Who in their right mind would use Edward Abbey’s name for a new housing Subdivision currently being built in Moab? It’s like naming a new coal plant after Greta Thunberg. A recent article in Outside Magazine reports on this naming choice by the land developers. You’d think the development folks just didn’t get who Edward Abbey was. But with street names like Monkey Wrench Way and Hayduke Court, it’s pretty obvious they knew exactly what they were doing. It doesn’t get more deliberate than that. Absolutely Edward Abby is rolling in his Tuscon grave. Shame on them.
Why is this name for a new housing track a contradiction and downright disrespectful? Edward Abbey was famous author and nature activist with some pretty extreme views and a bit of an anarchist mindset. Ok, a lot of an anarchist mindset. He wrote a book called “The Monkey Wrench Gang” where he talked about blowing up the Glen Canyon Dam because of the harm it did to nature. He was not for any kind of progress that encroached on nature. Another one of his books, “Desert Solitaire,” is all about his time working as a ranger at Arches National Monument. He talks about the land, the animals, and how humans are changing things. Through his nature writings, his contrasting ideas of human influence on the land and his disgust of society and modern culture are evident. These two books are fabulous reads and educational on not only about nature, but on the extreme ideas on conversation.
Now you see why this namesake makes absolutely no sense.
I think there is a bit of Edward Abby in all of us who love nature and the outdoors. Reading his books will touch that deep down secret spot in our souls where our quiet little anarchist lives, ashamed to be noticed by the outside world. Give it a little treat by reading some Edward Abby and then tell it to go back to its dark place and stay there.
Is It Okay to Name a Moab Subdivision After Ed Abbey? (outsideonline.com)
