The Monkey Wrench Gang

Smith, Sarvis, Hayduke, and Bonnie decide to follow through on their fireside schemes. At Smith's suggestion, they store supplies at various points in their "projected field of operations" (71), which includes the northern Grand Canyon, southeast Utah, and northern Arizona. Their supplies include food, field equipment, and implements of destruction: "monkey wrenches, wrecking bars […] sugars, and syrups […] detonating cord" (71). Smith and Hayduke do most of the work caching the supplies as Bonnie and Sarvis have to fly up from Albuquerque to help.

Hayduke objects to Bonnie's presence, saying it's "man's work" (71). Bonnie stands up for herself and Sarvis intervenes, trying to make peace. Hayduke says they agreed to only three people but Sarvis says that where he "goest Bonnie goeth" (72). Smith says it's "kinda nice" (72) to have Bonnie around. Hayduke says Bonnie should take a blood oath. Bonnie objects, saying she won't play "any little-boy games" (72) and if they don't trust her, she'll "turn you all in to the Bureau of Land Management" (72).

Sarvis has the last word, though, as the operation's financier. Transportation, both by car and airplane, proves to be the costliest. Smith can write off many items as a "business expense" (73) for his guide business, Back of Beyond Expeditions. Hayduke makes many demands for supplies, including gloves and peanut butter, which Sarvis provides, and "sidearms" (72), which Sarvis refuses. Hayduke says they "gotta shoot back" (72) but Sarvis insists on "no bloodshed" (72).

Early into their "campaign" (74), Hayduke stops Sarvis from paying for gas with his credit card. Hayduke says they shouldn't leave a paper trail "one mile wide" (74) with Sarvis' signature on every receipt. Sarvis understands and starts using only cash. Additionally, the group refrains from stealing, buying, or using explosives, "at first" (74), though Hayduke urges their immediate use. Again, Sarvis shuts down Hayduke's predilection for violence. Hayduke consoles himself by thinking that for each of their actions, there would be "a bigger reaction" (74).

The group takes "scrupulous care" (75) of their equipment and makes sure the sites are "camouflaged" (75) well. They don't consider the sites secure until Smith and Hayduke, "senior military advisors" (75), inspect them. The group struggles to come up with a name for themselves: "Peanut Butter Cabal? Raiders of the Purple Sage? Young Americans for Freedom?" (75). They ask each other who's in charge; Bonnie says everyone, Sarvis says no one.

The group's nascent activity excites everyone. Sarvis, for his part, extends his activism outside of the group, too. When invited to give a lecture on "Industrial Pollution & Respiratory Illness" (75) at the "fifty-million-dollar new University Medical Center" (75), Sarvis finds the allegedly air-conditioned classroom hot and stuffy. When he tries to open the classroom window, Sarvis finds they're merely decorative. Sarvis, "calm and reasonable" (76), takes a chair from near the blackboard and shatters the window glass with it. The students give him a "sitting ovation" (76).

One day in early June, the crew rides up to Comb Ridge, a "monocline" (76), or clifflike formation, just east of the Glen Canyon Dam in Utah. Sitting four abreast in Smith's "4x4 pickup truck" (76), they stop at the top of the ridge. Getting out, they all move close to the cliff's edge. Bonnie and Sarvis admire and joke about the surrounding plants then join Smith and Hayduke at the rim. Below, they see crews building a new road. Smith explains that the old road "is too old" (77) and isn't paved. The new road is a state road, meant to help "the poor fellas that own the uranium mines" (77) and the tourists who visit Lake Powell.

Looking though Smith's field glasses and puffing on his cigar, Sarvis says they "have work to do tonight" (78). The rest of the crew agrees and get back in the truck. They drive a little closer to the cliff's edge, to get a better view of "the project" (78). Hayduke leads the group, dropping onto his belly and crawling like a soldier to the rim.

From their vantage point, they can see "the heart, not the whole" (79) of the construction project. They see bulldozers, ready to clear the road's "right-of-way" (79), then a second wave of bulldozers, which will blade the soil and turn up "loose stone down to the bedrock" (79). They also see drill rigs and air compressors digging up the earth. Finally, they see the "demolition team" (80) lowering charges into holes, detonating them, then sending "more bulldozers, ladders and giant trucks" (80) to clear away the debris.

