As an official repository for the State of Alaska, the UA Museum of the North took possession of the Stampede Trail Bus, or Bus 142 in fall of 2020. In 2022 the museum contracted with the team at B.R. Howard Conservators to assess and conserve Bus 142. That conservation was begun and completed in spring of 2023 within the UAF Engineering Department’s high bay. During the work, the museum spoke with members of the B.R. Howard team about the complicated process of balancing the preservation of existing bus elements while repairing and restoring lost components—in aid of both the safety of future visitors to the bus and the long-term care of the bus and associated collections.
The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.
As an official repository for the State of Alaska, the UA Museum of the North took possession of the Stampede Trail Bus, or Bus 142 in fall of 2020. In 2022 the museum contracted with the team at B.R. Howard Conservators to assess and conserve Bus 142. That conservation was begun and completed in spring of 2023 within the UAF Engineering Department’s high bay. During the work, the museum spoke with members of the B.R. Howard team about the complicated process of balancing the preservation of existing bus elements while repairing and restoring lost components—in aid of both the safety of future visitors to the bus and the long-term care of the bus and associated collections.
The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.
Well, I saw the film years ago, and I've read the book. And I never thought I'd get an opportunity to work on the bus. And it's, it's a real privilege. I was excited. I like kind of that it's a more modern, culturally relevant object than something that we typically work on, which may be significantly older. It, obviously, it became made famous with Chris. And there's a long, rich, deep history prior to that. So, I think when the exhibit is up, it'll be interesting to hear people's comments who have, you know, known about the bus long before Chris kind of made it famous, but to carry out that legacy and component of the last days of the bus while he used it before it was brought here. So yeah, we're excited to be a part of this.
Roger Topp:Hello, and welcome to The More You Look, your behind the scenes journey into museum collections, research, exhibition, and public programming from Fairbanks, Alaska. I'm Roger Topp, Director of Exhibits, Design, and Digital Media at the UA Museum of the North and host for today's episode. As an official repository for the state of Alaska, the UA Museum of the North took possession of the Stampede Trail bus, our Bus 142 In the fall of 2020, and in 2022, the museum contracted with the team at B.R. Howard Conservators to assess and conserve Bus 142. That conservation was begun and completed in the spring of 2023, within the UAF engineering department's high bay. During the work, I was able to speak with members of the B.R. Howard team about the complicated process of balancing the preservation of existing bus elements, while repairing and restoring lost components, in need of both the safety of future visitors to the bus and the long term care of the bus and associated collections. Introducing Brian Howard.
Brian Howard:I think we were contacted because we did--we did a project up in Skagway for the Park Service. And we're probably the only conservators that work on large industrial artifacts, and in particular automobiles. It's been something that we've been trying to introduce to the automotive collecting world for probably about five or six years now. Typically, things get restored. And so much history is lost when that happens. And we've we've noticed that at car shows, the vehicles that haven't been overly restored tend to draw more attention. People are--because there's there's actually a sense of history about them. So, that's why we started and we thought, well, the same principles of conservation that we're using for sculpture, or we're using for another historic artifact--we did a lot of horse-drawn vehicles. And I'm thinking, and some of the really early cars are essentially, you know, the same thing as a horse-drawn vehicle. They just replaced the horse. And so we thought this is something that's not being done. So anyhow, that's what we sort of--we did, I think we did. We did a--an automobile. I think it's a 1914 dual powered coupe for the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, I believe they have in--it's essentially a Prius. 1914 Prius. So it's a four cylinder engine attached--instead of a transmission, attached to a generator, and the batteries are in the back. So anyway--what's up? So what we've so essentially that's the very first automobile we did. And, and it was, it was, again, the process of, you know, stabilizing, trying to preserve original pain. So it's cleaning it, and it's consolidating and setting it back down. And those are thing--so we've been--conservations a standard practice for almost anything you work on. So, we ended up being just about the only folks that are really attempting to conserve automobiles. That's okay.
Roger Topp:This is Aaron Warkentin.
