Finding Everett Ruess

by David Roberts

☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎

Everett Ruess disappeared into the Utah canyon country in 1934 at the age of twenty. He was twenty years old, traveling alone with his burros, making art, writing letters of such strange and luminous beauty that they have never quite stopped haunting the people who read them. He was never found.

If you live in Utah, Everett Ruess is lore. His story is woven into the landscape of the Colorado Plateau the way the slot canyons are, you keep finding new depth the further in you go. David Roberts has spent decades investigating his disappearance, and this book is both a rigorous piece of detective work and a genuine love letter to the obsession Ruess inspires.

The mystery is never fully solved, which is either maddening or perfect depending on your temperament. I think it's perfect. Some disappearances belong to the desert. Four cups: essential Utah reading, and one of the most haunting true stories I know.