Still on the ridge, the group prepares for their sabotage operation. Hayduke says they'll have to look out for "a night watchman" (81) but Smith assures him there won't be one. Smith's worked "in these outfits" (81) himself and says the site is too far away from town for the construction crew to expect trouble. Doc and Hayduke keep watch while Bonnie and Smith, the group's cooks, prepare dinner. Doc and Hayduke watch the construction workers leave the site "long before sundown" (81).

After eating, Hayduke reads off the operation's checklist. He tells them he'll chop off the hands of anyone "fucking around" (82) without wearing their gloves. Bonnie reminds Hayduke that he hasn't washed the dishes yet but he ignores her. Hayduke addresses Bonnie and Doc, the lookouts, asking if they know the signals. They talk about using whistles, but Smith suggests "something more natural" (83), like owl hoots. Smith teaches the group how to make the owl hoots using their hands.

With their supplies packed in Smith and Hayduke's heavy backpacks, the group heads down the ridge. Smith leads the way, making sure they walk on the rocks to leave no tracks. Smith walks around an anthill but Doc walks straight through it, cursing R. Buckminster Fuller, a proponent of the geodesic dome. Doc gives a "mini-lecture" (84) about his hatred of the anthill, which he calls "the mark of social disease" (84).

As they make their way down the ridge to the construction site, the group comes across survey stakes, which they pull up. Hayduke says they'll want their first lookout there. Bonnie says she wants to "wreck something" (85), so Doc says he'll stay behind. At the construction site, Smith and Hayduke get to work on the heavy equipment while Bonnie keeps watch. She protests that she's bored and Smith says she can join them later.

Smith and Hayduke cut, snip, and wrench the rigs' innerworkings, and also fill the oil reservoirs with sand and the gas tanks with Karo syrup. Hayduke, however, says they're wasting time. He thinks they ought to "really blast this motherfucker" (89). Smith calms him, saying that this method is better than all-out destruction. Hayduke drops his comment but then asks if they're doing this right. He figures the workers will return in the morning, see all the wiring's been cut, and try to fix the visible problems. Hayduke says it might be better to "hide our work" (92), sticking to the sand and Karo tricks. Smith agrees, and they continue on that way.

Smith says he wishes they'd figured this all out before because they "ain't got all night" (93) since they'll need to be "fifty miles away from here come morning" (93). Hayduke says he'd like to stay and see what happens for "personal fucking satisfaction" (93). The group continues on, with Smith and Hayduke swapping with Bonnie for lookout. When they reach the end of the "cut-and-fill site" (94), Hayduke wants to keep following the survey stakes, which go on for twelve miles, and rip them out. Bonnie suggests moving them around to confuse the crew. Smith tells Hayduke they can't do everything in one night but Hayduke says that once the crew sees what happened, they'll bring in "watchmen with guns, shortwave radios, dogs" (95).

From above them comes Doc's owl hoot, warning them. In the distance, the group hears "the mutter of a motor" (95). They tumble over the side of the fill site and sit, listening. On the road, a man in a truck sips coffee and switches on his spotlight. He passes it over the equipment and, seeing nothing amiss, drives away. Hayduke says next time they'll have dogs, then "napalm" (96). Smith says it's not like that and insists that the construction workers are "people too, like us" (96). Hayduke disagrees.

The group returns to Doc's lookout place and Smith tells him they did their best. Hayduke tells Doc that "the war has begun" (97). Above them, the stars shine down on the "hundred miles of semi-arid plateau" (97).

Hayduke spends the night of the group's operation alone on the ridge above Comb Wash. Though the others argued with him, Hayduke insisted on seeing "the results of the work" (99). He awakens before dawn and begins the preparations for his solo excursion: pulling up the remaining surveyor's stakes.

From his lookout point on the rim, Hayduke watches the construction workers' pickup trucks arrive. Though only about seven o'clock, by Hayduke's estimate, it's already hot outside. Hayduke sees some of the vehicles start, while others "did not, or would not, or never would" (100). After watching awhile, Hayduke grows bored and decides to leave his post before any of the construction crew spots the tracks they may have left last night.

Hayduke begins his walk, taking care to walk on the rocks. It feels good for Hayduke to "be marching again" (102), as he had when he served in Vietnam. Around noon, Hayduke comes to the original dirt road the construction will replace and decides to nap under a juniper tree. A few hours later, Hayduke awakens due to "a dry throat and a parched tongue" (102). He takes a big drink from his canteen and decides to wait until dark to continue his journey. When the sun sets, he begins his walk again, estimating he's already gone ten miles. When he comes to a place he thinks is close to the new highway's right-of-way, Hayduke stops again to sleep.

