Eustace Robinson Conway IV (born September 15, 1961) is an American naturalist and the subject of the book ''The Last American Man'' by

Elizabeth Gilbert Elizabeth Gilbert (born July 18, 1969) is an American journalist and author. She is best known for her 2006 memoir, '' Eat, Pray, Love'', which has sold over 12 million copies and has been translated into over 30 languages. The book was also ma ...

. He has also been the subject of ''Adventures in the Simple Life'' by Sarah Vowell on the weekly radio show ''

This American Life ''This American Life'' (''TAL'') is an American monthly hour-long radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internatio ...

'' with Ira Glass. He is the owner of the Turtle Island Preserve in

Boone, North Carolina Boone is a town in and the county seat of Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Boone is the home of Appalachian State University and the headquarters for the disaster a ...

. He is one of the featured personalities on the

History channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

show ''

Mountain Men A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening up ...

''.

Biography

Conway was born in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-largest ...

. He has three siblings. At age 17, Conway left home so that he could live in a

tipi A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟó ...

in the woods. He has hiked the entire

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian ...

and claims to have set the world record of 103 days for crossing the United States on horseback from the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

to the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

. However, according to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' of the day, as well as the book ''Bud & Me'', the record for crossing the North American continent on horseback was actually 62 days. This journey was made by Bud and Temple Abernathy, aged 11 and 7, who rode from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

on an equestrian journey, which started in August 1911. The weekly radio show ''

'' reported on Conway's cross-country journey in the episode "Adventures in the Simple Life", which aired on September 11, 1998. The show uses recordings that were taped on a hand-held recorder by Conway and his party. A 2003 documentary film on Conway's life, ''Full Circle: A Life Story of Eustace Conway'', was directed by Jack Bibbo. Conway is also one of four featured characters in the 2012 documentary film '' Reconvergence'', which was directed by Edward Tyndall. Conway appeared in ''

'', a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...

series on the

. The series focused on his daily life of performing his chores and preparing food for the coming winter. Threatened by a lien against his land, Conway fights to maintain ownership. In November 2012, Turtle Island was forced to shut down public access because its traditional buildings violated building codes. In mid-December 2012 Conway appeared to make progress toward reaching a resolution with the North Carolina Building Code Council. However, immediately following this apparent progress with the code council, Conway was arrested for trespassing on a neighbor's property in a dispute over the property border, continuing the legal challenges to Turtle Island. Conway's problems with the North Carolina Building Code Council quickly gained notice of state officials. The North Carolina General Assembly stepped in, proposing an exemption to building-code requirements for primitive structures. Both the state's House and Senate voted unanimously to pass H774. The bill was signed into law by Governor

Pat McCrory Patrick Lloyd McCrory (born October 17, 1956) is an American businessman, politician and radio host who served as the 74th governor of North Carolina from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 53rd Mayor ...

on June 12, 2013. This ordeal was described in the Fox News special ''War on the Little Guy'', hosted by

John Stossel John Frank Stossel (born March 6, 1947) is an American libertarian television presenter, author, consumer journalist, and pundit. He is known for his career as a host on ABC News, Fox Business Network, and Reason TV. Stossel's style combines ...

References

External links

Official Biography via Turtle Island Preserve

from ''The Last American Man'' on

Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initi ...

'
US web site
Archived a
https://www.webcitation.org/5pFfh9Jvg
by

WebCite WebCite was an on-demand archive site, designed to digitally preserve scientific and educationally important material on the web by taking snapshots of Internet contents as they existed at the time when a blogger or a scholar cited or quoted ...

on April 25, 2010.
The Last American Man
by Elizabeth Gilbert. GQ Magazine, February 1998. {{DEFAULTSORT:Conway, Eustace 1961 births Living people American environmentalists People from Columbia, South Carolina Appalachian State University alumni American naturalists

Biography

References

Further reading

External links