John Muir | |
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 Muirc. 1902 | |
| Born | (1838-04-21)April 21, 1838 Dunbar, Scotland |
| Died | December 24, 1914(1914-12-24) (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Signature | |
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John Muir (/mjʊər/MURE; April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914),[1] also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of theNational Parks",[2] was a Scottish-born American[3][4]: 42 naturalist, author,environmental philosopher,botanist,zoologist,glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation ofwilderness in the United States.
His books, letters and essays describing his adventures in nature, especially in theSierra Nevada, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve theYosemite Valley andSequoia National Park, and his example has served as an inspiration for the preservation of many otherwilderness areas. TheSierra Club, which he co-founded, is a prominent Americanconservation organization. In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to his wife and the preservation of the Western forests. As part of the campaign to make Yosemite a national park, Muir published two landmark articles on wilderness preservation inThe Century Magazine, "The Treasures of the Yosemite" and "Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park"; this helped support the push forUS Congress to pass a bill in 1890 establishingYosemite National Park.[5] The spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings has inspired readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas.[6]
John Muir has been considered "an inspiration to both Scots and Americans".[7] Muir's biographer, Steven J. Holmes, believes that Muir has become "one of the patron saints of twentieth-century American environmental activity", both political and recreational. As a result, his writings are commonly discussed in books and journals, and he has often been quoted by nature photographers such asAnsel Adams.[8] "Muir has profoundly shaped the very categories through which Americans understand and envision their relationships with the natural world", writes Holmes.[9]
Muir was noted for being an ecological thinker, political spokesman, and environmental advocate, whose writings became a personal guide into nature for many people, making his name "almost ubiquitous" in the modern environmental consciousness. According to author William Anderson, Muir exemplified "the archetype of our oneness with the earth",[10] while biographerDonald Worster says he believed his mission was "saving the American soul from total surrender to materialism".[11]: 403 On April 21, 2013, the first John Muir Day was celebrated in Scotland, which marked the 175th anniversary of his birth, paying homage to the conservationist.
John Muir was born inDunbar, Scotland, in a three-story stone building now preserved asa museum. He was the third of eight children of Daniel Muir and Ann Gilrye; their other children were Margaret, Sarah, David, Daniel, Ann and Mary (twins), and the American-born Joanna. His earliest recollections were of taking short walks with his grandfather when he was three.[12] In his autobiography, he described his boyhood pursuits, which included fighting, either by re-enacting romantic battles from theWars of Scottish Independence or just wrestling on the playground, and hunting for birds' nests (ostensibly to one-up his fellows as they compared notes on who knew where the most were located).[13]: 25, 37 Author Amy Marquis notes that he began his "love affair" with nature while young, and implies that it may have been in reaction to his strict religious upbringing. "His father believed that anything that distracted from Bible studies was frivolous and punishable." But the young Muir was a "restless spirit" and especially "prone to lashings".[14] As a young boy, Muir became fascinated with the East Lothian landscape, and spent a lot of time wandering the local coastline and countryside. It was during this time that he became interested in natural history and the works of Scottish naturalistAlexander Wilson.
Although he spent the majority of his life in America, Muir never forgot his roots inScotland. He held a strong connection with his birthplace and Scottish identity throughout his life and was frequently heard talking about his childhood spent amid the East Lothian countryside. He greatly admired the works ofThomas Carlyle and poetry ofRobert Burns; he was known to carry a collection of poems by Burns during his travels through the American wilderness. He returned to Scotland on a trip in 1893, where he met one of his Dunbar schoolmates and visited the places of his youth that were etched in his memory.[7] He never lost his Scottish accent since he was already 11 years old when he and his family emigrated to America.[15]
In 1849, Muir's family immigrated to the United States, starting a farm nearPortage, Wisconsin, calledFountain Lake Farm. It has been designated aNational Historic Landmark.[16] Stephen Fox recounts that Muir's father found theChurch of Scotland insufficiently strict in faith and practice, leading to their immigration and joining a congregation of theCampbelliteRestoration Movement, called theDisciples of Christ.[17]: 7 By the age of 11, the young Muir had learned to recite "by heart and by sore flesh" all of theNew Testament and most of theOld Testament.[4]: 30 In maturity, while remaining a deeply spiritual man, Muir may have changed his orthodox beliefs. He wrote, "I never tried to abandon creeds or code of civilization; they went away of their own accord ... without leaving any consciousness of loss." Elsewhere in his writings, he described the conventional image of aCreator "as purely a manufactured article as any puppet of a half-penny theater".[18]: 95, 115
