Disappearance in the Desert: Everett Ruess

 

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Hey, y’all, it’s Weird Wednesday! Where on some Wednesdays, I blog about weird stuff and give writing prompts.

Today: Disappearance in the Desert: Everett Ruess

Welcome to Weird Wednesday! Today we’re off on a journey into the deserts of Utah in search of someone who’s there…but in some sense nowhere.

Missing persons are a particularly distressing problem for the human mind. We don’t like ambiguity. We don’t like to think of a bewildered family. We don’t like to conceive of circumstances that could allow a person to just vanish. No wonder we’re fascinated with adding to Wikipedia’s Solved Missing Persons Cases.

Unfortunately, the question of Everett Ruess will likely never be answered. For one, it’s been 90 years since Ruess disappeared, and for two, he did it in a particularly difficult place to search: isolated rocky desert, beautiful and barren.

Everett Ruess was a 20-year-old artist who loved the adventure of traveling the Sierra Nevada mountains and the American Southwest. He wrote poetry and kept a diary where he spoke of his love for the outdoors and exploration. Sometimes he joined up with others on expeditions, but often he journeyed alone. He was alone on November 20, 1934, when he walked into the Utah desert, in what is now Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and never returned.

Check out the blog post for the whole story and some writing prompts, such as:

The answer. Let’s say your character has solved the mystery! They found a skeleton, murder confession, suicide note, trail that led to edge of a cliff, or proof the person had faked it all. But they can’t tell anybody. Your job as writer is to decide why not. Is it a secret guarded by the government or the mob? Does the “missing person” themselves beg your character not to give away the answer? Does the evidence implicate your character’s friend or family member? Or is the truth just too terrible to reveal?

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