Wherever poets, adventurers and wanderers of the Southwest gather, the story of Everett Ruess will be told. His name, like woodsmoke, conjures far horizons. Everett left Escalante, Utah, November 12, 1934 to write, paint and explore among a group of ancient Indian cliff dwellings. His last letter to his parents in Los Angeles explained that we would be unable to communicate for ten weeks. Alone with his paints, books and two burros, he disappeared into what is probably the most uninhabited, unvisited section of the United States. He never came back. A sheepherder reported seeing him on November 19 near where Escalante creek flows into the Colorado. At first alarm of his prolonged absence, volunteers organized searching parties, combed the hills and canyons for days. Signal fires were built, guns fired. Indians and scouts sought water holes and signs of his passing. In Davis canyon Everett's two burros were located, contentedly grazing as if he had just left left them shortly to return. The, one after another, the searching parties returned without Everett. True to his camping creed "When I go, I leave no trace," he vanished into thin air.