People & History 4, John Muir: Guardian of the Wilderness
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In 1867 a young man named John Muir walked a thousand miles across the United States. Muir had already had many outdoor adventures in his life, but this journey was special because it almost didn't happen. Six months earlier, a factory accident had temporarily blinded Muir, changing him forever. The despair he felt at the thought of never again seeing the wilderness was so strong that he vowed to spend the rest of his life studying nature. He later also decided to share his passion by starting a career as a writer—in order to "entice people to look at nature's loveliness." Over the years John Muir's explorations and writings changed people's views of wilderness and inspired many to take up the cause of preservation.
John Muir was born on April 21, 1838, in Dunbar, Scotland. One of eight siblings, he spent hours exploring the outdoors as a young boy.
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Muir attended school until he was 11, when his family moved to America and settled on a farm in Wisconsin. Muir's strict, religious father put his children to work in the fields from dawn to dusk; there was no time for school. But Muir was curious about the world around him and began teaching himself with books. By the age of 15, he had developed a keen interest in mechanical devices and hoped to become an inventor. He received permission from his father to rise five hours before dawn each morning so he could read books and tinker with machinery. To make sure sleep didn't steal this precious time, he invented an alarm clock to tip his bed and knock him onto the floor. Then he would hurry down to the cellar where, working by candlelight, he crafted clocks and other gadgets.
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When he was 22 years old, Muir displayed his inventions at the state fair. His work was praised for its ingenuity, which encouraged Muir to continue his education. He decided to study at the University of Wisconsin.
Muir pursued his interest in invention in college. In fact, he kept up with his coursework by building a desk that could open up a book for a set time and then automatically replace it with another. But Muir's interest in the natural world was growing. In 1864 he left college to visit Canada, where he wandered in the wilderness, collecting botanical specimens and sketching in a notebook. To support himself, Muir worked at a Canadian sawmill and broom-making factory, where his mechanical skills proved invaluable.
Muir left Canada in 1866, returning to the United States to accept a job at an Indiana factory and to study the local landscape.
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Disaster struck on March 6, 1867; a tool slipped from Muir's hand and pierced his right eye, causing him to go blind in both eyes. The threat of permanent blindness allowed Muir to see what was truly important to him. When Muir's vision returned, he dedicated himself to the study of nature, writing, "I bade adieu to mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the inventions of God."
As soon as his eyesight returned, Muir began his thousand-mile walk, traveling from Kentucky to Florida and observing plant life along the way. He then took a boat to Cuba, where he spent a month in the jungle. Muir hoped to continue his trip with a raft ride down the Amazon River, but he could not find a boat sailing to South America. Seeing cheap fares to California, he decided to visit San Francisco instead. This decision would change the rest of his life.
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Within days of his arrival, he started walking to Yosemite Valley, in the Sierra Nevada, a vast mountain range in California and Nevada. There a rancher hired Muir to herd sheep, offering Muir an extraordinary opportunity to study Yosemite and the mountains around it. He was awed by the beauty and serenity of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada, a place he called the "Range of Light."
Muir worked a variety of jobs but spent as much time as he could studying the mountain range. As word of Muir's knowledge spread, visitors began to seek him out for guided tours. By 1871 Muir had begun to write about the natural wonders of the landscape. He also shared his views on the damage caused by people. Tourists left garbage scattered about. Farmers' sheep devoured everything before them—for which he called them "hooved locusts."
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In 1873 Muir left the wilderness of the valley to enlist support for its preservation through his writing. His articles became popular among both the common people of California and influential figures across the country.
Although Muir had many friends in California and many more with whom he exchanged letters, his long walks were usually done alone, and he was lonely. In 1880 Muir finally found love and married, settling down in California to run his father-in-law's ranch. He spent the winters on the ranch—"lost and choked in agricultural needs," as he wrote—but he continued to travel during the rest of the year and write about his adventures in the wild. He especially loved to tell the story of a trek across an Alaskan glacier on which he was accompanied by a dog named Stickeen. Together Muir and the brave dog crossed a treacherous sliver of ice—a long, narrow bridge hundreds of feet in the air.
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Throughout the next decade, Muir continued to call for preservation of the Yosemite area, saying that wilderness is necessary for people's physical and spiritual health. He encouraged city dwellers to experience the wonders of nature, writing, "Come to the woods, for here is rest." The United States Congress finally declared the Yosemite region a national park in 1890, but Muir pressed for further expansion of the federal national parks system. In 1903, when President Theodore Roosevelt visited Yosemite Valley, he camped alone with Muir for several days. The two men became lifelong friends, and Muir gained a powerful ally. During his presidency, Roosevelt established five national parks and protected other sites, such as the Grand Canyon, by declaring them national monuments. The impact Muir had on the president is one reason he is now considered the father of America's national parks.
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Muir continued to travel and advocate for preservation until his seventies, and he never regretted his choice to abandon a career as an inventor to follow his love for the outdoors. He died on December 24, 1914. During his lifetime he had over three hundred articles and ten books published, and his influence extends to the modern day. He was a founder of the Sierra Club, an organization still committed to helping people "explore, enjoy, and protect the planet." Many people are reminded of his contributions as they walk in the Muir Woods, a grove of thousand-year-old trees in California. This grove might have been destroyed if Muir had not helped people recognize "that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are . . . fountains of life." John Muir inspired people everywhere to embrace the wonders of nature, and his legacy survives in today's efforts to preserve wilderness around the world.