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Leslie McKee
A jeep full of anonymous engineers with the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads pulls up to Abbey’s trailer one evening. To Abbey’s horror, the engineers describe their assignment to chart out massive, expensive paved roads into Arches National Monument. Abbey reflects that their project, in the 10 years since this incident, has come to pass. Though the men are anonymous and appear only briefly to ask Abbey for water, they introduce Abbey’s most important political argument: that industrial development of the national parks—especially the paving of roads—is a misguided improvement born of human arrogance, political oppression, and capitalist greed. As soon as the men drive off, Abbey retraces their path, pulling up their stakes and trashing them—his first act of environmentalist protest.
The Engineers Quotes in Desert Solitaire
The Desert Solitaire quotes below are all either spoken by The Engineers or refer to The Engineers. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Polemic Quotes
It will be objected that a constantly increasing population makes resistance and conservation a hopeless battle. This is true. Unless a way is found to stabilize the nation’s population, the parks cannot be saved. Or anything else worth a damn. Wilderness preservation, like a hundred other good causes, will be forgotten under the overwhelming pressure of a struggle for mere survival and sanity in a completely urbanized, completely industrialized, ever more crowded environment.
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The Engineers Character Timeline in Desert Solitaire
The timeline below shows where the character The Engineers appears in Desert Solitaire. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks
...trailer. Excited to fine for unauthorized motoring, Abbey is dismayed to learn the passengers are engineers with the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads. They approach him for fresh water and describe...
(full context)
Jumping back in time to the thirsty engineers, Abbey contemplates whether human beings are “herd animal[s].” He refuses to believe it. He wishes...
(full context)