When he was 22 years old, Muir enrolled at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison, paying his own way for several years. There, under a toweringblack locust tree besideNorth Hall, Muir took his first botany lesson. A fellow student plucked a flower from the tree and used it to explain how the grand locust is a member of the pea family, related to the straggling pea plant. Fifty years later, the naturalist Muir described the day in his autobiography. "This fine lesson charmed me and sent me flying to the woods and meadows in wild enthusiasm".[13]: 225 As a freshman, Muir studied chemistry withProfessor Ezra Carr and his wifeJeanne; they became lifelong friends and Muir developed a lasting interest in chemistry and the sciences.[11]: 76 Muir took an eclectic approach to his studies, attending classes for two years but never being listed higher than a first-year student due to his unusual selection of courses. Records showed his class status as "irregular gent" and, even though he never graduated, he learned enough geology and botany to inform his later wanderings.[19]: 36
In 1863, his brother Daniel left Wisconsin and moved toSouthern Ontario (then known asCanada West in theUnited Canadas), to avoid thedraft during theUS Civil War. Muir left school and travelled to the same region in 1864, and spent the spring, summer, and fall exploring the woods and swamps, and collecting plants around the southern reaches ofLake Huron'sGeorgian Bay.[11]: 85, 92 Muir hiked along theNiagara Escarpment, including much of today'sBruce Trail. With his money running low and winter coming, he reunited with his brother Daniel nearMeaford, Ontario, who persuaded him to work with him at the sawmill and rake factory of William Trout and Charles Jay. Muir lived with the Trout family in an area called Trout Hollow, south of Meaford, on theBighead River.[20] While there, he continued "botanizing", exploring the escarpment and bogs, collecting and cataloging plants. One source appears to indicate he worked at the mill/factory until the summer of 1865,[19]: 37 while another says he stayed on at Trout Hollow until after a fire burned it down in February 1866.[21]
In March 1866, Muir returned to the United States, settling inIndianapolis to work in a wagon wheel factory. He proved valuable to his employers because of his inventiveness in improving the machines and processes; he was promoted to supervisor, being paid $25 per week.[4]: 48 In early-March 1867, an accident changed the course of his life: a tool he was using slipped and struck him in the eye. The file slipped and cut the cornea in his right eye and then his left eye sympathetically failed.[22] He was confined to a darkened room for six weeks to regain his sight, worried about whether he would end up blind. When he regained his sight, "he saw the world—and his purpose—in a new light". Muir later wrote, "This affliction has driven me to the sweet fields. God has to nearly kill us sometimes, to teach us lessons".[14] From that point on, he determined to "be true to [himself]" and follow his dream of exploration and study of plants.[18]: 97
In September 1867, Muir undertook a walk of about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) fromKentucky toFlorida, which he recounted in his bookA Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. He had no specific route chosen, except to go by the "wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way I could find".[23] When Muir arrived atCedar Key, he began working for Richard Hodgson at Hodgson's sawmill. However, three days after accepting the job at Hodgson's, Muir almost died of a malarial sickness. After spending three months in an oft delirious state, Muir's condition improved such that he was able to move about the Hodgson's house and look outside. Due to their unending kindness in caring for his life, Muir stated that he "doubtless owe my life"[24] to the Hodgsons.
One evening in early January 1868, Muir climbed onto the Hodgson house roof to watch the sunset. He saw a ship, the Island Belle, and learned it would soon be sailing forCuba.[25]: 150, 154 Muir boarded the ship, and while inHavana, he spent his hours studying shells and flowers and visiting the botanical garden in the city.[26]: 56 Afterwards, he sailed toNew York City and booked passage toCalifornia.[19]: 40–41 In 1878, Muir served as a guide and artist for theUnited States Coast and Geodetic Survey on the survey of the39th parallel across theGreat Basin of Nevada and Utah.[27][28]
Finally settling inSan Francisco, Muir immediately left for a week-long visit toYosemite, a place he had only read about. Seeing it for the first time, Muir notes that "He was overwhelmed by the landscape, scrambling down steep cliff faces to get a closer look at the waterfalls, whooping and howling at the vistas, jumping tirelessly from flower to flower."[14] He later returned to Yosemite and worked as a shepherd for a season. He climbed a number of mountains, includingCathedral Peak andMount Dana, and hiked an old trail downBloody Canyon toMono Lake.
Muir built a small cabin alongYosemite Creek,[29]: 207 designing it so that a section of the stream flowed through a corner of the room so he could enjoy the sound of running water. He lived in the cabin for two years[30]: 143 and wrote about this period in his bookFirst Summer in the Sierra (1911). Muir's biographer, Frederick Turner, notes Muir's journal entry upon first visiting the valley and writes that his description "blazes from the page with the authentic force of a conversion experience".[25]: 172
During these years inYosemite, Muir was unmarried, often unemployed, with no prospects for a career, and had "periods of anguish", writes naturalist authorJohn Tallmadge. In 1880 he marriedLouisa Strentzel. He went into business for 10 years with his father-in-law managing the orchards on the family2600 acre farm inMartinez, California. John and Louisa had two daughters,Wanda Muir Hanna andHelen Muir Funk. He was sustained by the natural environment and by reading the essays of naturalist authorRalph Waldo Emerson, who wrote about the very life that Muir was then living. On excursions into the back country of Yosemite, he traveled alone, carrying "only a tin cup, a handful of tea, a loaf of bread, and a copy of Emerson."[31]: 52–53 He usually spent his evenings sitting by a campfire in his overcoat, reading Emerson under the stars. As the years passed, he became a "fixture in the valley", respected for his knowledge of natural history, his skill as a guide, and his vivid storytelling.[31]: 53 Visitors to the valley often included scientists, artists, and celebrities, many of whom made a point of meeting with Muir.
