'Nature boy': Austin man who died in Utah national park remembered for kindness by family
During the brutal summer of July, James "Nature Boy" Hendricks left Austin for a final road trip with his late father, Neil, a scenic and symbolic journey to spread the elder's ashes across a majestic mountain in western Nevada.
Neither one made it.
James died earlier this month, investigators say, from heat stroke. There was an empty water bottle. Rescuers found he had passed away, sitting upright, with a grand view of Utah's Arches National Park. The van, which took son and father from Austin, sat parked a few miles away, with Neil Hendrick's ashes inside - some 700 miles short of their final destination, Mount Rose, Nevada.
News of the tragedy made global headlines, but the story of James Hendricks is one of a devoted son and brother and friend, who saw beauty in climbing trees, helping those in need, and loving the world, loving the universe and everything around him with the innocence of a child.
This is his story.
Ruth Hendricks Brough, James' sister, said his family called him Jimmy. He went by James most of the time, to not be confused with the famous musician Jimi Hendrix.
His family called him "Nature Boy", after the 1940s jazz song by artist Nat King Cole. He was adventurous and knew the outdoors well. His father, Neil Hendricks, who passed away in 2018, gave animal nicknames to all his children. Jimmy's was squirrel, because he liked climbing trees.
Scattered through Jimmy's home, hung in mismatched picture frames, were photographs he took of nature and people. Fossils, trinkets, crystals, squirrel figurines and plants filled the tiny home in Austin where Jimmy spent most of his years. Living in the home was Jimmy and his friend, Wayne Taylor, who is legally blind and relied on Jimmy to take him places like the local H-E-B or barbershop.
"His spirit can be felt everywhere in the house," said Ruth.
Both of his sisters, Ruth and Ila Hendricks, reminisced about the kind of person Jimmy was. Someone who loved the universe and everything in it: from astronomy to geology and more. Family and friends described him as a "little magical being."
"He was fascinated with the unknown," Ruth said. "He had kind of a childlike innocence, sweetness and curiosity."
In the middle of July, with record-breaking heat across the country, Jimmy began his trip to bring his father's ashes to Reno, Nevada, where his dad lived for decades, up to Mount Rose, one of the highest mountains in the state.
'Really bad timing': Jimmy's trip to Utah
"It would have been a really arduous climb to get up there, especially with all this heat," Ruth said.
Jimmy had been planning the trip for years after his dad died in 2018, his plans put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He planned to travel to Nevada, visiting various national parks along the way after he bought a lifetime pass before he went to scatter his father's ashes.
"We got this terrible heat wave," Ruth said. "So, just really bad timing."
His sister Ila spoke on the phone with him a few days before he went missing, warning him about the dangers of the trip.
"I told him ... how many people had died in national parks so far from the heat." said Ila, "He said, 'Oh, don't worry Ila, I will stay on the main trails, and I will always carry water with me.'"
He documented most of his journey through his Facebook page, which was filled with photographs and updates of his time driving to Nevada.
Ruth said that one of the last times he was seen was on surveillance footage where he seemed "tired."
"I haven't had the heart to look at it yet," she said. "But they said he looks absolutely exhausted."
Ila, who went to Utah after Jimmy's untimely death, watched the footage herself and voiced a similar sentiment: Jimmy, who left in the early hours, looked drained, depleted and weary.
After he didn't check out of his hotel, a worried hotel manager called the police, who then contacted park rangers at Arches National Park.
His vehicle was discovered by rangers in one of the park's parking lots on Aug. 1, according to a press release by the National Park Service.
After investigators realized something was wrong, it wasn't long before they found Jimmy. His body was found more than 2 miles off the trail with an empty water bottle. Jimmy's body was sitting upright toward the scenic view, Ruth said.
Ila said more than 3 gallons of water were found in his van.
Jimmy was believed to have succumbed to the extreme weather conditions, the hot temperatures ultimately leading to his death.
The National Park Service and the Grand County sheriff's office jointly investigated the incident, according to an Aug. 2 press release.
More: Austin man found in Utah park believed to have died from heat stroke, family says
A brother's similar passing over 30 years ago
His brother, Ron, died in the wilderness in the early 1990s during a snowstorm near Lake Tahoe. After finding about his AIDS diagnosis during a time when the disease felt like a death sentence, he decided he didn't want to die the way his friends suffered.
After leaving a suicide note and Christmas cards for his family in 1992 before walking out into the bitter cold, Ron's body was not found until almost 30 years later.
Their father and his dogs would go and search every weekend during good weather for his remains when Neil lived in Nevada.
Nothing was found until five years after his dad's passing.
In February of this year, the family was notified that Ron's skull and femur were found after investigators tried to track relatives down for more than a year.
Ruth said no one expected Ron to walk that far, which is why it took more than 30 years to find his remains.
Jimmy's life, told by his sisters
Ruth said Jimmy was always their parents' favorite. He was the sixth of eight children and only 66 years old when he passed away during his trip.
"He was always really, well, sweet," said Ruth. "Whenever there was some kind of fighting or something, he would just say, 'Let's just be friends,' and it was just so innocent."
The last time Ruth spoke to her brother was around mid-July, right before he left for his trip, where she remembers both of them being excited for his journey.
Jimmy, an Austin native, lived in the city with his cat Tori after his father passed away. He was a carpenter by day and writer during his free time, releasing a book in 2019 titled "Demon of the Well."
Ruth described her brother as extremely eloquent but underestimated due to his lack of education. After their father left the family home when Jimmy was 12, the son took it upon himself to take care of his mother, dropping out of school after seventh grade.
Jimmy took care of his mother until she died in 2007. Just three years later, Jimmy moved his dad back to Austin with him to become his caretaker up until Neil's death from natural causes in 2018.
Both of his sisters laughed while reminiscing about the time they remembered their father saying that moving him down to Austin was "Jimmy saving him."
"He was our parents' caretaker all his life," said Ruth.
In October, the siblings planned to memorialize brother Ron in New York. Now, they have plans to celebrate all three lives: Jimmy, Ron and their father.
"It's just so hard for it to seem real, you know?" said Ruth, exhausted. "Just doesn't seem real for a while, and, eventually, it gets real."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin man who died in Utah national park remembered by family
