The Grave of Everett Ruess…Found?
By Christian Probasco, 4-27-09
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| Caption: Photo of Ruess by Dorothea Lange | |
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Those of us to who enjoy speculating on where the young Californian Everett Ruess may have disappeared to back in 1934 may have to find another hobby. According to articles in the Salt Lake Tribune and National Geographic Adventure an unmarked grave near Comb Ridge is the adventurer’s last resting place.
Ruess, who briefly lived in my hometown of Valparaiso, Indiana, vanished into the Utah wilderness south of Escalante when he was 20. In his brief life he had wandered (i.e. walked or hitchhiked) through much of the West and most of southern Utah, usually accompanied only by his burros. His thoughts and feelings on these journeys were recorded in letters to his brother Waldo and his journals .
Ruess was a budding block print artist. He was an associate of famous photographers Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Dorothea Lange and the artist Maynard Dixon.
Search parties supposedly found Ruess’ starving burros in a makeshift corral in Davis Gulch, near the southern end of Hole-in-the-Rock Road, a famous pioneer trail, not far from what was then the Colorado River (today it’s Lake Powell).
The burial site is 60 miles east of Davis Gulch. Says the Tribune;
“Denny Bellson, a Najavo from Shiprock, N.M., embarked on a search for Ruess’ remains after his sister said their grandfather, Aneth Nez, told her about the murder of a young white man by three Ute Indians he witnessed from afar while walking the area in the 1930s. Nez told his granddaughter, Daisy Johnson, of how he then buried the young man after his attackers left him for dead and took his two burros.”
Bellson found a hastily dug grave in the area Johnson described. According to the Tribune article, DNA tests confirm the grave belongs to Ruess. The Adventure article says the jaw bone fragments closely match Ruess’ facial features.
The discovery raises a lot of questions. Did Ruess actually travel to Davis Gulch at all? Did searchers actually find his burros there, and if so, where did he get the burros he had at the time of his murder, as described by Nez? Exactly how did he get to Comb Ridge?
[End of article]Lots of speculation on those burros and even if they were found at the time of the search that started in 1935. No real consistent stories have come out of the town of Escalante except that Ruess visited in 1934.
What's most interesting to me is that we only have one account on how he died and that source has passed too. Unwelcomed White prospectors disappeared all over the Res back then... probably killed by Navajos, Piutes and Utes. Navajos always blame Utes and Utes always blame Navajos. Who knows the real killer of Everett Ruess. Nevertheless, given the strong reluctance of traditional Navajos to approach/contact a corpse, doesn't it seem odd that Nez not only approached the victim but carried the body (an Anglo one at that) up to Comb Ridge from Chinle Wash?
The mystery remains... some of it anyway.
I found it very odd that Ruess' niece was quoted in the LA Times thanking Aneth Nez "for caring." Even if his story is true he didn't exactly do the Ruess family any favors. But his story is about 40 years old and comes through two levels of hearsay through the children, so who knows what he actually said about the incident. All we know is that the bloody saddle that was supposedly Nez's was left in the grave. Why'd he leave the saddle there? And why would he hide the body in the first place? Guess we'll never know but if somebody was gonna make a list of suspects I don't think you could take Aneth Nez off that list. I think he'd be right at the top, actually.
Comment By Danny, 7-08-09Sounds like Aneth Nez killed Everett Ruess; assuming that the body found is Ruess', that is. I mean, Nez just happened to witness a murder in the middle of no where? And he never told anyone about it? Nez's name should be dragged through mud as a murderer.
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