During his time at the University of Wisconsin, Muir took classes underCharles H. Allen, with whom he became lifelong friends, sharing a love of natural sciences.[32] Allen would move to California in 1872 and become the principal of theCalifornia State Normal School (nowSan Jose State University), Muir gave several lectures at the normal school, and Allen joined Muir in several mountain hikes.[32]
Muir maintained a close friendship for 38 years withWilliam Keith, a California landscape painter. They were both born the same year in Scotland and shared a love for the mountains of California.[citation needed][33]
In 1871, after Muir had lived in Yosemite for three years, Emerson, with several friends and family, arrived in Yosemite during a tour of theWestern United States.[34]: 105–46 The two men met, and according to Tallmadge, "Emerson was delighted to find at the end of his career the prophet-naturalist he had called for so long ago ... And for Muir, Emerson's visit came like a laying on of hands."[31]: 53 Emerson spent one day with Muir, and he offered him a teaching position at Harvard, which Muir declined. Muir later wrote, "I never for a moment thought of giving up God's big show for a mere profship!"[31]: 53
Muir also spent time with photographerCarleton Watkins and studied his photographs of Yosemite.[35]
Pursuit of his love of science, especially geology, often occupied his free time. Muir soon became convinced thatglaciers had sculpted many of the features of the Yosemite Valley and surrounding area. This notion was in strong contradiction to the accepted contemporary theory, promulgated byJosiah Whitney (head of theCalifornia Geological Survey), which attributed the formation of the valley to a catastrophicearthquake. As Muir's ideas spread, Whitney tried to discredit Muir by branding him as an amateur. ButLouis Agassiz, the premier geologist of the day, saw merit in Muir's ideas and lauded him as "the first man I have ever found who has any adequate conception of glacial action".[36]In 1871, Muir discovered an active alpine glacier belowMerced Peak, which helped his theories gain acceptance.
A largeearthquake centered near Lone Pine inOwens Valley strongly shook occupants of Yosemite Valley in March 1872. The quake woke Muir in the early morning, and he ran out of his cabin "both glad and frightened", exclaiming, "A noble earthquake!" Other valley settlers, who believed Whitney's ideas, feared that the quake was a prelude to a cataclysmic deepening of the valley. Muir had no such fear and promptly made a moonlit survey of newtalus piles created by earthquake-triggered rockslides.[37] This event led more people to believe in Muir's ideas about the formation of the valley.[clarification needed]
In addition to his geologic studies, Muir also investigated the plant life of the Yosemite area. In 1873 and 1874, he made field studies along the western flank of the Sierra on the distribution and ecology of isolated groves ofGiant Sequoia. In 1876, theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science published Muir's paper on the subject.[38]
Between 1879 and 1899, Muir made seven trips toAlaska, as far asUnalaska andBarrow.[39] Muir, Mr. Young (Fort Wrangell missionary) and a group of Native American Guides first traveled to Alaska in 1879 and were the first Euro-Americans[40] to exploreGlacier Bay.Muir Glacier was later named after him. He traveled intoBritish Columbia a third of the way up theStikine River, likening itsGrand Canyon to "a Yosemite that was a hundred miles long".[41] Muir recorded over 300 glaciers along the river's course.[42]
He returned for further explorations in southeast Alaska in 1880 and in 1881 was with the party that landed onWrangel Island on theUSSCorwin and claimed that island for the United States. He documented this experience in journal entries and newspaper articles—later compiled and edited into his bookThe Cruise of the Corwin.[43] In 1888 after seven years of managing the Strentzel fruit ranch inAlhambra Valley, California, his health began to suffer. He returned to the hills to recover, climbingMount Rainier inWashington and writingAscent of Mount Rainier.
Muir threw himself into the preservationist role with great vigor. He envisioned the Yosemite area and the Sierra as pristine lands.[44] He thought the greatest threat to the Yosemite area and the Sierra was domesticated livestock—especially domestic sheep, which he referred to as "hoofed locusts". In June 1889, the influential associate editor ofThe Century magazine,Robert Underwood Johnson, camped with Muir inTuolumne Meadows and saw firsthand the damage a large flock of sheep had done to the grassland. Johnson agreed to publish any article Muir wrote on the subject of excluding livestock from the Sierra high country. He also agreed to use his influence to introduce a bill to Congress to make the Yosemite area into a national park, modeled afterYellowstone National Park.
On September 30, 1890, the US Congress passed a bill that essentially followed recommendations that Muir had suggested in twoCentury articles, "The Treasures of the Yosemite" and "Features of the Proposed National Park", both published in 1890.[45][44] But to Muir's dismay, the bill left Yosemite Valley under state control, as it had been since the 1860s.
