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A Festival to Honor the Arts, an Artist
and Southern Utah Landscape
By Margaret Godfrey
“Say that I starved; that I was lost and weary;
That I was burned and blinded by the desert sun;
Footsore, thirsty, sick with strange diseases;
Lonely and wet and cold, but that I kept my dream!" - Everett Ruess
So. There was this guy. A young man. He loved the southern Utah desert, and he spent days at a time wandering, camping and having adventures in red rock cracks and canyons. He was inspired to write, paint and photograph the realities, triumphs and trials of his days in the wild.
So what? You and I love the southern part of our state. We’ve had so many adventures in and among the rocks we can’t remember them all. We know all about the magical powers of the desert, and how it inspires creativity in even the dullards among us.
So why is this young man – this guy named Everett Ruess – famous…even legendary? He’s the subject of books, songs and movies. And all we get are a couple of bucks from REI at the end of the year.
This past October, Seńor Rojo gave me an assignment. “Quit whining and go figure it out. Go down to Boulder and Escalante to the ‘Everett Ruess Days Festival’.” So I did.
To explain the legend of Everett Ruess we must go back in time. Circa 1930. The Ruess family lives in the Bay Area of California. They are well heeled and artistic – his mother leans to the Bohemian. And 16 year-old Everett is amazing. He’s charismatic and good-looking and persistent. He’s interested in…everything. His mother teaches him to block-print. He’s fascinated by photography and knocks on the doors of Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange until they let him in and teach him a bit of what they know. He takes an interest in painting, finds Maynard Dixon, and studies with him for a time. Somehow this kid gained entrée to the greatest artists of his time. Just by hanging around and asking.
So it seems natural that when this artistic prodigy decided to explore the desert of the Southwest he did so with his whole heart. He roamed the desert for months at a time, solo except for a mule and two dogs. He sketched and wrote poems and songs. He walked and he walked. And slowly blurred the lines between man and landscape, until there was no line. He walked inside the redrock. And his entrance was so deep, so complete, that he has never resurfaced. By the time he was 20 years old, Everett Ruess had disappeared, without a trace and forever, into the canyons of the Escalante.
So. Anybody with any romance in his or her soul should be able to figure out that Everett Ruess’ life makes his legend worth celebrating.
Last year, the 70 th anniversary of Everett’s disappearance, the towns of Escalante and Boulder, as well as Outdoor Utah, celebrated both life and legend on the first weekend of October, with a three-day “Escalante Canyons/Everett Ruess Days Festival.”
The “working arts festival” included, of course, lots of art, but more importantly to organizers, it encouraged visitors to experience the magic of the Escalante canyons. “Over 500 people came to Escalante and Boulder , and celebrated their own artistic response to the area,” says Harriet Priska, festival organizer.
Priska and co-organizer Steve Roberts were especially honored to have the Ruess family attend the event. Everett’s brother, 95 year-old Waldo Ruess and his family traveled from Virginia , Oregon and Washington to honor their famous relative.
Outdoor Utah was one of many illustrious sponsors of the festival – and the sponsorship was given with a specific goal. To enjoy ourselves, of course, (we all know how Seńor Rojo loves a good time) but also to aid and enhance the economic development in the Boulder/Escalante area. And that goal was well met. Lodging was fully booked and restaurants were filled with jovial patrons. Local guides and outfitters did a brisk business – visitors enjoyed camping, hiking, backpacking, rafting, canyoneering and horseback riding.
This writer’s favorite event was the kick-off, a musical production on the lawn of Boulder Mountain Lodge. Folk singer Dana Robinson drove from Ashville , North Carolina to sing his ballads about Everett Ruess. Joining him was Brian Ruess, who read favorite passages from his Uncle Everett’s writings. The interweaving of music and word was so profound that the concert was repeated the next day in Escalante.
There were many more events – a painting competition, poetry slams, plays, demonstrations by local craftspeople, and more. The fall colors on the mountains thrilled everyone and surging clouds brought rain, snow and even hail to the surprise and sometimes delight of festival-goers. It was a rousing success. A second annual Everett Ruess Days Festival is planned for this fall, October 3-9.
If Everett were there, he would most likely have stood just outside the light that circled the merry-making. His shyness would prevent him from stepping forward. But he would have approved. He would have looked at the prosperous towns full of happy people and he would have approved.