Edward Abbey

Thanks to the counter-culture cry of “Hayduke Lives,” Edward Abbey’s Monkey Wrench Gang became in the 1960s a symbol of the environmental warrior.

Although this avowed anarchist is often thought of as being a western man, his “western roots” actually began in western Pennsylvania in the little settlement of Home near Indiana, PA. He left Home just before his 18th birthday in 1945 and never looked back, spending the next 40 years advocating for open space and public lands in his own inimitable fashion. 

While many disagree with the methods of Abbey’s literary characters and, indeed, his own anarchist beliefs, it is hard to argue with his belief that: “It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here.”