Aaron Warkentin:One of the important things that we established straight away when Colin and I first came up here a year and a half ago was the need to remove all the biological material, that's the moss and the lichen because that moss and lichen was actually breaking down the paint and the exterior and actually encouraging rust because it would hold in moisture. So, one of my components that I was specifically tasked with was removing that from the roofline so everything above the window, and you'll see those in time-lapse and footage and even in vintage photos. You see a lot of moss along the top of the roof. Those have been removed, c cleaned, so that won't encourage that continual corrosion, and actually changes the look of the bus, changes the aesthetic. As you can see, there's a lot of areas where biological growth can actually take place, a lot of the different--where the panels meet together, a lot of the trim. So, that was done, and at the same time clean all the dirt off. Because the dirt will--a lot of people don't realize--as as time goes on, it actually sits and makes its way into the paint surface. So by simply cleaning it, it's helping preserve it. It actually in a way helped us see the different layers of the bus throughout its life. So from the army green to the school bus yellow, and finally to the public transit white. So in a strange, vicarious way, it actually helped us learn more about the bus' history.
Roger Topp:From B.R. Howard's Bus 142 condition assessment and treatment proposal.
Taran Christian:The vehicle is unstable due to prolonged exposure to harsh environmental elements. Most of the glass window panels have been shattered and are missing or cracked. There's evidence of active corrosion causing structural instability to the paint, body panels, and smaller components of the frame. There are areas of active biological growth, some of which penetrate through the more recent outer paint layer of the bus.
Brian Howard:Believe it or not, in the 30 years of practice, I think this has had--more people know about this bus than anything else I've worked on. I mean, we actually treated the carriage that took Abraham Lincoln to Ford's Theater. But it hasn't had the kind of public recognition that this bus has had. But it's similar to a lot of the automobiles we've worked on, you know, other than--other than again, it has--there's, you know, there's significance because of, you know, the connection to Chris, and how that all sort of fits in to the Alaskan history. So, there's there's such a broad spectrum of people and how they're interested in it and how they see this vehicle. So, I'm glad not to have to sort of deal with that part of the project, I think, I think the museum has done really well and how they presented it. But in terms of issues, I mean, we have, again, we have active corrosion. That's something that's really typical on most automobiles. Then we have, you know, obviously paint that's in really bad shape. But a lot of this paint has, you know, graffiti and inscriptions and expressions of their adventure. So that becomes--that story is something that we're really trying to preserve as much as the physical aspect of the bus itself.
Roger Topp:You're not restoring the bus, you're--
Brian Howard:And that's what--I taped a little piece of paper on the on the bus yesterday as I'm working on sheet metal up front. Because that's the I think, the automatic assumption. They keep saying, what I've been seeing is that what's it--can't wait to see what it's going to look like. And I hope other than having, you know, windows in it, and the paint not flaking and it's been cleaned, that I'm hoping that they don't see a lot of difference in the bus. That's, that's my goal. We want it to appear, we want it to appear pretty much as it did as it was in the wild. But we want to make sure that it doesn't deteriorate and it stays in the condition that you now have it. So no, restoration is not--although there are some components like for example, we're recon-- you know reconfiguring? Well, not reconfiguring. We're reconstructing the wind front windshield. It had been knocked out at some point. And then the sheet metal comes up to a point and then people would stand on that to get up onto the roof and it was bent down. But we windshield has to go back in. And to make it more weather tight. So we're doing a certain degree of metalwork and restoration there to bring it back to the right configuration. The floor is, it's so badly deteriorated that we have to, quote unquote, restore that. But that's that's something we'll discuss with the curators. And I think that collaboration is really one that is very important, because we have, we certainly have an approach that we were comfortable with, but we want to make sure that we're doing and doing what the curator wants and how it wants to--how they want it to appear when we're done.
Braeden Howard:So, we are used to working on macro artifacts. We've done a lot of that for the last 15, 20 years. So this is--this is no different. The challenge being is it's in Alaska.
Roger Topp:This is Braden Howard.
Braeden Howard:So, it's a little bit disruptive when you have to be gone for two weeks at a time doing this and you know, shifts and rotating crews in and out, making sure there's communication, notes taken. So, you If same guys aren't coming back, somebody knows exactly where they've left off. So, there are some challenges. But it's pretty standard to what we're used to doing. And it's just, you know, logistically a little more hard.
Colin Howard:Well, each project has its own challenges. This project isn't as dirty as some of the other ones.
Roger Topp:This is Colin Howard.
