He kept our fires stoked

The life of Hall Newbegin truly inspired what we did with this magazine. He kept us wild and kept our creative fires stoked.

We first met Hall at the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. He put us up in a shared bunk room for the night and took us out on a hike to harvest wilderness perfume for his company Juniper Ridge. We thought he was crazy for digging a hole in the dirt, laying belly down, stuffing his face in the hole, and then asking us to do the same. Since we were out there working on a story about him, we did it. With the first deep breath of that hole our outlook changed. There is so much more to being wild than what can be seen. You have to smell the dirt and taste the tree sap to truly know how beautiful being wild feels. Every story we published after meeting Hall came from his face in the dirt approach to storytelling.

We’d hang out with Hall at trade shows. People would be buzzing around in the industry money feeding frenzy, but Hall would be dancing outside his van playing ukulele, tripping on mushrooms, and attracting all the other freaks. He was a magnet that brought Stay Wild together with so many other creative outsiders doing cool things.

Hall has passed away, but we will keep his spirit alive. We are deeply grateful that he stoked our fire.

Thank you Hall,
-Scrappers, and Stay Wild magazine.

Outsiders // Episode 04: Hall Newbegin from Stay Wild on Vimeo.