To conservationists , outdoor enthusiasts , and wildlife lover , John Muir ’s name evokes countless connotations . make love as an explorer , farmer , inventor , author , and more , the Scottish - carry naturalist made a lasting wallop on the landscape of the United States , and his legacy lives on in all corners of the commonwealth .
Born on April 21 , 1838 in Dunbar , Scotland , Muir immigrate to the U.S. with his family at the age of 11 , first settling in Fountain Lake , Wisconsin , and then relocate to Hickory Hill , a farm near the metropolis of Portage , Wisconsin . Muir find out subject field at an former age : His father insisted that he and his younger blood brother influence the family land each day , and as the untried Muir explored the surrounding countryside , he develop an affinity for the lifelike world .
But Muir also had a taste for foundation , and as a untried humanity , began invent various tool and physical object , including a machine that literallytipped him out of bottom before dawn . In his memoir , Muir described the " early rising machine " as " a timer which would distinguish the day of the week and the day of the calendar month , as well as strike like a common clock and point out the hours ; also … have an fastening whereby it could be link with a bedstead to fix me on my feet at any hr in the dawn ; also to pop fire , tripping lamps , etc . "
Muir first draw care for his imaginative creations when he took his inventions to the state fair in Madison , in 1860 . by and by that yr , he started his teaching at the University of Wisconsin , but left school three old age afterwards to locomote — his goal was to explore the raw , untouched land of the northern states .
Muir sustained an injury in 1867 that changed the course of his life — while working at a carriage parts shop in Indianapolis , an awl pierce his right eyeand he temporarily drop off sight in both eyes . The veneration of permanently losing his vision spur Muir to transfer gears , in person and professionally — he abandon the industrial reality and decide to further research Earth ’s natural wonder instead . Some hypothesise that it was while he was recover from his injury that he first heard aboutYosemite .
Protecting the Natural World from “Progress”
Harold Wood , a John Muir scholarly person , giver and generator , who is also a retentive - time environmental activist in legion organization , says that once Muir recovered , he walk a thousand miles from Indianapolis to the Gulf of Mexico , sailed to Cuba , and after Panama , and finally landed in San Francisco in March 1868 . California became his raw habitation , and from 1868 to 1874 , he exist in Yosemite on and off , an experience , according toTony Perrottet at Smithsonian Magazine , " that transformed him into a successor to Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson . " During his prison term in Yosemite , Muir conceived of a " then - controversial hypothesis of the glaciation of Yosemite Valley " and begin to make a name for himself as a conservationist .
" The mindset of the 19th century was forward motion , " Wood says . " That mean the development and extraction of natural resource at all price . Muir was much unique in his views that wild berth and innate resourcefulness should be protected for future generations . "
Muir began authoring a series of articles in 1874 known as " Studies in the Sierra " and left Yosemite to pursue his passion for writing in the Bay Area , travel often to locating such as Alaska . He wed Louisa ( Louie ) Wanda Strentzel in 1880 and the couple moved to Martinez , California , to raise their two daughters , Wanda and Helen . For the next decade , he solve with his father - in - law to handle the home fruit ranch , but eventually turned his sight back to travel and conservation attempt . Muir continued write and drawing attention to issues like the destruction of mountain meadow and forests , and in partnership with Century Magazine editor Robert Underwood Johnson , Muir pushed for the eventual passage of an 1890 act in Congress that created Yosemite National Park .
forest says Muir was also personally involved in the creation of Sequoia , Mount Rainier , Petrified Forest and Grand Canyon national parks and earned the deed of " Father of Our National Park System . "
" His words and deeds significantly shape President Theodore Roosevelt ’s innovational conservation programs , which included establishing the firstNational Monuments by Presidential Proclamation , and Yosemite National Park and national woods by congressional action . One of the early national monuments established by President Roosevelt was Petrified Forest in Arizona , at Muir ’s urging , " he notes .
One fact Wood sound out most people do n’t know about Muir ’s bequest is that when Yosemite National Park was established in 1890 , " Yosemite Valley was not let in in the park bound — nor was the illustrious Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias . Yosemite Valley had been given to the State of California by a federal land Duncan Grant by Abraham Lincoln in the middle of the U.S. Civil War , " Wood say . " In many ways , it was mismanage by the State of California which had hassle keep out squatters and responsibly handle touristry , allow wild flower meadow to be destroyed by sheep and cattle . "
Founding of the Sierra Club
Wood also says that Muir had the foresight to realize that he could n’t push for persist in conservation protagonism alone , and that corporate activity would be necessary for an enduring impact on environmental protection . " That is why he hold , in 1892 , to go to theSierra Club’sorganizational coming together , and accord to become the first chairwoman of the Sierra Club , an office he hold until his expiry in 1914 , " woods says . " He was beaming to be part of such an organization because , in his speech , ' We will be able-bodied to do something for wildness and make the mountains glad . ' "
Described onits websiteas " the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States , " the Sierra Club continues to " amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone ’s right to a intelligent world . " The system ’s national residential district of volunteers , advocates , and grassroots activists have batten the shelter for 439 park and monuments , won the passage of the Clean Air and Endangered Species Acts , and put over 281 coal plant on the way of life to replacement with uninfected energy , among other acquirement .
According to Wood , Muir spent many long years advocating for the return of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove from California state direction to be incorporated in the Yosemite National Park . " In fact , this was really the first military campaign for the other Sierra Club , " he enounce . " To this close , in 1898 the Sierra Club set up a public ' meter reading elbow room ' within the Valley , staff by Muir ’s vernal colleague , William E. Colby , to aid people enjoy Yosemite and to learn more about the region . In 1904 , the Club build a stone visitor centre in the valley , now identify theYosemite Conservation Heritage Center . "
Despite those efforts , it was n’t until 1906 — after a 17 - year campaign spearheaded by Muir and the Sierra Club — that President Roosevelt signed federal legislation to return Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to become part of the Yosemite National Park .
" As the Sierra Club ’s first United States President , his leaders instigate many campaign that come even after his death , such as the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916 , and the Wilderness Preservation System in 1964 , " Wood says . " His writings inspired generations of conservationist like National Park Service ’s first directorStephen Mather , author of the Wilderness Act , Howard Zahniser , famed photographerAnsel Adams , conservationistDavid Brower , and many more . This included a generation of grassroots activists throughout the 20th century who were inspired by Muir ’s legacy to build a serial of extra National Parks and Monuments , and many newfangled units in the National Wilderness Preservation System . "
While Muir ’s last struggle to keep the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley within Yosemite National Parkfailed , Wood says his fight made a survive encroachment on societal attitudes toward preservation efforts . " That lost battle ultimately resulted in a widespread conviction that our interior parks should be hold inviolate . Many proposals to dam our national parks since that time have been stopped because of the efforts of citizens enliven by John Muir , and today there are legitimate proposal to restore Hetch Hetchy , while still keep up San Francisco ’s weewee provision from the Tuolumne River . Today , there is a growing crusade to bump off dike which demolish native fisheries like salmon and steelhead and natural ecosystem , such as the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams in the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State . "
IN 1914 , a year after losing the battle to protect the Hetch Hetchy , Muir died in Los Angeles follow a short illness . " Perhaps his majuscule bequest is not even wild saving or internal parks as such , but his teaching us the essential characteristic of the science of environmental science , the interrelation of all living things , " Wood read . " He summed it up nicely in hisoften quoted poesy : ' When we render to pluck out anything by itself , we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe . ' "