Colin Howard:It hasn't been maintained at all, like some other artifacts have been. I mean, it was being publicly used for pleasure. And so, other artifacts that have been maintained in museums or in collections, or in basements, you know, this one was still being used until the day it was flown out. So it's, it's got its own challenges, but it's a really neat project,
Aaron Warkentin:There's a lot of different cleaning process that needs to go on to help in the next stage, which is protecting the paint, or what they call in conservation, consolidating the paint. So, I have to clean all that dirt off before they apply certain chemicals to make sure that the paint doesn't keep flaking. Because of course, we don't want to encapsulate all that dirt, in that consolidation material. So, and you can see, even in these last two weeks that we've been here, how much improved the appearance of the roof is, the hood is what I had just cleaned lately. And I did not expect to see a difference even in my photography. So, I always take it before, during and after of the work I'm doing. And although this, the hood is--does not have a high sheen, even in the And the graffiti itself isn't paint. It isn't Sharpied on. photography, it's noticeable the difference between before the cleaning, and after it was cleaned. And the whole process was done with cotton swabs. So, it's time consuming, but that's the safest way to not damage any of the graffiti that's on the hood itself, because that's what we're trying to preserve. That's also--the messages in the graffiti as part of its history. It's scratched into the paint. And so you get these very rough edges. Correct, yeah. And if you use anything too harsh, it can actually remove that. So going in there with a cotton swab and cleaning around every letter is a lesson in patience, but it's worth it.
Taran Christian:The bus no longer contains an engine, transmission, and driveshaft. The only drive chain component remaining is the rear axle and differential. It's unknown if it still contains lubricant. The entire frame exhibits general surface corrosion, with particularly heavier areas of scale and jacking foundbetween the rear axle.
Colin Howard:We do like to, visually, make pieces look better. And while this one will visually change a little bit, its story is the damage that people created and the life it lives for decades out on a gold road. So yeah, keeping it just like this is a little different, not putting lights back on it or not putting any new paint on it. But we're really maintaining what this bus, you know, its story, its history.
Braeden Howard:The type of work is comparable. We've actually done another bus in Arkansas, and then we work on a smaller VW bus that was part of the civil rights movement. So a lot of similarities, a lot of corrosion to stabilize, a lot of paint to stabilize and consolidate, a lot of just general rust and dirt and accumulated grease and hardened grease and that needs to be just removed before coatings are applied. None of it, it's not glamorous work. It's you know, it's kind of tedious and monotonous at times, but it is satisfying and therapeutic. And you feel like you've accomplished something as you're working.
Aaron Warkentin:It's different, and that's what I enjoy about this kind of work is the vari--variation. Yes, I've worked on other vehicles, but those vehicles required--had different challenges and required different solutions. And this is very unique, especially what's expected in terms of the final product of Bus 142. So, you know, working together as a team and trying to coordinate with the museum so we all can reach the product or the stage that we want presented. So, which is what makes it fun. That's why I like it. I love the challenges.
Brian Howard:When I finished graduate school, I was told that it's really important that I specialize you know, and those specializations are metal, what would have been objects three dimensional objects, but in that they're sculpture. Then you can even subspecialized a glass or wood or whatever. Then there's paint and paintings and then there's paper documents. And I basically said I didn't want to specialize. I wanted to be a generalist. And this project encompasses many of those things. I mean, we're finding bits of paper, we're finding flaking paint, we have active corrosion. So all those, I think that approach to being able to deal with all the pro-- all the materials that are in this bus, bring in a wide range of people. Colin as an undergraduate degree in automotive preservation from McPherson College, like the only school in the country that does it, and Jay Leno helps fund that project or encourage that project--program. And you know, Shawn has a extensive background in hydraulics and in mechanical work, so we draw upon that. But what we find is that it's, it's the hand skills is that hand eye thing that we're, you're trying to. And I'm not saying that well. I think the skill sets very broad, but we have people who are certainly you know, better at very detailed cleaning, and, you know, setting down flaking paint seems very meticulous, then we have those, we need to say, we need to get this done, we actually need a bit more of an aggressive and a sort of approach that just given the size of some of the objects we work on. But it's trying to blend that and coordinate all those skills. Some people who have a vision to be a broad view, because it's not just working on one particular area, it's really it's the whole package, what's it going to be? How's it going to appear? So we need somebody who is a big picture kind of person. So skill sets, they're broad, their hand skills, they're having a sense of being able to color match. their being able to work in a very tedious project. It's a very patient--it's hard to--if I had to go back and say what what was the area that drew me into conservation, I think it was the variety so we have people who really like variety. And I can assure you that this bus is giving us all of that.
