Fire on the Mountain — Edward Abbey

A New Mexico man faces off against the government in a battle over his land in this novel by the author of Desert Solitaire.
 
After nine months away at school, Billy Vogelin Starr returns home to his beloved New Mexico -- only to find his grandfather in a standoff with the US government, which wants to take his land and turn it into an extension of the White Sands Missile Range.
 
Facing the combined powers of the US county sheriff, the Department of the Interior, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the US Air Force, John Vogelin stands his ground -- because to Vogelin, his land is his life. When backed into a corner, a tough old man like him will come out fighting . . .
 
Fire on the Mountain is a suspenseful page-turner by “one of the very best writers to deal with the American West” -- the acclaimed author of such classics as The Monkey Wrench Gang and the memoir Desert Solitaire (The Washington Post).
 
“Abbey is a fresh breath from the farther reaches and canyons of the diminishing frontier.” -- Houston Chronicle
 
“The Thoreau of the American West.” -- Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer Prize�"winning author of Lonesome Dove