. His writings and artwork have been published and have defined many people's adventures into these landscapes.

The land Everett visited in the 1930's does not exist in the same way today. With resource development and suburban sprawl claiming much of the landscape people still manage to have the experience that young Everett sought. With further changes threatening this landscape, the decisions we make now will define whether Everett's spirit will live on in the red rock. From wilderness activists to current archaeologists, Everett's views on wilderness are repeated to this day.

NEMO 1934 takes you inside the amazing life and afterlife of this artist and explorer.

"I prefer the saddle to the streetcar and star sprinkled sky to a roof. The obscure and difficult trail that leads into the unknown to any paved highway. The deep peace of the wild, to the discontent bred by cities." - Everett Ruess - Last known correspondence 1934

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