Adventure Tales Feed Content on Piltdown Website

Like many companies these days, Piltdown Outdoor Co. in Springdale is focused on developing brand-related content online. As a backpack brand, its narrative centers on tales of adventure, and founder and CEO Trey Anson probably has plenty of those.

When we caught up with him for a recent telephone interview, (see Page 6), he had just driven his 1989 red Dodge Caravan up to Wisconsin to look for Forrest Fenn’s hidden treasure.

In his mid-20s, he gave away everything he owned that didn’t fit into a backpack and hitched rides across the country.

“When you travel like that as a hitchhiker, you don’t have to wait until you have money, and it’s the right time,” Anson said. “I had $104 and a backpack when I left — and you can go anywhere.”

People had warned him that nobody picked up hitchhikers anymore, that he’d get arrested or that he’d be murdered. However, those predictions proved false — or at least two of them did, Anson said. He laughed. “I did get picked up, and I did not get murdered.”