The disappearances : a story of exploration, murder, and mystery in the American West / Scott Thybony.

"The gripping true story of three young people who went missing at the same time in the same tangle of canyons and slickrock expanses of the American Southwest. In 1935, during the wind-swept years of the Dust Bowl, three people went missing on separate occasions in the rugged canyon country of southeastern Utah, a place 'wild, desolate, mysterious.' A thirteen-year old girl, Lucy Garrett, was tricked into heading west with the man who had murdered her father under the pretense of reuniting with him. At the same time, a search was underway for Dan Thrapp, a young scientist on leave from the American Museum of Natural History. Others were scouring the same region for an artist, Everett Ruess, who had disappeared into 'the perfect labyrinth.' Intrigued by this unusual string of coincidental disappearances, Scott Thybony set out to learn what happened. His investigations took him from Island in the Sky to Skeleton Mesa, from Texas to Tucson, and from the Green River to the Red. He traced the journey of Lucy Garrett from the murder of her father to her dramatic courtroom testimony. Using the pages of an old journal he followed the route of Dan Thrapp as he crossed an expanse of wildly rugged country with a pair of outlaws. Thrapp's story of survival in an unforgiving land is a poignant counterpoint to the fate of the artist Everett Ruess, which the New York Times has called 'one of the most enduring mysteries of the modern West.' Thybony draws on extensive research and a lifetime of exploration to create a riveting story of these three lives"--Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A note to readers -- Prologue: Missing, feared lost -- Part 1. The bone hunter : Dan Thrapp -- The expedition -- Below the bighorns -- West of Solitude -- Horsethief Ranch : fieldnotes -- Labyrinth, a way in -- Desolation Camp -- Waiting for daylight -- Winter crossing -- The Needles : fieldnotes -- Circling the Blues -- Far reaches -- The Backbone : fieldnotes -- Back trail -- Below the Comb -- Trackings -- Part 2. The woodcutter's daughter : Lucy Garrett -- The roadside -- Across the Red River -- On the run -- A gun within reach : fieldnotes -- Empty quarter -- Skeleton murder case -- The shoot-out -- Haunted Canyon : fieldnotes -- The manhunt -- To the Sulphur River -- Part 3. The solitary artist : Everett Ruess -- Tracks blown over -- Into the dream -- Skeleton Mesa -- The cave : fieldnotes -- Lost mesas, blue mountains -- Unknown, return to sender -- The gulch -- The search -- Forbidding Canyon : fieldnotes -- Among the ghosts -- The inscription : fieldnotes -- A crack in the rim : fieldnotes -- Epilogue: Two lives and a legend.