On November 20, 1934, Everett Ruess set out alone into the Utah desert, taking two donkeys as pack animals. He was never seen again. Earlier in 1934, Ruess had told his parents he would be unreachable for nearly two months, but about three months after his last correspondence, they started receiving their son’s uncalled-for mail. They wrote a letter to the post office of Escalante, Utah, on February 7, 1935. A commissioner of Garfield County saw the letter and decided to form a search party with other men in the area. Ruess’ donkeys were found near the north side of Davis Gulch, a canyon of the Escalante River. The only sign of Ruess himself was a corral he had made at his campsite in Davis Gulch, as well as an inscription the search party found nearby, with the words “NEMO Nov 1934”. The commissioner reported the discovery of the donkeys and the inscription to Ruess’ parents in a letter dated March 8, 1935.

On March 15, after completing a last attempt to find Ruess in the Kaiparowits Plateau, Allen wrote a final note to the family calling an end to the search efforts. Later searches in late May and June 1935 included an aerial survey of the land from an altitude of 12,000 feet (3,700 m), covering the ground from Lee’s Ferry to Escalante. On the ground, a party of nine horseback riders joined the search, but discontinued their effort a week later. Some believe Ruess may have fallen off a cliff or drowned in a flash flood; others suspected he had been murdered. (Information retrieved from NamUs.gov)