In the morning, Hayduke awakens and treks to the trail of survey stakes that mark the highway's future path. Hayduke waits an hour in the shade before setting out to do his work. He hides his pack then works east, away from the project site, pulling out the stakes as he goes. When he makes his way back, Hayduke stops to watch men "crawling over, under, in and out of their master machines" (104), trying to make repairs to the damage Smith, Bonnie, and Hayduke did the night before. Next, Hayduke retrieves his backpack and follows the stakes to a small, "little-known canyon" (105). Hayduke surmises that they plan to build a bridge across this canyon, too. Upset, Hayduke kneels and scrawls a message in the sand: "Go home" (106). He adds, "No fucking bridge, please" (106), then signs it "Rudolf the Red" (106). Thinking better of using his "secret name" (106), Hayduke re-signs his message "Crazy Horse" (106).

Hayduke looks for a place to cross the small canyon and eventually finds a spot with "contoured terraces" (106) below the rim. Using his rope, Hayduke rappels down the canyon's face. He fills his canteens when he reaches the stream at the canyon's bottom then takes a nap in the shade of a pinyon pine. When he awakens, Hayduke climbs up the canyon's opposite rim and continues on to the new highway's right-of-way.

Through the afternoon, Hayduke continues his movement, pulling up stakes and removing the pink ribbons. Hayduke fantasizes about a day when "the cities are gone […] and the ruckus has died away" (107) and "free men and wild women on horses" (107) can roam the canyons as they please. Stopping his project at sunset, Hayduke sleeps "deep in the bush" (108), or so he thinks.

The next morning, Hayduke finds he's slept just fifty yards from the road. Awakened by a passing car, he staggers to his feet and gets his bearings. He's only ten miles from Owachomo Natural Bridge, where he hopes he'll find the rest of the gang waiting for him. Hayduke buries the last handful of stakes and ribbons beneath a rock, then follows "his infallible sense of direction" (108) to the natural bridge.

By four o'clock in the afternoon, Hayduke reaches the gang. He sits on Smith's tailgate, guzzling beer and an "Abbzug-constructed ham sandwich" (108). Doc tells the group that "the future lies before us, spread-eagled like a coronary upon the dunghill of Destiny" (109). Smith agrees. Hayduke says they need dynamite and rattles off other explosives. Bonnie gives him a "sardonic smile" (109) and says all she ever hears from him is "talk, talk, talk" (109).

Recuperating at the Natural Bridges Monument campground, the group plans "the next series of punitive raids" (111) which will happen in ten days' time. A man approaches the group's campsite and, seeing Smith's truck labeled "Back of Beyond Expeditions Hite Utah" (110), asks if they have bolt cutters. Bonnie promptly responds that they don't but the man ignores her. Bonnie insists that they don't have them as Smith tries to deflect the man's questions until the man finally acknowledges Bonnie and leaves.

Doc reads over the list of things they'll need for their next project and says he doesn't think he can bring them all with him on the plane ride from Albuquerque. Insistent, Hayduke tells Doc to get a charter plane, or buy his own plane instead. Doc, putting his arm "across Hayduke's broad back" (112) and tells Hayduke to have a little patience. Hayduke, sulking, opens another beer. 

After their talk, Smith proposes a game of poker, but Bonnie says they have to get on the road. They have to catch a flight to Albuquerque, so Doc can meet his patients. The group pile into Smith's truck and head to Fry Canyon, where Bonnie and Doc will take a private lane to Farmington, New Mexico and then into Albuquerque. Though it's a "roundabout, expensive, and tiresome" (113) route, Doc prefers it to driving 400 miles through the desert.

Smith will then drive up to the section of the Colorado River that's now become part of Lake Powell, in order to plan the sabotage of three bridges. From there, Smith will drive out to meet a group of "his client backpackers" (113) for a five-day tour of the Henry Mountains in Utah. Hayduke doesn't know what he'll do. He may go with Smith or wander on his own for a while. Hayduke remembers that he left his jeep back at Wahweap Marina in Page, Arizona and wonders how he'll get it back. Whatever happens, Hayduke enjoys this freedom.

As the group departs the campground, they pass by a line of "four-wheel-drive vehicles" (114), all bearing the insignia for "San Juan County, Search and Rescue Team, Blanding, Utah" (114). A group of men sit in the shade by the side of the road, where Hayduke had pulled out the survey stakes, drinking sodas. One of the men, larger and older than the others, approaches Smith's truck and greets him by name. Smith tells the man, Bishop Love, a fellow Mormon, that he's doing "fine as a frog's hair" (115).