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In early 1892, Professor Henry Senger, aphilologist at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, contacted Muir with the idea of forming a local 'alpine club' for mountain lovers. Senger and San Francisco attorneyWarren Olney sent out invitations "for the purpose of forming a 'Sierra Club'. Mr. John Muir will preside". On May 28, 1892, the first meeting of theSierra Club was held to write articles of incorporation. One week later Muir was elected president, Warren Olney was elected vice-president, and a board of directors was chosen that includedDavid Starr Jordan, president of the newStanford University. Muir remained president until his death 22 years later.[4]: 107–108 [46]
The Sierra Club immediately opposed efforts to reduceYosemite National Park by half, and began holding educational and scientific meetings. At one meeting in the fall of 1895 that included Muir,Joseph LeConte, and William R. Dudley, the Sierra Club discussed the idea of establishing 'national forest reservations', which were later calledNational Forests. The Sierra Club was active in the successful campaign to transfer Yosemite National Park from state to federal control in 1906. The fight to preserve Hetch Hetchy Valley was also taken up by the Sierra Club, with some prominent San Francisco members opposing the fight. Eventually a vote was held that overwhelmingly put the Sierra Club behind the opposition to Hetch Hetchy Dam.[46]
In July 1896, Muir became associated withGifford Pinchot, a national leader in theconservation movement. Pinchot was the first head of theUnited States Forest Service and a leading spokesman for the sustainable use of natural resources for the benefit of the people. His views eventually clashed with Muir's and highlighted two diverging views of the use of the country's natural resources. Pinchot saw conservation as a means of managing the nation's natural resources for long-term sustainable commercial use. As a professional forester, his view was that "forestry is tree farming", without destroying the long-term viability of the forests.[47] Muir valued nature for its spiritual and transcendental qualities. In one essay about the National Parks, he referred to them as "places for rest, inspiration, and prayers." He often encouraged city dwellers to experience nature for its spiritual nourishment. Both men opposed reckless exploitation of natural resources, including clear-cutting of forests. Even Muir acknowledged the need for timber and the forests to provide it, but Pinchot's view of wilderness management was more resource-oriented.[47]
Their friendship ended late in the summer of 1897 when Pinchot released a statement to aSeattle newspaper supporting sheep grazing in forest reserves. Muir confronted Pinchot and demanded an explanation. When Pinchot reiterated his position, Muir told him: "I don't want any thing more to do with you". This philosophical divide soon expanded and split the conservation movement into two camps: the "preservationists", led by Muir; and Pinchot's camp, who used the term "conservation". The two men debated their positions in popular magazines, such asOutlook,Harper's Weekly,Atlantic Monthly,World's Work, andCentury. Their contrasting views were highlighted again when the United States was deciding whether to damHetch Hetchy Valley. Pinchot favored damming the valley as "the highest possible use which could be made of it". In contrast, Muir proclaimed, "Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the hearts of man".[47]
In 1899, Muir accompanied railroad executiveE. H. Harriman and esteemed scientists on the famousexploratory voyage along the Alaska coast aboard the luxuriously refitted 250-foot (76 m) steamer, theGeorge W. Elder. He later relied on his friendship with Harriman to pressure Congress to pass conservation legislation.[citation needed]
In 1903, PresidentTheodore Roosevelt accompanied Muir on a visit to Yosemite. Muir joined Roosevelt inOakland, California, for the train trip toRaymond. The presidential entourage then traveled bystagecoach into the park. While traveling to the park, Muir told the president about state mismanagement of the valley and rampant exploitation of the valley's resources. Even before they entered the park, he was able to convince Roosevelt that the best way to protect the valley was through federal control and management.
After entering the park and seeing the magnificent splendor of the valley, the president asked Muir to show him the real Yosemite. Muir and Roosevelt set off largely by themselves and camped in the back country. The duo talked late into the night, slept in the brisk open air of Glacier Point, and were dusted by a fresh snowfall in the morning. It was a night Roosevelt never forgot.[48][49] He later told a crowd, "Lying out at night under those giant Sequoias was like lying in a temple built by no hand of man, a temple grander than any human architect could by any possibility build."[50] Muir, too, cherished the camping trip. "Camping with the President was a remarkable experience", he wrote. "I fairly fell in love with him".[50]
Muir then increased efforts by theSierra Club to consolidate park management. In 1906 Congress transferred theMariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the park.[51]
In his life, Muir published six volumes of writings, all describing explorations of natural settings. Four additional books were published posthumously. Several books were subsequently published that collected essays and articles from various sources. Miller writes that what was most important about his writings was not their quantity, but their "quality". He notes that they have had a "lasting effect on American culture in helping to create the desire and will to protect and preserve wild and natural environments".[19]: 173
His first appearance in print was by accident, writes Miller; a person he did not know submitted, without his permission or awareness, a personal letter to his friend Jeanne Carr, describingCalypso borealis, a rare flower he had encountered. The piece was published anonymously, identified as having been written by an "inspired pilgrim".[19]: 174 Throughout his many years as a nature writer, Muir frequently rewrote and expanded on earlier writings from his journals, as well as articles published in magazines. He often compiled and organized such earlier writings as collections of essays or included them as part of narrative books.[19]: 173
