The Man from the Cave

My brother-in-law handed me this book one day and said it was worth reading. I had no idea who Colin Fletcher was or what the book was about. I learned a lot about Colin Fletcher, the guru of walking, but even more about a remarkable man who's life would have passed unnoticed had Mr. Fletcher not stumbled on a very remote cave south of Las Vegas Nevada in the late 1960s. This man had come to live in the cave for part of a year and Mr. Fletcher decided to find out who and why a person would choose to live there. Through tough detective work the author develops some leads about when the habitation of the cave occurred and what sort of person lived there. The man in question turns out to be a very colorful prospector and through amazing luck and perseverance Fletcher uncovers his life story. He finds this man to be much like himself. Mr. Fletcher portrays him as both saint and sinner at times, but always makes him human. Quite a good read.

In my opinion, this is one of the more fascinating of Colin Fletcher's very enjoyable writings. While pursuing an on-going project of walking the length of the Colorado River, Fletcher discovered a lonely cave in Nevada with evidence that a remarkable individual had called it home sometime in the early part of the century. Fletcher wondered who this could have been, and what had led him to this very out-of-the-way location (as Colin Fletcher himself had been led there). Years of research and discovery, aided by a not inconsequential amount of dumb luck, led Fletcher to the most probable identity of the cave dweller, and he also learned much about American history along the way. This book is a real-life mystery; it is a biography of "Chuckawalla Bill" Simmons and of Colin Fletcher himself; and like all of Colin Fletcher's books, it is also a work of philosopy. Not surprisingly, the "Man From the Cave" proves to be a man very much like Colin Fletcher himself.