Taran Christian:There are 16 window openings missing panes. This includes the split windshield and four panes for the front entrance doors. There are shards of window glass still embedded in several the window sills. One pane has a bullet hole while two panes are cracked. These panes, still intact, contain graffiti and adhesive stickers.
Braeden Howard:I was surprised to see just how many names people had, you know, carved or written inside, I had no idea how far away people have traveled to come and find it. And it was exciting because every day you're working on a new area and you're seeing you thought you've seen all the names but you find new ones or you remove a panel and or a wheel and then a pack of matches falls out. So there's always those fun little finds and discoveries as you're as you're working on something like this.
Aaron Warkentin:I mean, on the hood alone, you see people from
all over the globe:South America, Europe, Asia. I mean, on the rear door, there's kanji from Japan. I mean, so this has that international appeal. Yes, it's because of the story of Chris McCandless. But I think it means a lot to people metaphysically. I mean, this is a relic, it's a religious piece. It invokes all kinds of emotions and feelings that doesn't necessarily incklude Chris's story, but Chris's story helped spur this desire or understanding of the wilderness and a separation from, you know, the synthetic world created by consumerism--that may be taking it to a higher level, but that's how I feel.
Roger Topp:Even less austere than going to live in a bus for a few months--
Aaron Warkentin:Yeah.
Roger Topp:is the idea of Alaska.
Aaron Warkentin:Yeah.
Roger Topp:Right. I came up here in '93. And nothing like this kind of adventure. I was coming to grad school, you know, but yes, lived in a tent for a few months.
Aaron Warkentin:Yeah.
Roger Topp:And there is this idea of Alaska as being this--what it's a lifetime--the thing you want it--a once in a lifetime destination. Some people spend a lot of money to come here. Or whether they want to move here because it feels fringe.
Aaron Warkentin:Yeah
Roger Topp:One way or the other. So it isn't, isn't just Christopher and going in, literally living in the woods. But even Alaska itself and maybe, but what the bus has done is not to not create something new, of course, but kind of, in one way, fopcus this idea of going to the 'frontier.'
Aaron Warkentin:And this--some people feel this is the last frontier that you can get to Siberia is probably the last frontier but nobody can get there. But, but I think, I think that's what it--that's a good point that you bring up is that the bus is actually a personification of something that many people have felt for generations, and they may have not realized that Alaska and this bus and Chris's story is that personification, but people feel
Ambient Sound:[removing old floor from bus]
Colin Howard:My main focus on this project was to fill all the holes that the army guys put in. So I had tackled the roof, putting the roof pieces back in. We cut out the first step on the main entrance to the bus because it was rotten and not safe. So we had a new step fabricated and welded a new step in, and now it's safe and can be gone in and out of. So we we did a bunch of fiberglass repairs were needed. Like I said, the front step was was in, we took out the old floor, put a new floor in. So my job is trying to seal it up, make sure animals can't get in, make sure that, you know, as much weather as we can keep out of it, we'll keep out of it. But yeah, just trying to stabilize it, you know, make sure it can roll safely down the street on its wheels.
Braeden Howard:That was interesting. I was I was crammed in there, I kind of felt like a parrot on a perch, sitting in the engine compartment. But it was again, removing just hardened oils and grease that had been, you know, coming off the engine and sitting down on some of the frame, just trying to remove some of that stuff with some solvents, and making sure everything was clean enough to receive some of our stabilizing, reversible coatings that we were applying to the metals and the paint. So yeah, that took days. I was crammed in there. It was satisfying though, in a sick, twisted way it was fun. And I was happy to move to the interior compartment. There were--some of the panels that were cut when it was airlifted, they had to be welded. So, like down on the floor and around the wheel wells and then up around the roof. So those panels, we don't want to make our repairs invisible. That's just part of the story. We're not trying to hide that. So we tried to leave some evidence of that. I'm not trying to make it invisible, but I'm just trying to do cosmetic compensation, which kind of reintegrates visually, what it would have looked like when Chris was in it. So if you start looking around, you'll see where I've used, you know, inpaints and kind of did some faux finishing to create, you know, layered browns of rust and some of the blue paint that was left. So so when you walk in your eyes don't just jump to the damaged areas that were cut out. But if you look around, you can still find them.