Muir's friendship with Jeanne Carr had a lifelong influence on his career as a naturalist and writer. They first met in the fall of 1860, when, at age 22, he entered a number of his homemade inventions in the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society Fair. Carr, a fair assistant, was asked by fair officials to review Muir's exhibits to see if they had merit. She thought they did and "saw in his entries evidence of genius worthy of special recognition", notes Miller.[19]: 33 As a result, Muir received a diploma and a monetary award for his handmade clocks andthermometer.[52]: 1 During the next three years while a student at the University of Wisconsin, he was befriended by Carr and her husband,Ezra, a professor at the same university. According to Muir biographer Bonnie Johanna Gisel, the Carrs recognized his "pure mind, unsophisticated nature, inherent curiosity, scholarly acumen, and independent thought". Jeanne Carr, 35 years of age, especially appreciated his youthful individuality, along with his acceptance of "religious truths" that were much like her own.[52]: 2
Muir was often invited to the Carrs' home; he shared Jeanne's love of plants. In 1864, he left Wisconsin to begin exploring the Canadian wilderness and, while there, began corresponding with her about his activities. Carr wrote Muir in return and encouraged him in his explorations and writings, eventually having an important influence over his personal goals. At one point she asked Muir to read a book she felt would influence his thinking,Lamartine'sThe Stonemason of Saint Point. It was the story of a man whose life she hoped would "metabolize in Muir", writes Gisel, and "was a projection of the life she envisioned for him". According to Gisel, the story was about a "poor man with a pure heart", who found in nature "divine lessons and saw all of God's creatures interconnected".[52]: 3
After Muir returned to the United States, he spent the next four years exploring Yosemite, while at the same time writing articles for publication. During those years, Muir and Carr continued corresponding. She sent many of her friends to Yosemite to meet Muir and "to hear him preach the gospel of the mountains", writes Gisel. The most notable was naturalist and authorRalph Waldo Emerson. The importance of Carr, who continually gave Muir reassurance and inspiration, "cannot be overestimated", adds Gisel. It was "through his letters to her that he developed a voice and purpose". She also tried to promote Muir's writings by submitting his letters to a monthly magazine for publication. Muir came to trust Carr as his "spiritual mother", and they remained friends for 30 years.[52]: 6 In one letter she wrote to Muir while he was living in Yosemite, she tried to keep him from despairing as to his purpose in life.[52]: 43
The value of their friendship was first disclosed by a friend of Carr's, clergyman and writer G. Wharton James. After obtaining copies of their private letters from Carr, and despite pleadings from Muir to return them, he instead published articles about their friendship, using those letters as a primary source. In one such article, his focus was Muir's debt to Carr, stating that she was his "guiding star" who "led him into the noble paths of life, and then kept him there".[53]: 87–88
John Charles Van Dyke was an author and Professor of Art at Rutgers College (now Rutgers, State University of New Jersey). His nephew Dix Strong Van Dyke had gone to Daggett, California to seek his fortune. Like his uncle, Dix was an author, who wroteDaggett: Life in a Mojave Frontier Town (Creating the North American Landscape). John Muir found his way to Daggett and had many conversations with the uncle and nephew Van Dyke at the Dix ranch. This likely had an effect on his writings. His daughter Helen married Frank Buel and lived in Daggett.
Muir's friend, zoologistHenry Fairfield Osborn, writes that Muir's style of writing did not come to him easily, but only with intense effort. "Daily he rose at 4:30 o'clock, and after a simple cup of coffee labored incessantly. ... he groans over his labors, he writes and rewrites and interpolates". Osborn notes that he preferred using the simplest English language, and therefore admired above all the writings ofCarlyle,Emerson andThoreau. "He is a very firm believer in Thoreau and starts by reading deeply of this author".[54]: 29 His secretary, Marion Randall Parsons, also noted that "composition was always slow and laborious for him. ... Each sentence, each phrase, each word, underwent his critical scrutiny, not once but twenty times before he was satisfied to let it stand". Muir often told her, "This business of writing books is a long, tiresome, endless job".[54]: 33
Miller speculates that Muir recycled his earlier writings partly due to his "dislike of the writing process". He adds that Muir "did not enjoy the work, finding it difficult and tedious". He was generally unsatisfied with the finished result, finding prose "a weak instrument for the reality he wished to convey".[19]: 173 However, he was prodded by friends and his wife to keep writing and as a result of their influence he kept at it, although never satisfied. Muir wrote in 1872, "No amount of word-making will ever make a single soul to 'know' these mountains. One day's exposure to mountains is better than a cartload of books".[55]: xviii In one of his essays, he gave an example of the deficiencies of writing versus experiencing nature.[56]
Muir believed that to discover truth, he must turn to what he believed were the most accurate sources. In his book,The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913), he writes that during his childhood, his father made him read the Bible every day. Muir eventually memorized three-quarters of theOld Testament and all of theNew Testament.[13]: 20 Muir's father readJosephus'sWar of the Jews to understand the culture of first-centuryJudea, as it was written by an eyewitness, and illuminated the culture during the period of the New Testament.[57]: 43 But as Muir became attached to the American natural landscapes he explored, Williams notes that he began to see another "primary source for understanding God: the Book of Nature". According to Williams, in nature, especially in the wilderness, Muir was able to study the plants and animals in an environment that he believed "came straight from the hand of God, uncorrupted by civilization and domestication".[57]: 43 As Tallmadge notes, Muir's belief in this "Book of Nature" compelled him to tell the story of "this creation in words any reader could understand". As a result, his writings were to become "prophecy, for [they] sought to change our angle of vision".[31]: 53
