Moab development and the magic name of Cactus Ed Abbey vs Clarke Abbey

 This is funny as hell.

A developer in Moab, per High Country News, planned to name a new subdivision after Cactus Ed Abbey. As the piece notes, this is the antithesis of everything he stood for.

Side note: Cactus Ed never claimed to be an environmentalist, and in fact disdained the label. He preferred to be called an anarchist, and with his master's degree from the University of New Mexico being in philosophy, and per his first book-cum-movie, the book as "The Brave Cowboy," the movie as Kirk Douglas' "Lonely are the Brave," knew whereof he spoke about himself. More on that and more here from an Outside mag piece.

A speech of his in the 1970s, quoted, at the HCN original link, shows that:

In a 1976 speech at a symposium on environmental problems in Vail, Colorado, Abbey said, “I say the industrialization of the Rocky Mountain West is not inevitable and that to plan for such a catastrophe is to invite it in all the more readily. Planning for growth encourages growth. To plan for growth is to concede defeat before the battle has been has been fully joined.”

I don't think Dave Foreman ever put sand in the gas tanks of construction vehicles, or wrapped bands around or stuck shanks in frames and rafters, though. Ditto for people building new ski lodges in places like Vail. Only logging vehicles. 

And, Ed was wrong. Yes, "managed growth" is a semi-anachronism, per Ed's old aphorism that:

Growth for growth's sake is the theology of the cancer cell

But not totally so. And, Ed never really looked at the migration to the Sunbelt besides the recreational tourism. And, arguably, by spending his later years in exurban Oracle, Aridzona, was kind of a hypocrite.

This:

According to the most recent data, the median household income for Moab is $52,000 — likely a conservative estimate, since it probably undercounts seasonal workers as well as lower-income folks.

Is why managed growth isn't full hypocrisy, and why Ed blew it on not looking at the permanent moves, or the second-homers, or a phenomenon unknown in his time, the AirBnB types.

That said, back to the piece's start point.

Developer Michael Bynum was full in! This:

Subdivision streets were named in honor of some of Abbey’s more controversial characters, such as “Hayduke Court,” named after George Hayduke, the ring leader of a fictional group of eco-terrorists who plant explosives on Glen Canyon Dam in The Monkey Wrench Gang. (The development is also home to a “Monkey Wrench Way.”)

Shows that.

That said, HCN was largely riffing off a piece in the Durango Telegraph, an alt-ish weekly tabloid competitor to the Durango Herald. It deserves a read on its own, starting with:

For the developer’s part, Mike Bynum, a Moab native who is highly involved in the local business community, said the decision to use Abbey themes was made years ago as an homage to the author. Especially since Abbey, in a roundabout way, put Moab on the map with his formative book, “Desert Solitaire,” chronicling his time as a park ranger at Arches National Park in the 1950s.

More ironic yet. This wasn't some move-in dudebro doing this. An associate of Bynum's said this was meant as sincere homage.

And, it riffs on what Ed's still-living disciples think:

“Ed would spin many times in his grave,” Jack Loeffler, an author and longtime friend of Abbey, said. ...

“Jesus Christ,” Doug Peacock, a friend of Abbey’s since 1975 and whom the character Hayduke was based on, said. “That’s a goddamn shame.”

“Oh my god,” Art Goodtimes, a fellow writer who met Abbey in the early 1980s, said. “Oh my god.”

“I think,” Andy Nettell, former owner of Back of Beyond Books in Moab, said, “it will become a laughingstock within the community when the signs actually do come up.”

Nettell was a ranger at both Arches and Canyonlands before starting Back of Beyond. He later notes this isn't new, but a smaller subdivision built out long ago was on a site where Abbey once owned land, and is now owned by Ken Sleight, aka "Seldom Seen Smith."

The burn!

Note the "was," though.

Ed's widow, Clarke Abbey, the wife he couldn't run off, remains jealously protective of his legacy. (In my opinion, she was that while still alive, and that's why he couldn't run her off.)

Was, as in, for now at least, ain't happening:

According to the Durango Telegraph, developers have responded to the request of Clarke Abbey, the writer’s widow and holder of his estate, by deciding not to proceed with naming the subdivision after him.

And, we click that link above about the Telegraph to read more. 

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Side note 1: Here's my poetic tribute to the 40th anniversary of Desert Solitaire. There was also a 50th gathering. Probably most of Ed's acolytes will be dead by 2028.

Side note 2: With his own warts and all, the best real take on Abbey is by someone independent enough not to be an acolyte, and that's the late Chuck Bowden. Many of Abbey's friends/acolytes (Loeffler comes particularly to mind) are hangers-on types. This includes Bowden noting that Clarke seemed to buy into the Cult of Ed, and I presume for glory reasons, and even more, for fiscal ones.

Indeed, from Red Caddy, one commenter on HCN's Facebook said this:

Once, when I was working at the newspaper, I got a call at home from a reporter who’d stumbled onto the fact that Edward Abbey, the enemy of growth, had applied under someone else’s name to have his piddling acres on the edge of the sprawl rezoned for higher density. As I listened to the woman’s excited voice, I knew what was going on: that a huge subdivision was going to surround his hideaway and he had a choice of moving out now and letting the buyer rezone it to cash in or rezoning it and taking some money with him. The whole situation had a wonderful quality to it since the person wheeling and dealing downtown for the soon-to-descend subdivision was a former mayoral candidate [Abbey, jokingly] who’d run his campaigns under the aegis of Cactus Power. God, I love my town.

Hypocrite Ed!  Speaking of, per my caption above, I've called out HCN for what is not Ed Abbey, as he was dead long before 2015, and is ergo either a model, or somebody doing AI and backdating it 9 years, when he was still dead anyway.

Side note 3: Jim Stiles is still kind of a blowhard. I went to Canyon Country Zephyr but didn't see any takes by him. And, that's because ... he's dead!

Here's my takedown obit.

Side note 4: There's even a Cactus Ed Deadhead fan site! A lot of that shit there is old. I think Abbey pretty much faded for many after the 40th anniversary event.

Side note 5: Per Amy Irvine, Ed did (along with the racism and sexism Bowden notes) have a white privilege for Desert Solitaire on which he based that.

Side note 5: The MAGAts (what took them so long?) are, years after HCN cut off onsite comments, finally swarming its Facebook page.

Side note 6: I am going to have to publish myself a mini-short story satire I wrote about Stiles and Abbey. I've sent it twice to Jeff St. Clair at Counterpunch and nothing.

Interesting, as of mid-June, Counterpunch has NO obituary, whether straight news obit, eulogy or takedown, of Stiles. That's even though St. Clair did pieces for HCN 20 and more years ago, at the same time as Stiles.