Everett Ruess

I was born Everett Ruess
I've been dead for sixty years
I was just a young boy in my twenties
The day I disappeared

Into the Grand Escalante Badlands
Near the Utah and Arizona line
And they never found my body, boys
Or understood my mind

I grew up in California
And I loved my family and my home
But I ran away to the High Sierra
Where I could live free and alone

And folks said, "He's just another wild kid
He'll grow out of it in time"
But they never found my body, boys
Or understood my mind

I broke broncos with the cowboys
I sang healing songs with the Navajo
I did the snake dance with the Hopi
And I drew pictures everywhere I go

Then I swapped all my drawings for provisions
To get what I needed to get by
And they never found my body, boys
Or understood my mind

Well I hate your crowded cities
With the sad and hopeless mobs
And I hate your grand cathedrals
Where you try to trap God

'Cause I know God is here in the canyons
With the rattlesnakes and the pinon pines
And they never found my body, boys
Or understood my mind

They say I was killed by a drifter
Or I froze to death in the snow
Maybe mauled by a wildcat
Or I'm livin' down in Mexico

But my end, it doesn't really matter
All that counts is how you live your life
And they never found my body, boys
Or understood my mind

But you give your dreams away as you get older
And oh but I never gave up mine
And they'll never find my body, boys
Or understand my mind