Aaron Warkentin:We have on this one work table, a lot of the trim pieces from the windows. As you can see, these are exterior and interior trim pieces, some damaged by bullet holes. But this is the original paint. And this is where the conservation comes in where we're preserving the original paint. We're not repainting it, we're preserving as it is so that the entire bus maintains its character.
Brian Howard:But there are aspects of the windows that I hadn't thought about, like, you know, there's some original stickers that if we replace glass, those stickers should go back on the bus. So, now I'm you know, documenting those so we can have them replicated so they can go back on. We talked about the possibility, once I'm looking at some of the images that were taken back in the 90s, of which windows are cracked, which was you know, and do we create some sort of film to create a cracking pattern?
Roger Topp:Here's where it was.
Brian Howard:Yeah, stuff like that. So those are things that are we're still talking about and considering but those were not, you know, on the on the front burner in my mind when we first came here. But once we saw, I'm thinking well that's important. I mean just can't ignore that. You just can't put windows in because we need windows. It has to be right. I tend to drive people and myself crazy trying to do detail. Unfortunately, you know, Colin reminds me. They're always complaining that I'm too detail oriented until they're doing it, and then they're as bad if not worse than me. But I think it's gonna--I think we're going to be able to--the schedule is going to work out. I think we've, I think we've made great progress already, if we can figure how to get the frames apart. So that's--that'll be a little bit of fun. There were a lot of screws in these windows. There were like 12 screws per frame. Never could have imagined it. And most of the ones that you can see came out without any problem. The ones that were under metal--you won't see them--had to be drilled out or--they just, they just would not come out.
Aaron Warkentin:I think what gets really hard is just the width of the bus. So, right now I'm using a lift to clean the top of the roof and having to try to reach and move the lift around. I think that's, that's probably the hardest part is just size, the scale, the surface area that has to be cleaned. So, but you just take it literally a square inch at a time. And the next thing you know, oh, you finally, you finished that part. It's time to begin the next one. So--
Roger Topp:You listen to music when you're working?
Aaron Warkentin:Yes. Yes, it helps keep tempo. So I always listen to a little, little music. It helps, but, but I enjoy it, I like the process because I can actually see the finished product. You know, it's, it's hands-on, you know, it's not just number crunching sitting at a computer.
Brian Howard:I think we have to scale up our thinking. We can't, we can't treat a bus, the way we would have as a student working on a discrete historic object on our bench. And I think that's hard. That's hard to do. Because it's always comes down to it's compromise. You know, I know that I know, the best way to do it would be the, how I would choose to do something, if it were a more of a smaller project that I can't, I just can't do it on a bus. because in private practice, there's this whole aspect of having to actually make a living. The joys of academia and when I was in grad school was I could take forever
Taran Christian:The roof has several holes cut into it. There and figure out the best way to do any--I could experiment over and over and over again to find the best solution. Here I have to get it done and still, and still hold on to the to the ethics that are that that are specified in our code of ethics, you know, reversibility and make sure our documentation is done, make sure I'm sitting down writing my notes when--and writing the--getting the reports done, which are not things that are necessarily fun. But those are--in order to remain, you know, at that level professionally, those are required. But also getting the project done so you stay in business is another whole aspect that I had no idea about. But fortunately, I worked in the trades before I went back to grad school. are portions of the body and front end bodywork that have been penetrated by small arms fire. Some of the bullets exited through the opposite side of the bus. Appears that all bullet holes entered on the left side of the bus as that was not covered by the tree line. There is active corrosion and flaking paint, especially surrounding the area marked with 142.
Colin Howard:So, I went to school at McPherson College. It's in the center of Kansas, and they focus on automobile restoration. So they teach you how to build a car from a piece of wood and a flat piece of sheet metal. So, they teach you how to make fenders, do the woodwork, sewing, interiorl, welding, every aspect that would go into an automobile, the engines, the axles, the rear ends, the whole nine yards. So, I got trained a little bit on that kind of--on that kind of work, but working with my dad Brian for 20 years, kind of picked up a lot of his habits and you know he knows a lot of stuff. So, just being around him and watching him work, he's really taught my brother and I a lot.
