A Westsylvanian goes “Into the Wild”
By Dave Hurst
© 2015 Hurst Media Works
“Into the Wild” is an international bestseller that’s been published in 14 languages and
turned into a major motion picture that received Golden Globe and Academy Award
nominations. It’s also stirred some occasional controversy about why the true story’s
subject, Christopher McCandless, died in the Alaskan wilderness.
Now, 20 years after Jon Krakauer’s book was first published in 1996, there is an
Alleghenies’ angle to this tale of Alaskan misadventure: A library employee at Indiana
University of Pennsylvania largely answered a question that had stumped scientists and
Krakauer himself.
In the Afterword of his 2015 Edition of “Into the Wild,” Krakauer credits Ronald
Hamilton for providing the vital clues that enabled the best-selling author to definitively
determine the cause of McCandless’ death.
“Hamilton is neither a botanist nor a chemist;” wrote Krakauer. “he’s a writer who until
recently worked as a bookbinder at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania library.”
While on the job one day back in 2002, Hamilton came across a copy of “Into the Wild,”
casually started to read it, and suddenly suspected that he knew why McCandless had
died. Intrigued, Hamilton researched and wrote his own book: “The Silent Fire: ODAP
and the Death of Christopher McCandless.”
Working his way through a maze of highly technical plant characteristics and principles
of organic chemistry, Hamilton determined that McCandless had unknowingly ingested a
poisonous amino acid – known by the acronym ODAP – while existing on a steady diet
of wild potato seeds in the Alaskan wilderness.
Hamilton theorized that this was a neurotoxin which immobilized McCandless. He died
of starvation because he couldn’t move – not because he couldn’t find food.
That’s a very significant conclusion. Many people, especially in Alaska, believe that
McCandless died of stupidity – of being ill-equipped and lacking the knowledge needed
to successfully forage in the Alaskan wilderness. McCandless’ family, Krakauer, and
others point to McCandless’ successful survival track record elsewhere and contend there
must have been another reason for his death.
Hamilton’s inspiration came from prior reading about a German concentration camp
during World War II, where prisoners lost the use of their limbs after consuming
concentrations of a plant closely related to the one blamed by McCandless for his
immobility. IUP’s biochemistry department checked the seeds of both plants at
Hamilton’s request – and reported that ODAP appeared to be present in both.
“The Silent Fire” wasn’t published in book form, but Hamilton posted his findings in an
essay online, where Krakauer saw it. Krakauer’s own theory, that the wild potato seeds
contained an alkaloid poison, had been scientifically refuted, so the possibility that an
amino acid was the culprit fascinated him.
With resources unavailable to Hamilton, Krakauer pursued research through a team of
scientists, which included Dr. Jonathan Southard of IUP’s Chemistry Department, and
highly sophisticated tests. The results, published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal,
revealed that while ODAP was not present, another amino acid was that had very similar
properties and caused the same effects.
“Although Ron Hamilton was wrong about ODAP’s role in the death of McCandless, he
was correct that [the wild potato] seeds are poisonous, and that an amino acid, rather than
an alkaloid, is the toxic constituent,” wrote Krakauer in his Afterward. “I am
tremendously grateful to Hamilton…”
Having known and respected Ron as a writing colleague and friend for 20 years, I see
certain parallels with McCandless. Perhaps the most obvious one is that Hamilton, too,
chose a path where many would maintain he was ill-prepared to go: This was a
bookbinder who dove deeply into biochemistry.
However, Hamilton emerged from his chosen wilderness and contributed significantly to
the position that Christopher McCandless was, in the words of Jon Krakauer, “worthy of
admiration.”
For McCandless-like willingness to plunge into his wild, so is Ronald Hamilton.