Fire On The Mountain Chapter Summary

Summary Edward Abbey’s Fire on the Mountain details Billy Vogelin Starr’s stay on his grandfather’s New Mexico ranch. On the first few days of his stay, Billy; his grandfather, John Vogelin; and his uncle, Lee Mackie, embark on a trip through the mountains in search of a lost horse. Lee Mackie and Billy soon run into trespassing army men in a jeep, who had been illegally hunting on the ranch property; Lee Mackie drives them away, warning them to never return. Billy, later on this trip when they’ve settled for the night at John’s cabin, is stalked by a mountain lion while he gets water. The family suspects the mountain lion may have gotten the horse, but aren’t surprised to find the very next day that the army men had shot and killed the horse,

Eventually, John leaves, telling Billy not to follow him; Billy tries not to, but Lee Mackie takes him on a search for the old man. After following his traces all over the area, they finally drive up to his cabin in the mountains where the three spent the beginning of the summer together. Lee and Billy do find John Vogelin here, but they find him dead. The two decide to cremate the man, and they burn John in his cabin without any government formalities. Marshal Burr finds the two and tries to stop them once again; Lee Mackie, however, threatens Burr and drives him away, letting John Vogelin rest in peace, unharassed by society as he would have liked it. The story finally ends with the line, “Far above on the mountainside, posted on his lookout point, troubled by the fire, the lion screamed” (Abbey,

John Vogelin’s battle against the government represents the fight against technology and society, favoring the individual and his bond with nature. The ranch is described as John’s heart, soul, and life multiple times, and when this bond between the land and the individual is broken, it proves to be ultimately damaging to John. These transcendentalist themes even appear in a conversation between Lee Mackie and John when Lee comments, “‘... But whose light? Whose mountain? Whose land? Who owns the land? Answer me that, old horse. The man with title to it? The man who works it? The man who stole it last?,’” to which John replies, “‘I am the land’” (Abbey, 33-34). While Lee argues that people can’t own the land, John argues that he (the individual) is one with the