Braeden Howard:Well, the windows are all out because they're getting new seals put in--so the wheels--the the windows have to go back in, which probably won't happen till the end. We still have a lot of work to do now on the exterior
of the bus:more cleaning, more paint consolidation, laying down some of the flaking paint, making sure it doesn't continue to be problematic. Again, we use all reversible materials and we'll use small tacking irons just to flatten the paint and get them to really adhere to the substrate. Yeah, a clearcoat will be applied just so it's more durable outside in the, you know, harsh Alaskan elements. So, that's kind of what the paint--we have to do, obviously, some filler put in around where our welds are, and a little bit of faux finishing, just again, for that cosmetic compensation. Will it be completely invisible? No, but it'll be you know, 95%. You'll, you can kind of notice it, if you're really looking.
Colin Howard:Yeah, I mean, like he said,every project has its own, you know, bits of challenges and struggles. This one is a challenge with the amount of damage that has been done to it and all the holes in it and the amount of rust and decay. Keeping water out of it and insects is going to be really challenging with it being outdoors. It does provide, you know, that's a challenge in itself is--most pieces we work on live indoors in a climate controlled setting and a nicer environment. So for us to realistically think that this is not going to ever get worse. It's-- I don't see that as feasible, right? So, the biggest challenge is that it's staying outdoors. And we have to make sure that it can survive as long
Braeden Howard:So yeah, just more corrosion stabilization, as it can. paint, consolidation and windows. I think the interior still has to be coated. And we have the linoleum floor, and that needs to go back down. We found remnants of the original. And obviously, there needs to be a solid floor as people come in and out temporarily or occasionally. So we're trying to replicate those components of the flooring. And I think we found a very, very close match. And then with a little bit of stain and faux finishing, and we can make it almost look exactly like the original linoleum that was in the bus.
Colin Howard:So yeah, I think people are gonna keep scratching their names in it. I mean before, I mean, a 1000 people enjoyed it, but it was a hell of a trip to get out there. Now you can just get in your car and drive up to see it. And you can come touch it.
Braeden Howard:So, we'll try to put the stove back in, the stove pipe, you know, put some maybe the the mattress and things back in. So it's still gonna look like a relic, you know, how it had last appeared when they found the bus. Yeah, we're really excited to be out here, we've had a good time.
Aaron Warkentin:In relation to cleaning the exterior, we also have to clean the chassis. So, there's a lot impacted mud and oils. So, that will all be removed. Corrosion stabilized so it doesn't continue. And although it won't look pristine under there, it will be what we say, stabilized.
Braeden Howard:Yeah, the olive drab the army, the army colors, which look like they weren't like meticulously applied, they were probably in the field and, and putting them in there. Because there's there's there's areas and sections where there may have missed it or parts might have been changed out. So now there's red pieces instead of the green pieces. So yeah, there's a--you kind of find new things every day.
Taran Christian:Large portions of the floor covering are either in pieces or completely missing. The plywood layer is delaminating and has areas of rot. A bed frame is located at the rear of the compartment containing a disintegrating mattress, bedding material, and runner carpets. There is a second smaller bed frame, which had been located in the center of the compartment. Both frames exhibit some corrosion, but retain most of their painted finish.
Brian Howard:For me, Erin and Colin came up the summer before last, and they did the assessment on the bus and did a really thorough report, great photo documentation. But I hadn't seen it. So, we had a game plan based upon that information. So, getting in here on Monday morning and really having a chance to, to, for me to see it, we changed some things up. We knew that some of the heavy work had to get done first, you know, we had to get we had to deal with the interior of the floor. Because there are structural issues that we need to we need to attend to. We knew that the windows were going to be first and foremost. But we didn't know, I didn't know, that all the frames would have to come out. And I was concerned when you know, I knew that it's being we're being watched, that we're seeing all these windows come out of the bus. And that--hence I put my little sign up saying we're not restoring the bus. But that was--that's a change. So you know, we had our plans where we're going to clean the interior, we're going to stabilize it, get the deteriorated floor out after we document it and take care of corrosion down there. I thought we were actually going to work underneath the bus and start dealing with all the loose corrosion and dirt. That's--I find that's going to be pretty straightforward. And we can do it after we've done a lot of the interior work. I also now know that--I didn't know that the windshield was so badly damaged that that area just where the windshield goes. So, in order to have the glass done, we had--so to answer your question, we had an idea of what we're going to do and we've changed it entirely, or prioritized it differently. And we knew that getting the biological off that was something we wanted to do. We've done it in the past--if it's in our shop, we actually have a misting simple-- a misting system with a with a very dilute biocide, environmentally friendly biocide that we would just spray for several days. And but we don't have that here. So working on site always also changes--we packed every tool we thought we would need--
Roger Topp:I know your preference is, 'Send the bus to
Brian Howard:Well yeah, just because everything--you know us.' when you when you work for 20 years and gather tools, everything you could possibly want is there. We thought, but we know the Home Depot or Lowes could have some of the general tools that we could we could gather. We know what we want to do and okay, now we're going to--I would, I would, I would have been a great battlefield officer, but would have been horrible at strategy. It's, I like, I like being able to, to assess the problem as we go and make changes on the fly. But for me to sit, I'll do I generally write my proposals exactly what we're going to do step by step, almost always knowing that that's, you know that's sort of the ideal approach, or schedule, but it almost never stays that way.
