the explorers journal the global adventure issue - The Explorers Club

EXPLORATION NEWSGene SavoyAndean research loses a pioneerThe world of Andean exploration lost one of its mostcolorful and controversial pioneers on September11. Douglas Eugene “Gene” Savoy, FE‘69, oncedubbed the “real” Indiana Jones by PEOPLEmagazine, died of natural causes, age of 80, at hishome in Reno, Nevada. In addition to his lifelonginterest in Andean exploration and archaeology, hewas deeply religious and eventually founded theInternational Community of Christ in Reno.Beyond the circle of hisfamily, friends, and religiousfollowers, Savoy is best rememberedfor his Andeanexploits. His life of adventurebegan in 1957. At theage of 30, following a failedfirst marriage, he left theUnited States to seek hisfortune in Lima. There hemet and married a prominentPeruvian lady, foundedthe Andean Explorers Club,and began his lifelongsearch for the “lost cities”of the Amazon. In 1964, herevisited Hiram Bingham’sruins at the Plain of Ghostsin the Amazonian rainforestand correctly identified them as Vilcabamba, theIncas’ final redoubt. Several years later, he wasamong the earliest to visit the remote Chachapoyasite of Gran Pajatén in northern Peru. His claimsof “discoveries” in both cases were later disputedby others, setting a pattern that would plaguehim throughout his career. Antisuyo, his 1970book describing both expeditions, neverthelessbecame a cult classic among aspirant amateurexplorers, inspiring many, myself included, tohead off into the jungle.Savoy returned to the United States in 1971 andtook up residence in Reno, where he married fora third time and founded the Andean ExplorersFoundation & Ocean Sailing Club. True to the lattername, he went to sea often between 1977 and 1982on a ten-meter schooner and attempted variousKon Tiki-style sea adventures on rafts of ancientAndean design. Like Thor Heyerdahl before him, hewas pursuing a strong belief in oceanic diffusionamong the Precolumbian cultures of the Pacificcoast. His 1974 book, On the Trail of the FeatheredSerpent, recounted some of these voyages.In later life, he refocused on Peru and renewedhis efforts in the jungles ofChachapoyas, where hepursued his unorthodoxbelief in Amazonian originsfor Andean civilization.Stone tablets unearthedthere in 1989 showed evidence,he thought, of OldWorld writing. Eventually,he announced discoveriesof more than 40 “new”lost cities, including GranVilaya and Gran Saposoa,each composed, he said,of thousands of ruins. Onceagain, his claims were metwith derision by some colleagues,who noted thatmany sites presented in thepress as startling new finds had been previouslyrecorded by himself and others.The Peruvian government belatedly recognizedhis long years of exploration with several medalsin the late 1980s and the city of Reno proclaimed“Gene Savoy Day” in October 1996. Gene Savoy’swork continues under the direction of his son, Sean,also a member of The Explorers Club, but the passingof the “real” Indiana Jones leaves a large gap inthe Andean scene that will not soon be filled.biographyVincent R. Lee, FN ‘90, is an architect, explorer, and author ofForgotten Vilcabamba: Final Stronghold of the Incas.the explorers journal