Parts were stolen from the bus and put on Ebay...

[SteveSalmon]

~SS

[ellisd]

this still makes me sick.......someone tryin to make a free/quick buck from the death of a person.
Steve, i feel the same way you do on this unsavory subject, and i want to let you know I'd love to help research anything i can to help get the ball rolling so this doesn't happen again, or at the very least, not so often.

[ellisd]

every time i comment on his video's, he won't reply and will just delete the comment.

[Jedidiah]

This is sickening! I can't believe someone would do this.

[bobenns]

This makes a good detective story. The person posting those videos is from Fairbanks. Steve probably used to beat him up in the school yard and now he's getting his revenge.

Thing is to some people that old bus is just an abandoned rusting hulk waiting to be dragged off by some government authorized cleanup out there.
People take souvenirs from things all the time. I know of a huge fossil log or tree up in Myra Canyon. It enormous and like millions of years old, from before the dinosaurs kind of thing.
Its right alongside the old Kettle Valley railroad that runs through there with a series of 16 trestles and 3 tunnels.
I walked past it several times myself before noticing it one day, its in the rock wall beside the railway.
If you stand back and look at it there is a huge log there, you can see the wood grain and knots etc.
Well some people have chipped big pieces out of it for a souvenir. Messed it up pretty good.

[ellisd]

This makes a good detective story. The person posting those videos is from Fairbanks. Steve probably used to beat him up in the school yard and now he's getting his revenge.

oddly enough, i can imagine that. LoL

[erikhalfacre]

"A 25-year-old entrepreneur from the Interior sold an instrument panel from the dashboard of the bus in which Christopher McCandless died for $177.50.
If a useless piece of junk can fetch that kind of cash on eBay, as it did late last month, just think of what the entire bus might be worth. The Anchorage Daily News reported Thursday the salesman was Kasey Cory. He said he found the panel on the ground and was cleaning up the litter around the bus, according to a posting on eBay.
Since the abandoned bus probably qualifies as state property, the Palin administration should seize the opportunity created by the release of “Into the Wild” and sell the bus.
The eBay route didn’t fly with that other icon of Alaska transportation — the Murkowski jet — but the wrecked bus may draw more interest. Perhaps Sean Penn can be persuaded to haul it to Hollywood."

That is from an Oct 5 2007 Column written by Dermot Cole of the Fairbanks Daily News Miner. Cole's a real swell guy.

[MarksA-C]

I do not agree with his actions of selling it, that was a serious a**hole thing to do. But as seen in his videos he does/did clean up around the bus and puts stuff in place after kids go thru and make it all a mess.
You want to kick this guy so hard in the nuts that they pop out his ears but then you want to give him a pat on the back for other things he's done. Its a conflict in life.

I do say that the parts be returned. End of story.

My 2 cents

[SteveSalmon]

~SS

[bobenns]

I just couldn't resist looking for a hidden story in the Fairbanks connection Steve. Just my overactive imagination.

I'm glad you were able to track him down. I've looked at most, if not all of his videos and they certainly don't give the impression of him being a scoundrel at all. In fact the one he has of the old tram on the Tek was very informative and answered a lot of questions for me.

To most of us posting and reading on this board that bus is a shrine. But to many others its just an abandoned rusting old hulk laying way the hell out in the middle of no where and has no value. Junk, scrap, an eyesore etc.

At least so far, it seems people have respected the suitcase and its contents. Can't say much for the idiots who have been blasting the bus with bullets. Eventually if enough people keep shooting at it, it will be so riddled with holes that the state will haul it out or plow it under. The loss of so much of the glass means it fills with snow in winter and rain at other times causing it to decay quicker. It has almost completely lost its value as shelter as well. Looks like people have been taking clear poly and duct tape out there to make temporary patches to use it for shelter but then that all turns into more garbage again shortly after they leave.

If I ever hike out to it I'll take at least one piece of plexiglass along to repair one of the windows. It would be neat to get measurements and pictures of the broken glass and go out with a group and do some repairs. Maybe make it a project for people who want to get together from this board. I can't go this year as I have two events back east this summer. But next year is a possibility.