Bless the Beasts and Children (novel)

Bless the Beasts and Children is a 1970 novel by Glendon Swarthout that tells the story of several emotionally disturbed boys away at summer camp who unite to stop a buffalo hunt.

The boys, in accordance with the camp rules, do manage to raid all of the superior cabins and conquer their trophies so as to advance in rank, but they use badly executed subterfuge that is looked down upon by the other campers.

This find allows the Bedwetters to blackmail the counselor, who is called "Wheaties", into taking them to a ranch, where they witness a canned hunt of surplus bison rounded up from the surrounding area.

After a ride into Flagstaff, Arizona, on U.S. Route 66, they enter an all-night eatery for food but are accosted by two "redneck" types, who follow them away from the restaurant and force their truck to the side, where they discover it is hot-wired.

They walk the rest of the way and make their way through the fence maze on the ranch until they manage to open the exit gate so the bison can escape.