John Muir (1838-1914)
A "poetico-trampo-geologist-botanist and
ornithologist-naturalist etc. etc. !!!!"
Timeline
1838
John Muir born April 21, Dunbar, Scotland
1849
Family emigrates to Wisconsin farm
1860
Leaves home; inventions win state fair prize; meets mentor Jeanne Carr
1860
Enters University of Wisconsin; Civil War begins
1862
Postpones studies to teach school; Thoreau, author of Walden, dies
1864
Moves to Canada; botanizes; works in sawmill. Man and Nature by George Perkins Marsh published
1866
Civil War ends; moves to Indiana; works in carriage factory
1867
Factory accident damages eye; takes 1,000-mile walk, Kentucky to Gulf of Mexico; writes first journal en
route. His journal of the trip was published after his death
1868
Moves to California; first sight of Yosemite
1871
Finds glacier in Yosemite; meets Ralph Waldo Emerson there
1872
Begins writing for Overland Monthly magazine; Yellowstone National Park established
1874-76
Begins study of trees; advocates federal control of forests
1879
Travels to Alaska
1880
Second Alaska trip
1881
Alaska travels on the ship Corwin
1888
Health poor; climbs Mount Rainier; wife urges taking up conservation writing again
1889
Campaigns for a Yosemite National Park
1890
Writes Century magazine articles; Yosemite National Park established (without Yosemite Valley); explores
what is now Muir Glacier in Glacier Bay, Alaska; U.S. census notes end of frontier
1892
Helps found Sierra Club; elected as its first president; forest reserves established in three western states
1893-94
Visits Europe; first book published, The Mountains of California
1896
Serves on Forestry Commission; honorary degree from Harvard
1898
Honorary degree from University of Wisconsin
1899
With scientific Harriman Expedition in Alaska
1901
Our National Parks published
1903-04
Camps in Yosemite with President Theodore Roosevelt; makes world tour; the first federal wildlife reserve
established
1905
California cedes Yosemite Valley back to the federal government
1906
Explores Arizona and Petrified Forest
1908
Muir Woods National Monument established; begins fight against damming Yosemite National Park’s
Hetch Hetchy Valley
1909
Stickeen published
1911
My First Summer in the Sierra published; travels to South American and Africa; honorary degree from Yale
1912
The Yosemite published
1913
The Story of My Boyhood and Youth published; Hetch Hetchy battle lost; honorary degree from University
of California
1914
Dies December 24, age 76
2000
Creation of Sequoia National Monument continues Muir’s conservation agenda
The Wilderness Explorer
As a wilderness explorer, he is renowned
for his exciting adventures in California's
Sierra Nevada, among Alaska's glaciers,
and world wide travels in search of
nature's beauty.
As a writer, he taught the people of
his time and ours the importance of
experiencing and protecting our
natural heritage. His writings
contributed greatly to the creation of
Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier,
Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon
National Parks.
The
Writer
Muir helped inspire President
Theodore Roosevelt's
innovative conservation
programs, including
establishing the first National
Monuments by Presidential
Proclamation, and Yosemite
National Park by congressional
action.
"do something for wildness and make the
mountains glad."
In 1892, John Muir and other supporters formed
the Sierra Club "to make the mountains glad."
John Muir was the Club's first president, an
office he held until his death in 1914. Muir's
Sierra Club has gone on to help establish a
series of new National Parks and a National
Wilderness Preservation System.
John Muir was perhaps this country's
most famous and influential naturalist
and conservationist. He taught the
people of his time and ours the
importance of experiencing and
protecting our natural heritage. His
words have heightened our
perception of nature. His personal
and determined involvement in the
great conservation questions of the
day was and remains an inspiration
for environmental activists
everywhere.
Muir's last battle to save the second Yosemite, Hetch
Hetchy Valley, failed. But that lost battle ultimately
resulted in a widespread conviction that our national
parks should be held inviolate. Many proposals to dam
our national parks since that time have been stopped
because of the efforts of citizens inspired by John Muir,
and today there are legitimate proposals to restore
Hetch Hetchy. John Muir remains today an inspiration
for environmental activists everywhere.
LINKS:
http://yosemite.org/vryos/
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/conditions.htm