Williams notes that Muir's philosophy and world view rotated around his perceived dichotomy between civilization and nature. From this developed his core belief that "wild is superior".[57]: 41 Hisnature writings became a "synthesis of natural theology" with scripture that helped him understand the origins of the natural world. According to Williams, philosophers and theologians such asThomas Dick suggested that the "best place to discover the true attributes of deity was in Nature". He came to believe that God was always active in the creation of life and thereby kept the natural order of the world.[57]: 41 As a result, Muir "styled himself as aJohn the Baptist", adds Williams, "whose duty was to immerse in 'mountain baptism' everyone he could".[57]: 46 Williams concludes that Muir saw nature as a great teacher, "revealing the mind of God", and this belief became the central theme of his later journeys and the "subtext" of his nature writing.[57]: 50
During his career as writer and while living in the mountains, Muir continued to experience the "presence of the divine in nature", writes Holmes.[9]: 5 [58]: 317 His personal letters also conveyed these feelings of ecstasy. Historian Catherine Albanese stated that in one of his letters, "Muir'seucharist madeThoreau's feast on wood-chuck and huckleberry seem almost anemic". Muir was extremely fond of Thoreau and was probably influenced more by him than evenEmerson. Muir often referred to himself as a "disciple" of Thoreau.[59]: 100
During his first summer in the Sierra as a shepherd, Muir wrote field notes that emphasized the role that the senses play in human perceptions of the environment. According to Williams, he speculated that the world was an unchanging entity that was interpreted by the brain through the senses, and, writes Muir, "If the creator were to bestow a new set of senses upon us ... we would never doubt that we were in another world ..."[57]: 43 While doing his studies of nature, he would try to remember everything he observed as if his senses were recording the impressions, until he could write them in his journal. As a result of his intense desire to remember facts, he filled his field journals with notes on precipitation, temperature, and even cloud formations.[57]: 45
However, Muir took his journal entries further than recording factual observations. Williams notes that the observations he recorded amounted to a description of "the sublimity of Nature", and what amounted to "an aesthetic and spiritual notebook". Muir felt that his task was more than just recording "phenomena", but also to "illuminate the spiritual implications of those phenomena", writes Williams. For Muir, mountain skies, for example, seemed painted with light, and came to "... symbolize divinity".[57]: 45 He often described his observations in terms of light.[60]
Muir biographer Steven Holmes notes that Muir used words like "glory" and "glorious" to suggest that light was taking on a religious dimension: "It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the notion of glory in Muir's published writings, where no other single image carries more emotional or religious weight",[9]: 178 adding that his words "exactly parallels itsHebraic origins", in which biblical writings often indicate a divine presence with light, as in theburning bush orpillar of fire, and described as "the glory of God".[9]: 179 [60][58]: 24
Muir often used the term "home" as a metaphor for both nature and his general attitude toward the "natural world itself", notes Holmes. He often used domestic language to describe his scientific observations, as when he saw nature as providing a home for even the smallest plant life: "the little purple plant, tended by its Maker, closed its petals, crouched low in its crevice of a home, and enjoyed the storm in safety".[58]: 57 Muir also saw nature as his own home, as when he wrote friends and described the Sierra as "God's mountain mansion". He considered not only the mountains as home, however, as he also felt a closeness even to the smallest objects: "The very stones seem talkative, sympathetic, brotherly. No wonder when we consider that we all have the same Father and Mother".[60]: 319
In his later years, he used the metaphor of nature as home in his writings to promote wilderness preservation.[29]: 1
Not surprisingly, Muir's deep-seated feeling about nature as being his true home led to tension with his family at his home in Martinez, California. He once told a visitor to his ranch there, "This is a good place to be housed in during stormy weather, ... to write in, and to raise children in, but it is not my home. Up there", pointing towards the Sierra Nevada, "is my home".[4]: 74
Muir expressed mixed attitudes towardsNative Americans over his life, from sympathy to distaste. He saw nature as ideal when it was free from man's influence, including Native Americans, but he did not recognize that the landscapes he loved had been shaped by Native Americans for millennia, through the use of deliberately-set fires to burn-off understory growth.[61][62][63] His earliest encounters, during his childhood in Wisconsin, were withWinnebago Indians, who begged for food and stole his favorite horse. In spite of that, he had expressed sympathy for their "being robbed of their lands and pushed ruthlessly back into narrower and narrower limits by alien races who were cutting off their means of livelihood". His early encounters with thePaiute in California left him feeling ambivalent after seeing their lifestyle, which he described as "lazy" and "superstitious".[64]
Muir wrote of theMiwoks in Yosemite as “most ugly, and some of them altogether hideous" and that “they seemed to have no right place in the landscape, and I was glad to see them fading out of sight down the pass.”[62] Ecofeminist philosopherCarolyn Merchant has criticized Muir, believing that he wrote disparagingly of the Native Americans he encountered in his early explorations.[65] Later, after living with Indians, he praised and grew more respectful of their low impact on the wilderness, compared to the heavy impact by European Americans.[64] However, in his journals, he often describes those he encounters as "dirty," "irregular" and "unnatural."[60]
Muir was given theStickeen (Muir's spelling, coastal tribe) name "Ancoutahan", meaning "adopted chief".[66]
