Carl McCunn

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Carl McCunn (1946 - 1981) was an American wildlife photographer who inadvertently stranded himself in the Alaskan wilderness and committed suicide when he ran out of supplies.

In March 1981, McCunn paid a bush pilot to drop him at a remote lake near the Coleen River in Alaska, on the southern margin of the Brooks Range, to photograph wildlife. Though McCunn believed he had arranged for the pilot to pick him up in August, he had apparently never confirmed this.^[1]

McCunn, who had spent five months on the Brooks Range in 1976^[2], flew in with 500 rolls of film, 1,400 pounds of provisions, two rifles and a shotgun. He prematurely disposed of boxes of shotgun shells in the river; used the wrong emergency hand signals to a plane that had spotted him and waved the plane off; and waited too long in the season to attempt to walk out.

After realizing he was stranded, McCunn made great efforts to survive, such as winterizing his tent.^[1]

In February 1982 Alaska State Troopers found his body, emaciated and frozen as hard as stone, along with a 100-page diary that documented his demise. He wrote "I think I should have used more foresight about arranging my departure." Rather than starve, McCunn had shot himself in the head.

A coroner's jury, which took testimony from his friends indicating his failure to make "specific arrangements" for his departure, ruled his death a suicide.^[2]

(Source: Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild)

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