John Muir

John Muir
1838-1914

John Muir was a mountain man, naturalist, tourist guide and writer who made sure that Yosemite and other national treasures were protected for future generations.  Born in Scotland and raised in Wisconsin, the son of a Presbyterian minister, he studied geology and botany at the University of Wisconsin. After a factory accident temporally blinded him, Muir walked to the Gulf of Mexico and would have gone to South America if he had found passage.  Instead, he headed to California and, by the summer of 1869, he was roaming the High Sierra and a beautiful valley called Yosemite. 

Only a few years earlier, President Lincoln had signed into law a bill to protect Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias, although the law did not prohibit commercial interests.  A local hotelier named Hutchings hired Muir as a carpenter to build facilities for the growing number of tourists visiting the new park.  When Muir wasn’t working, he was exploring the valley and studying its unique geology.  He climbed to the slippery edges of the great falls, roamed from peak to peak, reveled in earthquakes, and confronted giant grizzly bears.   In just a few years, Muir knew more about Yosemite than anyone else.  Wealthy easterners hired him as a their guide and he used the opportunity to educate them on the need to protect its wonders.  They, in turn, convinced him to write about the place he knew best.  So Muir wrote a series of reports on Yosemite for several magazines, gaining a national reputation as Yosemite’s greatest advocate.

Muir and Louie moved into this mansion
 in Martinez, CA in 1890.  It is now a
National Historical Site.

In 1880, John Muir married Louie Wanda Strentzel, had two children, and took to managing the family farm in Martinez, California.   But his wanderlust never left him for very long.  His travels took him to Alaska, Yellowstone National Park, Mount Shasta and Mount Rainier, an area he also advocated to be a National Park.  In 1889, he returned to Yosemite to find it was rapidly becoming a tourist trap.  Holes had been cut through some Sequoia trees, meadows converted to hayfields, and a bonfire was being pushed over the edge of Glacier Point at night to create a “firefall”.   Sheep mowed the high country and lumbermen decimated the forests.  Muir returned to his writing desk and began a campaign to create Yosemite National Park. Despite resistance from California businessmen and politicians, Muir prevailed.  On October 1st, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed into law a bill setting aside 1,500 square miles for the new national park.   Unfortunately, Yosemite Valley was still under the control of the State of California and its treatment was as shoddy as ever.  

Muir and Roosevelt at Glacier Point

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt, working his way across the west from park to park, asked Muir to be his guide into Yosemite.  They rode through the Mariposa Grove, took in the view at Glacier Point, and camped below Bridlevail Falls, all the while discussing the protection of the nation’s natural treasures and Yosemite in particular.  Within three years, Congress approved the transfer of the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove back to the federal government; Yosemite National Park was complete.

John Muir’s last great battle began with the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.  Much of the city burned down because water stopped running after the quake.  To guarantee a more reliable source of water, the city proposed to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite.  Muir, outraged that such a thing would be considered in a national park, railed against the plan for many years. Ultimately the Hetch Hetchy dam was approved.  Ailing and brokenhearted, Muir struggled to write a few books about this travels. But in December 1914, he came down with pneumonia and died on Christmas Eve. 

While Muir lost the battle of Hetch Hetchy, he may have won the war.  The Hetch Hetchy became a battle cry for preservationists around the country. To John Muir’s eternal credit, no other dams were ever built in any national park. As the list of national parks continues to grow (there are now fifty-nine), it is important to remember that the nation did not always appreciate the need for their protection.  We are indebted to the vision and resolve of the men and women who saw the need and acted; in particular, John Muir.

 Question of the Day: California celebrates John Muir Day on what day of the year?

Duncan, D. and Burns, K., The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY 2009.