In response to claims about Muir's attitudes about Native Americans, Sierra Club national Board member Chad Hanson wrote, "Muir wrote repeatedly about the intelligence and dignity of Native Americans, and honored how traditional Indigenous peoples lived in peaceful coexistence with Nature and wild creatures, expressing his view that Native peoples ‘rank above’ white settlers, who he increasingly described as selfish, base, and lacking honor. This would become a constant theme in Muir's writings, as he attacked the dominant white culture's destructive and greedy ways, and its anthrosupremacist mindset that placed humans above all else and recognized no intrinsic value in ecosystems or wildlife species beyond whatever profit could be gained by exploiting them."[67]
Muir spoke and wrote about the equality of all people, "regardless of color, or race",[68] and wrote about the immorality of slavery in his final book,Travels in Alaska.[69] During his time in Alaska he also wrote,
...how we were all children of one father; sketched the characteristics of the different races of mankind, showing that no matter how far apart their countries were, how they differed in color, size, language, etc. and no matter how different and how various the ways in which they got a living, that the white man and all the people of the world were essentially alike, that we all had ten fingers and toes and our bodies were the same, whether white, brown, black or different colors, and speak different languages.[70]
In his earlier years, Muir did make some disparaging remarks about African Americans. InA Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, Muir described African Americans as "well trained" but "making a great deal of noise and doing little work. One energetic white man, working with a will, would easily pick as much cotton as half a dozenSambos and Sallies." Describing the sight of two African Americans at a campfire, he wrote, "I could see their ivory gleaming from the great lips, and their smooth cheeks flashing off light as if made of glass. Seen anywhere but in the South, the glossy pair would have been taken for twin devils, but here it was only a Negro and his wife at their supper."[71] However, at no point in Muir's personal journey to the Gulf did he support or empathize with theSouthern cause, avoiding entreaties from Southern hosts when they prodded him.[72]
In 2020, in light of themovement to remove Confederate monuments across the country,Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, reflected on Muir's complex and controversial legacy and announced that the club would shift towards investing in racial justice work and determine which of its monuments need to be renamed or removed.[73] On July 22, 2020, the Sierra Club wrote:
Muir was not immune to the racism peddled by many in the early conservation movement. He made derogatory comments about Black people and Indigenous peoples that drew on deeply harmful racist stereotypes, though his views evolved later in his life. As the most iconic figure in Sierra Club history, Muir's words and actions carry an especially heavy weight. They continue to hurt and alienate Indigenous people and people of color who come into contact with the Sierra Club.[73]
Some of Muir's associates cited by Brune and others, such asJoseph LeConte,David Starr Jordan, andHenry Fairfield Osborn were closely related to the earlyeugenics movement in the United States.[73][74] Some claim Muir did not espouse such beliefs.[72]
Aaron Mair, who in 2015 became the first Black president of the Sierra Club board, stated that the contents and framing of Muir in Brune's post "are a misrepresentation". Mair went on to state that Brune, "did not consult him or the other two Black board members before pushing ahead on what he called a “revisionist” and “ahistorical” account of Muir's writings, thoughts and life."[75] Mair, along with two other Sierra Club board members, Chad Hanson and Mary Ann Nelson, wrote a response to Brune's attack on Muir, writing:
...while some of Muir’s colleagues promoted White supremacist myths and exclusionary views regarding national parks and forests, Muir spoke out about the importance of making these areas accessible and encouraging all people to experience them, writing, “Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish.” He came to believe deeply in the equality of all people, writing, “We all flow from one fountain Soul. All are expressions of one Love. God does not appear, and flow out, only from narrow chinks and round bored wells here and there in favored races and places.”[72]
With population growth continuing in San Francisco, political pressure increased to dam theTuolumne River for use as a waterreservoir. Muir passionately opposed the damming ofHetch Hetchy Valley because he found Hetch Hetchy as stunning as Yosemite Valley.[76]: 249–62 Muir, the Sierra Club and Robert Underwood Johnson fought against inundating the valley. Muir wrote to President Roosevelt pleading for him to scuttle the project. Roosevelt's successor,William Howard Taft, suspended theInterior Department's approval for the Hetch Hetchy right-of-way. After years of national debate, Taft's successorWoodrow Wilson signed the bill authorizing the dam into law on December 19, 1913. Muir felt a great loss from the destruction of the valley, his last major battle. He wrote to his friendVernon Kellogg, "As to the loss of the Sierra Park Valley [Hetch Hetchy] it's hard to bear. The destruction of the charming groves and gardens, the finest in all California, goes to my heart."[77]
In 1878, when he was nearing the age of 40, Muir's friends "pressured him to return to society".[14] Soon after he returned to the Oakland area, he was introduced by Jeanne Carr to Louisa Strentzel, daughter of a prominent physician andhorticulturist with a 2,600-acre (11 km2) fruit orchard inMartinez, California, northeast of Oakland. In 1880, after he returned from a trip to Alaska, Muir and Strentzel married. John Muir went into partnership with his father-in-lawJohn Strentzel, and for ten years directed most of his energy into managing this large fruit farm.[78] Although Muir was a loyal, dedicated husband, and father of two daughters, "his heart remained wild", writes Marquis. His wife understood his needs, and after seeing his restlessness at the ranch would sometimes "shoo him back up" to the mountains. He sometimes took his daughters with him.[14]
The house and part of the ranch are now theJohn Muir National Historic Site.[79] In addition, theW.H.C. Folsom House, where Muir worked as a printer, is also listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.
