South Dakota Goes “Into the Wild”

I first heard about Sean Penn’s Into the Wild several weeks ago, when I read an article in September’s Men’s Journal that chronicled the mythos that’s grown up around Chris McCandless since his tragic hike into the Alaska wilderness in 1992. It’s a remarkable story, and a long one (Men’s Journal takes 4,000 words), but here’s the short version if you’re not interested in that much detail: 24-year-old McCandless, from a wealthy East Coast family, forsook his inheritance to travel across the country and into the Alaskan wilderness to live off the land. One hundred and thirteen days later, McCandless was dead, likely the victim of starvation or food poisoning.

The story became the subject of a 1996 book by Jon Krakauer called Into the Wild. Penn picked up the book in 2004 and fell in love with the story. He’s worked relentlessly since then to produce the film independently. It opens this weekend in theaters across the country.

Now, Alaska and the Black Hills have a few things in common: untamed wilderness, distinct seasons, plenty of wildlife and open opportunities to connect with nature, for starters. But what caught my attention when reading the McCandless story was his South Dakota connection.

It seems that the young twenty-something passed through the state on his way to Alaska. While hitchhiking across eastern South Dakota, he met Wayne Westerberg, who befriended McCandless and gave him a job at a grain elevator in Carthage, about halfway between Huron and Madison. I haven’t seen the film yet (it’s only Friday afternoon), but Westerberg seems to be a significant character, with Vince Vaughn cast as his silver-screen alter-ego. Part of the film was even shot in Carthage, where, according to the Men’s Journal article, the production crew doubled the size of the 187 resident-strong town.

Into the Wild is a two and a half hour flick, so if you’re planning to go, be ready to make an evening of it. On the up side, it’s been getting fantastic reviews so far (Google’s only aggregated seven as of this afternoon, but the average rating was 4.5 stars out of five, and IMDB users have given it 8.6 out of 10).

I don’t think South Dakota will have much screen time in this one, but Into the Wild is just a warm up. Based on the trailers, South Dakota - and the Black Hills in particular - will have a much bigger role in the forthcoming National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until its Christmas week release to see.

UPDATE (21-Oct-07): I just found an interesting story about a blogger reminded by Into the Wild of getting “lost” in the Black Hills as a kid. Man versus Nature is a tricky battle, but sometimes it can be a bit amusing.