Nature Man demonstrated bare truth
From our weekly issue dated July 23, 2008
Joe Knowels in the Siskiyous, 1914
There was no doubt that the idea of a man going into the woods completely naked to live off the land for two months would be an eye-catcher in any headline.
It was an adventure with anticipation that it would be syndicated in newspapers throughout the nation, but more importantly, it was decided that the two-month “man against Nature” experiment would be conducted in the Siskiyou Mountains.
The possibility that this stunt might become a national story was not unreasonable. Joe Knowles did the same experiment in 1913 for the Boston Post, and the adventure was widely syndicated, much to the consternation of the Boston American, the competing newspaper owned by William Randolph Hearst.
Not to be out done, the San Francisco Examiner, the Hearst flagship newspaper on the West Coast, sponsored its version of what Knowles had done in Maine.
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However, the Examiner had learned an important lesson from Knowles’ experience in Maine, or more specifically, from its sister newspaper, the Boston American, which published several aggressive articles declaring Knowles’ adventures to be a farce. The attacks were more likely intended to undermine the integrity of the competing newspaper than to defame Knowles, but there was a valid concern that without having a way to verify Knowles claims, the Examiner would be vulnerable to the same types of attacks.
For this reason, they hired two professors and a photographer to go along and set up an observation camp on the fringe of the wilderness where Knowles would conduct his experiment.
The Examiner wasted no time sensationalizing the story and the fact that there were cougars in this region. That inspired the banner announcement: Wild Beasts Roar Invitation To Joe Knowles. With this introduction echoing through the media, Knowles arrived on July 13, 1914 in Grants Pass, where he added his own dramatic flare to the mix of publicity. In an article printed in the July 22, 1914 edition of the Daily Courier Knowles stated that “if he did not meet a bear, a cougar or other wild animals he would regret it very much and should any of these animals show themselves, they would not get away.”
The following day, Knowles and others in his group left by auto for the forested slopes of the Siskiyou Mountains by way of Sucker Creek to the Josephine (Oregon) Caves. The group stopped Monday night to camp and scouted around for a suitable place for Knowles to conduct his man against Nature experiment. They returned to Grants Pass and announced that conditions near the Oregon-California line were ideal for the wildest undertaking a man would wish to experience.
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The Courier described Knowles’ forthcoming adventure in an article printed July 15, 1914:
“Knowles will take up the battle with Nature, providing himself with food and clothing from the mountains and streams. Traps and snares he must make with his unaided hands. Fire he must kindle by methods he says are easy without matches, without flint and steel. Fish he will get without hook and game without steel traps.”
Knowles and his group returned to Illinois Valley by automobile, heading for the observation camp on Sucker Creek above the Holland community. They described the observation camp as being in the wilderness south of Grayback Mountain. Here, he reverted to the “prehistoric manner of life” and gave all his clothing to his associates, and disappeared to make his nest for the night.
It was a cold night too, but he claimed that he would sleep as comfortably in his bed of moss and leaves with his friction-made fire as he would at a hotel with artificial clothing.
His first attention was given to covering his feet. This would be done with bark woven basket-like over his feet. This footwear would suffice until he could secure skins for moccasins. Then his hunting for large wild animal would begin.
Knowles offered progress letters in much the same way he had in Maine; written on white bark with a charcoal pencil. One of these reports was mentioned in a Courier article on Aug. 5, 1914 in which Knowles said that he found a deer that had been killed by a mountain lion and that he had used the hide of the deer to make clothing.
He said that the temperatures had been too cold in the high elevations and that he was seeking lower, warmer levels. He reported that his sustenance has been mainly fish, which are easy to capture, along with small game and an assortment of berries, nuts and roots.
The man vs. Nature story was going along just as expected, but one month into the experiment, the outbreak of World War I eclipsed the drama of Knowles’ adventure. It was decided to call off the experiment, and Knowles came out of the woods and back to civilization in mid-August.
A special train was sent by the California & Oregon Coast Railroad to meet the automobile carrying Knowles back from the wilderness. They met at the Applegate River, where a bridge was still under construction. The train carried Knowles to the crossing on Sixth Street in Grants Pass, where he was greeted by the Moose Lodge band and many automobiles, which escorted him to the Oxford Hotel.
He later put on the clothing he had made in the wilderness and walked the streets of Grants Pass to talk with curious residents. The next day he departed by train for Portland and eventually back to San Francisco.
After Josephine County, Joe Knowles would attempt one more wilderness adventure. This time Hearst sent Knowles to team up with the New York Journal, and he was to spend two months surviving in the Adirondacks. In the Hurst tradition of sensational journalism, the adventure would include a female counterpart, the Dawn Woman, who was to strip to complete nudity and conduct a female’s version of man against Nature.
Her name was Elaine Hammerstein, a noted theater and silent film star of her day, and the daughter of Broadway producer Arthur Hammerstein (uncle of legendary composer Oscar Hammerstein II). She had been selected from among three-dozen contenders for the Dawn Woman title.
Knowles spent time training her in basic survival skills, and they were to enter the woods at the same time, but in different locations, and they were not to make contact with each other. However, the mosquitoes were apparently too much for her and after seven days by herself in the wilds she quit and went home. Knowles saw no reason to continue with the experiment and also exited the woods.
He eventually moved to Ilwaco, Wash., the end point of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and about as far from Maine as he could get. He died there on Oct. 22, 1942.