Muir became anaturalized citizen of the United States in 1903.[80]
Muir died, aged 76, atCalifornia Hospital[81] in Los Angeles on December 24, 1914, ofpneumonia.[82] He had been inDaggett, California, to see his daughter, Helen Muir Funk. His grandson, Ross Hanna, lived until 2014, when he died at age 91.[83]
During his lifetime John Muir published over 300 articles and 12 books. He co-founded theSierra Club, which helped establish a number of national parks after he died. Today the club has over 2.4 million members.
Muir has been called the "patron saint of the American wilderness" and its "archetypal free spirit". "As a dreamer and activist, his eloquent words changed the way Americans saw their mountains, forests, seashores, and deserts", said nature writerGretel Ehrlich.[84] He not only led the efforts to protect forest areas and have some designated as national parks, but his writings presented "human culture and wild nature as one of humility and respect for all life".[26]
Robert Underwood Johnson, editor ofCentury Magazine, which published many of Muir's articles, states that he influenced people's appreciation of nature and national parks, which became a lasting legacy:
The world will look back to the time we live in and remember the voice of one crying in the wilderness and bless the name of John Muir. ... He sung the glory of nature like another Psalmist, and, as a true artist, was unashamed of his emotions. His countrymen owe him gratitude as the pioneer of our system of national parks. ... Muir's writings and enthusiasm were the chief forces that inspired the movement. All the other torches were lighted from his.[54]
Muir exalted wild nature over human culture and civilization, believing that all life was sacred. Turner describes him as "a man who in his singular way rediscovered America. ... an American pioneer, an American hero".[25] The primary aim of Muir's nature philosophy, writes Wilkins, was to challenge mankind's "enormous conceit", and in so doing, he moved beyond theTranscendentalism ofEmerson to a "biocentric perspective on the world". He did so by describing the natural world as "a conductor of divinity", and his writings often made nature synonymous with God.[26]: 265 His friend,Henry Fairfield Osborn, observed that as a result of his religious upbringing, Muir retained "this belief, which is so strongly expressed in theOld Testament, that all the works of nature are directly the work of God".[54] In the opinion ofEnos Mills, a contemporary who establishedRocky Mountain National Park, Muir's writings were "likely to be the most influential force in this century".[54]
Since 1970, theUniversity of the Pacific has housed the largest collection of Muir's personal papers, including his travel journals and notebooks, manuscripts, correspondence, drawings and personal library.[85] In 2019, the University of the Pacific was given full ownership of the Muir collection, which had been expanding over the years. The university has a John Muir Center for Environmental Studies,[86] the Muir Experience,[87] as well as other programs related to Muir and his work.
California celebrates John Muir Day on April 21 each year. Muir was the first person honored with a California commemorative day when legislation signed in 1988 created John Muir Day, effective from 1989 onward. Muir is one of three people so honored in California, along withHarvey Milk Day andRonald Reagan Day.[88][89]
Mountain Days, a 2000 musical byCraig Bohmler and Mary Bracken Phillips, celebrates Muir's life and was performed annually in a custom-built amphitheater in Muir's adult hometown of Martinez, California.[90][91][92][93]
The playThank God for John Muir, byAndrew Dallmeyer is based on his life.[94][95][96]
The following places are named after Muir:
John Muir was featured on two US commemorative postage stamps. A 5-cent stamp issued on April 29, 1964, was designed byRudolph Wendelin, and showed Muir's face superimposed on a grove of redwood trees, and the inscription, "John Muir Conservationist". A 32-cent stamp issued on February 3, 1998, was part of the "Celebrate the Century" series, and showed Muir in Yosemite Valley, with the inscription "John Muir, Preservationist".[118] An image of Muir, with theCalifornia condor andHalf Dome, appears on the Californiastate quarter released in 2005. A quotation of his appears on the reverse side of theIndianapolis Prize Lilly Medal for conservation.[119] On December 6, 2006, California GovernorArnold Schwarzenegger and First LadyMaria Shriver inducted John Muir into theCalifornia Hall of Fame located atThe California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts.
TheJohn Muir Trust is a Scottish charity established as a membership organization in 1983 to conserve wild land and wild places. It has more than 11,000 members internationally.[120]
TheJohn Muir Birthplace Charitable Trust is a Scottish charity whose aim is to support John Muir's birthplace in Dunbar, which opened in 2003 as an interpretative centre focused on Muir's work.[121] A statue of Muir as a boy by theUkrainian sculptorValentin Znoba had been unveiled outside the house in 1997.
Muirite (a mineral),Erigeron muirii,Carlquistia muirii (two species of aster),Ivesia muirii (a member of the rose family),Troglodytes troglodytes muiri (a wren),Ochotona princeps muiri (a pika),Thecla muirii (a butterfly),Calamagrostis muiriana (a Sierra Nevada subalpine-alpine grass)[122] andAmplaria muiri (a millipede) were all named after John Muir.[123]
In 2006, he was inducted into theHall of Great Westerners of theNational Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.[124]
gulf muir.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Letters to a Friend.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Our National Parks.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Steep Trails.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)reprint of serials from 1874
The Cruise of the Corwin.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)The Story of My Boyhood and Youth.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Travels in Alaska.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)John Muir (1838–1914) was a Scottish-born American citizen
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Letter to Robert Underwood Johnson; Martinez, 3 March 1895
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Homans, James E., ed. (1918)."Muir, John" .The Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: The Press Association Compilers, Inc.
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