the john muir exhibit - life - john muir biography-john muir exhibit
John Muir - farmer, inventor, sheepherder, naturalist,explorer, writer, and conservationist - was born on April21, 1838 inDunbar, Scotland. Until the age of eleven heattended the local schools of that small coastal town. In1849, the Muir family emigrated to the United States,settling first at Fountain Lake and then moving to HickoryHill Farm near Portage, Wisconsin.
Muir's father was a harsh disciplinarian and worked hisfamily from dawn to dusk. Whenever they were allowed ashort period away from the plow and hoe, Muir and hisyounger brother would roam the fields and woods of the richWisconsin countryside. John became more and more the lovingobserver of the natural world. He also became an inventor, acarver of curious but practical mechanisms in wood. He madeclocks that kept accurate time and created a wondrous devicethat tipped him out of bed before dawn.
In 1860, Muir took his inventions to the state fair atMadison, where he won admiration and prizes. Also that yearhe entered the University of Wisconsin. He made finegrades, but after three years left Madison to travel thenorthern United States and Canada, odd-jobbing his waythrough the yet unspoiled land.
In 1867, while working at a carriage parts shop inIndianapolis, Muir suffered a blinding eye injury that wouldchange his life. When he regained his sight one monthlater, Muir resolved to turn his eyes to the fields andwoods. There began his years of wanderlust. He walked athousand miles from Indianapolis to the Gulf of Mexico. Hesailed to Cuba, and later to Panama, where he crossed theIsthmus and sailed up the West Coast, landing inSan Francisco in March, 1868. From that moment on, though hewould travel around the world,California became his home.
It was California's Sierra Nevada andYosemite that truly claimed him. In 1868, he walked across the San JoaquinValley through waist-high wildflowers and into the highcountry for the first time. Later he would write: "Then itseemed to me the Sierra should be called no the Nevada, orSnowy Range, but the Range of Light...the most divinelybeautiful of all the mountain chains I have ever seen." Heherded sheep through that first summer and made his home inYosemite.
By 1871 he had found living glaciers in the Sierra and hadconceived his then-controversial theory of the glaciation ofYosemite Valley. He began to be known throughout thecountry. Famous men of the time - Joseph LeConte, Asa Grayand Ralph Waldo Emerson - made their way to the door of hispine cabin.
Beginning in 1874, a series of articles by Muir entitled"Studies in the Sierra" launched his successful career as awriter. He left the mountains and lived for awhile inOakland, California. From there he took many trips,including his first to Alaska in 1879, leading to his famous explorations of Glacier Bay.In 1880, he married Louie Wanda Strentzel andmoved to Martinez, California, where they raised their twodaughters, Wanda and Helen. Settling down to some measure ofdomestic life, Muir went into partnership with his father-in-lawand managed the family fruit ranch with greatsuccess.
But ten years of active ranching did not quell Muir'swanderlust. His travels took him to Alaska many more times,to Australia, South America, Africa, Europe, China, Japan, and of course, again and again to his beloved Sierra Nevada..
In later years he turned more seriously to writing,publishing 300 articles and 10 major books that recountedhis travels, expounded his naturalist philosophy, andbeckoned everyone to "Climb the mountains and get their goodtidings." Muir's love of the high country gave his writingsa spiritual quality. His readers, whether they bepresidents, congressmen, or plain folks, were inspired andoften moved to action by the enthusiasm of Muir's ownunbounded love of nature.
Through a series of articles appearing inCenturymagazine,Muir drew attention to the devastation of mountain meadowsand forests by sheep and cattle. With the help ofCentury'sassociate editor, Robert Underwood Johnson, Muir worked toremedy this destruction. In 1890, due in large part to theefforts of Muir and Johnson, an act of Congress created Yosemite National Park.Muir was also personally involved inthe creation ofSequoia , Mount Rainier,Petrified Forest and Grand Canyon national parks. Muir deservedly is oftencalled the "Father of Our National Park System ".
Johnson and others suggested to Muir that an association beformed to protect the newly created Yosemite National Parkfrom the assaults of stockmen and others who would diminishits boundaries. In 1892, Muir and a number of hissupporters founded the Sierra Club to, in Muir's words, "dosomething for wildness and make the mountains glad." Muirserved as the Club's president until his death in 1914.
In 1901, Muir publishedOur National Parks,the book thatbrought him to the attention of President TheodoreRoosevelt. In 1903, Roosevelt visited Muir in Yosemite.There, together, beneath the trees, they laid the foundationof Roosevelt's innovative and notable conservation programs.
Muir and the Sierra Club fought many battles to protect Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada, the most dramatic being thecampaign to prevent the damming of theHetch Hetchy Valleywithin Yosemite National Park. In 1913, after years ofeffort, the battle was lost and the valley that Muir likenedto Yosemite itself was doomed to become a reservoir tosupply the water needs of a growingSan Francisco.The following year, after a short illness, Muir died in a Los Angeles hospital after visiting his daughter Wanda.
John Muir was perhaps this country's most famous andinfluential naturalist and conservationist. He taught thepeople of his time and ours the importance of experiencingand protecting our natural heritage. His words haveheightened our perception of nature. His personal anddetermined involvement in the great conservation questionsof the day was and remains an inspiration for environmentalactivists everywhere.
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