John+Muir



John Muir (1838-1914), a Scottish immigrant to the United States, is today recognized for his vital contributions in the area of environmental protection and conservation of the wilderness. As such, he is often referred to as the unofficial "Father of National Parks." Muir came to his role as an environmentalist in a rather circuitous way. Born in Dunbar, Scotland, Muir came to the United States with his family at the age of eleven. The family settled on a Wisconsin farm, where Muir was educated at home rather than in public school because his father felt that participation in an education in a public school would violate his strict religious code. Young Muir did read considerably at home and also developed some interesting mechanical devices by whittling them from wood; when some of his inventions were put on display at a state fair, they were noted by officials from the University of Wisconsin, and Muir was invited to attend the university in spite of his lack of formal education. He left the university after two and a half years; later, while working in a carriage factory, he suffered an injury to his eye. His vision did recover, but following the accident he decided that he wanted to spend his life studying the beauty of the natural world rather than endangering his health working in a factory. He set out on a 1,000-mile walk south to the Gulf of Mexico, and from there he made his way to Yosemite, California, lured by a travel brochure highlighting the natural beauty of Yosemite. He arrived in California in 1868, at the age of thirty, and once there, he took a number of odd jobs to support himself, working as a laborer, a sheepherder and - after he had become familiar with the wilderness area - a guide. He also began a writing campaign to encourage public support for the preservation of the wilderness, particularly the area around Yosemite. He married in 1880, and for the years that followed he was more involved in family life and in running the ranch given to him and his wife by her parents than in preservation of the environment. He had been away from the environmentalist movement for some time when, in 1889, he was asked by an editor of the magazine The Century to write some articles in support of the preservation of Yosemite. The editor, well aware of Muir's talent as a writer and his efforts in the 1870s to support the conservation of Yosemite, took Muir camping to areas of Yosemite that Muir had not seen for years, areas that had been spoiled through uncontrolled development. Because of the experience of this trip, Muir agreed to write two articles in support of the institution of a National Parks system in the United States with Yosemite as the first park to be so designated. These two articles in The Century initiated the Yosemite National Park campaign. The campaign was indeed successful. The law creating Yosemite National Park was enacted in 1890, and three additional national parks were created soon after. A year later, a bill known as the Enabling Act was passed; this was a bill that gave U.S. presidents the right to reserve lands for preservation by the U.S. government. Pleased by this success but keenly aware of the need to continue the effort to preserve wilderness areas from undisciplined development, Muir established an organization in 1892, the Sierra Club, with the expressed goal of protecting the wilderness, particularly the area of the Sierra Nevada mountain range where Yosemite is located. From then until his death in 1914, Muir worked assiduously on his writing in an effort to build recognition of the need for environmental protection His writings from this period include The Mountains of California (1894), Our National Parks (1901), My First Summer in the Sierra (1911), and My Boyhood and Youth (1913).

A century later, the results of what John Muir was instrumental in initiating are remarkable. The National Park Service is now responsible for more than 350 parks, rivers, seashores, and preserves; more than 250 million people visit these parks each year, and the Sierra Club has more than 650,000 members. John Muir (1838-1914), a Scottish immigrant to the United States, is today recognized for his vital contributions in the area of environmental protection and conservation of the wilderness. As such, he is often referred to as the unofficial "Father of National Parks."  Muir came to his role as an environmentalist in a rather circuitous way. Born in Dunbar, Scotland, Muir came to the United States with his family at the age of eleven. The family settled on a Wisconsin farm, where Muir was educated at home rather than in public school because his father felt that participation in an education in a public school would violate his strict religious code. Young Muir did read considerably at home and also developed some interesting mechanical devices by whittling them from wood; when some of his inventions were put on display at a state fair, they were noted by officials from the University of Wisconsin, and Muir was invited to attend the university in spite of his lack of formal education. He left the university after two and a half years; later, while working in a carriage factory, he suffered an injury to his eye. His vision did recover, but following the accident he decided that he wanted to spend his life studying the beauty of the natural world rather than endangering his health working in a factory. He set out on a 1,000-mile walk south to the Gulf of Mexico, and from there he made his way to Yosemite, California, lured by a travel brochure highlighting the natural beauty of Yosemite. He arrived in California in 1868, at the age of thirty, and once there, he took a number of odd jobs to support himself, working as a laborer, a sheepherder and - after he had become familiar with the wilderness area - a guide. He also began a writing campaign to encourage public support for the preservation of the wilderness, particularly the area around Yosemite. He married in 1880, and for the years that followed he was more involved in family life and in running the ranch given to him and his wife by her parents than in preservation of the environment. He had been away from the environmentalist movement for some time when, in 1889, he was asked by an editor of the magazine //The Century// to write some articles in support of the preservation of Yosemite. The editor, well aware of Muir's talent as a writer and his efforts in the 1870s to support the conservation of Yosemite, took Muir camping to areas of Yosemite that Muir had not seen for years, areas that had been spoiled through uncontrolled development. Because of the experience of this trip, Muir agreed to write two articles in support of the institution of a National Parks system in the United States with Yosemite as the first park to be so designated. These two articles in //The Century// initiated the Yosemite National Park campaign. The campaign was indeed successful. The law creating Yosemite National Park was enacted in 1890, and three additional national parks were created soon after. A year later, a bill known as the Enabling Act was passed; this was a bill that gave U.S. presidents the right to reserve lands for preservation by the U.S. government. Pleased by this success but keenly aware of the need to continue the effort to preserve wilderness areas from undisciplined development, Muir established an organization in 1892, the Sierra Club, with the expressed goal of protecting the wilderness, particularly the area of the Sierra Nevada mountain range where Yosemite is located. From then until his death in 1914, Muir worked assiduously on his writing in an effort to build recognition of the need for environmental protection His writings from this period include //The Mountains of California// (1894), //Our National Parks// (1901), //My First Summer in the Sierra// (1911), and //My Boyhood and Youth// (1913). A century later, the results of what John Muir was instrumental in initiating are remarkable. The National Park Service is now responsible for more than 350 parks, rivers, seashores, and preserves; more than 250 million people visit these parks each year, and the Sierra Club has more than 650,000 members.