Bishop Love greets the others but none of them give much of a response. After some small talk, Bishop Love asks Smith if he's seen a man around “makin' a public nuisance of hisself" (115). Smith asks what the man looks like and Bishop Love responds that he wears size ten or eleven Vibram lug sole boots. Smith says he hasn't seen a man like that and Bishop Love says not to worry, they'll "find him pretty quick" (115). He tells Smith to stop by Blanding next time he comes through, so they can catch up.

As they drive away, Bonnie asks Smith if he's an old friend or enemy of Smith's. Smith says Love is the latter and explains that he's a bishop in the Mormon church. Smith also says that he'd be a bishop, too, if he had "stayed out of Short Crick and Cohabitation Canyon" (116), or, as Hayduke translates, if he didn't follow "his cock all over Utah and Arizona" (116). Bonnie tells Hayduke to shut up then asks Smith what the search-and-rescue team is doing on the road project. Smith explains that they're mostly businessmen who "like to play vigilante in their spare time" (116) and work closely with the county sheriff's department.

Bonnie asks Smith who Bishop Love is and why he hates Smith's guts. Smith says Love hates him because he stopped Love's plans to buy a piece of state land overlooking Lake Powell. Love had plans to build "some kind of tourist development" (117) on it and Smith and some friends had talked the Land Commission into "blocking the deal" (117). Smith says that Love, like many others in Utah, is religious during church and also "neck deep in real estate, uranium, cattle, gas, tourism most anything that smells like money" (117).

They drive on through the desert, coming to Fry Canyon and dropping Bonnie and Doc off at the tiny airport. After stopping to restock their beer chest, Hayduke and Smith continue on their drive. They come to White Canyon, with its new bridge spanning the gorge. This is one of the bridges they plan to sabotage. They inspect it then drive onto the next bridge. This one, though, no longer spans the Colorado River which, after the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, has been "removed" (120). The two men look down into the "motionless body of murky green effluent" (120) with disgust.

Hayduke inspects the bridge's construction and finds it "very concrete" (121), held together with "blots the size of a man's arm, nuts big as dinner plates" (121). They drive to the third bridge, which spans the "now-submerged mouth of the Dirty Devil River" (121). This bridge, like the others, is arched steel and concrete. Hayduke says they need "a carload of H.E." (121) but Smith says they don't need to blow all three bridges to cut off the roadway. Hayduke thinks a "nice neat job on all three would be more appreciated" (121).

As the men lean on the bridge's railing, they notice something beneath them. Just above the Hite Marina, an airstrip is "undergoing expansion" (122). They see a yellow pickup truck, a loader, a dump truck, and a Caterpillar bulldozer. The man operating the bulldozer gets down from the machine and into the pickup truck, heading to lunch at the marina. Hayduke points out that the man didn't "remove anything" (122), such as keys, when he shut off the engine. Hayduke tells Smith he wants him to give him a "lesson in equipment operation" (122). Smith says he won't do it in broad daylight with "motorboaters hangin' around the marina" (122). Hayduke convinces him, saying they'll wear their hardhats and take the license plates off of Smith's truck. Smith reluctantly agrees.

They drive down into the construction site and approach the bulldozer. Smith shows Hayduke the complicated process to get the bulldozer started and running. Hayduke wants to steer it so Smith shows him how to do that, too. After, Smith gets into his truck and starts the engine, ready to "take off at the first hint of danger" (126). Grinning, Hayduke maneuvers the bulldozer towards the loader and begins pushing it to the edge of the airstrip, just above the marina. He yells to Smith, asking him how to "stop this thing" (127) but Smith can't hear him. Hayduke pushes the loader over the rim and it falls into the marina’s waters below. Unable to stop the bulldozer, Hayduke jumps out of the cabin and watches the bulldozer hit the canyon walls "with a shuddering effect, like a sonic boom" (127). It, too, sinks into the waters of the marina.

Hayduke runs to Smith's truck as the bulldozer operator gets into his yellow pickup at the marina and heads back up to the airstrip. Smith and Hayduke head back towards the Dirty Devil bridge but take a road north, to a spot that conceals them from the highway. Though Smith worries about the dust, "like a giant rooster tail" (128), his truck kicks up, they remain hidden behind some rocks. They wait and hear "the whine of the pursuing truck" (128) turn to "stillness, harmony, and joy" (128) as it passes.