Eastern Iowan takes on wilderness in TV challenge

Eastern Iowa native Lucas Miller will soon become a television personality and maybe even the winner of a $500,000 prize in a new reality series premiering Thursday on History.

Miller, 32, who grew up in Quasqueton and graduated from East Buchanan High School in 2001, is one of 10 contestants in 'Alone,” a 10-episode series billed by the cable channel as the 'boldest and longest survival experiment ever captured for television.” It airs at 9 p.m. Thursdays.

Miller, who lives in Albuquerque, N.M., but will soon move to Hawaii, said 'Alone” differs from other similar programs in that contestants were really alone.

'There were no producers, no camera crew 20 feet away eating sandwiches. We were responsible for capturing our own footage and documenting our own experience,” he says.

Contestants were turned loose in late October in the northern wilderness of Vancouver Island in a temperate rain forest that receives about 13 feet of rainfall per year.

Miller likened the experience to 'living in a perpetual carwash.”

Each contestant was allowed to fill a backpack with 10 items from a list of 40 potential choices, which did not include guns. Among Miller's selections were a tent, sleeping bag, tarp, ax, saw, a 9-inch blade knife, 25 fish hooks, 200 yards of line, a striker kit for starting fires and woolen clothing, which maintains its insulating properties when wet.

They also had waterproof boxes full of expensive cameras, microphones and batteries and satellite phones that they could use to 'tap out” when they could no longer stand the isolation.

Miller, who also is scheduled to appear Thursday on NBC's 'Today Show,” said even he and the other contestants do not yet know which of them will claim the prize.

Miller said he had a love-hate relationship with his camera equipment. 'The time spent talking into the camera, as if there were someone there, probably helped keep me sane,” says Miller.

Whether or not Miller achieves fortune along with his upcoming fame, 'It was an incredible experience, and I had a great time,” he says.