Aaron Warkentin:So yeah, the first time I heard about it was when the movie first came out, but I did not know much about the story, or who Chris McCandless was. It was actually not until I started working with the Howards, and this project was proposed, and Colin Howard and I came up here, then I started understanding it more. And I think that's when it became, seeing the bus it became real, and then I became very fascinated with his story, you know, his rejection of consumerism and his desire to live--live in nature. And, yeah, up until that point, it was just another story, then suddenly, it took on a whole new meaning once I started working on the bus and reading more about him and seeing his photography. So. So I've enjoyed it. And I'm surprised at how many people I've mentioned it to. I did not think that this had kind of the pop culture, or the range of knowledge that actually does. So, it was always shocking to me when I bring it up, like, hey, you know, I'm gonna get to work onBus 142. "Really!" , You know, people are--
Braeden Howard:Yeah, I think that dialogue, and those conversations are important to have throughout the entire process with the curators and everybody, just to--we all have a way of viewing things and looking at it. And sometimes it's good just to have those continued conversations to, you know, determine what should it look like, what's the story we're trying to tell here? So, that's, that's critical. Yeah, I'm really glad that--I'm really glad that you've been able to document it so well. Oftentimes, we work on things and we take a lot of photos, but to have the time-lapse and a lot of video, to be able to do interviews and just kind of capture it. And it's neat to see, you know, students, faculty looking down and watching some of the work. So, we've we've enjoyed it. Great space. And we're really thrilled to be a part of this.
Colin Howard:Oh, I just think it's been a, you know, a lot of fun to work on. Been on it for over four weeks now and still finding names I haven't seen before, still seeing new things and new stickers in hidden places. There was one gentleman that went to the bus like eight times, he would go twice a year. And I just thought that that was really cool that he cared about it so much that he went and made the trek twice a year to go out and see the bus.
Roger Topp:Did you meet him during one of the open houses.
Colin Howard:No, I just thought his name is in there and just over and over and over and over and over again, like wow. But every time we go to dinner, and we've meet new people that have a story of it. I met the guy that found Chris in the bus. He was sitting there, talking about going out there and his four wheeler tumbled down the river and they, you know, almost got wiped away, washed out and I was like I got to talk to that guy. So, every year everybody in town has got a story whether it's a good story or bad story, everyone can relate to it in some fashion. So it's just really cool to tell people why we're here and what we're doing on it.
Roger Topp:Thank you to Aaron, Brian, Braeden, and Colin for their stories and their and the entire B.R. Howard team's efforts to help prepare Bus 142 for the forthcoming exhibition. And thank you to Taran Christian for giving voice to the bus condition assessment. As always, every week every day, my appreciation to museum staff Angela Linn and Della Hall for shepherding this conservation process, a project that would not have been possible without the Institute of Museum and Library Services and a Save America's Treasures grant. The latest information about this ongoing project can be found on the museum's website, including links to an audio tour of the bus available through the museum's free mobile app, and a 360 photographic tour of the bus in the form of a downloadable virtual exhibit. All of these resources continue to grow with the project. The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dene people of the Lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples. Thank you for listening. Please subscribe, share, and rate the program. This helps other listeners discover more about not only the work of this museum, but quite possibly other museums in their neighborhoods. The more you look, the more you find.