where did the bus come from in into the wild
Stampede Trail Fairbanks City Transit System Bus 142 is an abandoned 1946 International Harvester K-5 that is parked in a clearing along the Stampede Trail near Denali National Park. It was originally one of four buses used by the Yutan Construction Company to provide remote shelter for the construction crew from Fairbanks that worked on road upgrades in 1960-1961. The bus engine was removed and it was instead towed by Caterpillar D8 bulldozers. It contained beds and a wood burning stove, which still remain today. When the Stampede Mine ceased operations in the 1970s, three of the four busses were hauled off the trail. Bus 142 broke an axle which caused the crew to leave it where it now serves as a backcountry shelter for hunters, trappers, and visitors.
Westward Expansion Trails Early emigrants once called the California Trail an elephant, due to the difficult journey. If you wanted to get to California in pre-railroad times, you were guaranteed an arduous trek. California emigrants faced the greatest challenges of all the pioneer emigrants of the mid-19th century. In addition to the Rockies, these emigrants faced the barren deserts of Nevada and the imposing Sierra Nevada Range. The travelers of the California Trail often quipped that if you had "seen the elephant," then you had hit some hard traveling.