John Muir Information Guide

John Muir Information Guide This guide gives you an introduction to John Muir, and further related resources. Introduction to John Muir (1838-1914) Climber, Explorer, Geologist, Industrialist, Botanist, Farmer and Pioneer of "Conservation" "After reaching an elevation of about 12,800ft, I found myself at the foot of a sheer cliff which seemed to bar further progress. It was only about 50ft high and somewhat roughened by fissures and projections; but these seemed slight and insecure as footholds. The dangers beneath seemed even greater than that of the cliff in front;…. My doom appeared fixed. I must fall." Not the words of Chris Bonington or Doug Scott, but of John Muir, the great mountaineer, geologist and conservationist, who was first to climb 13,300 ft. Mount Ritter over a hundred years ago. Equipped with an old pair of hobnailed boots, an even older blanket, and nothing but dried bread and cold tea for food and drink, John Muir explored the spectacular Sierra Nevada mountains of California for over ten years. In America, John Muir is generally known as the 'Father of the National Parks' and is a familiar classroom and household name. He was born on April 21st 1838 in the fishing town of Dunbar in East Lothian, Scotland. He was sent to school at three, and at seven entered Dunbar Grammar School. When Muir was 11, his father Daniel Muir took John and his brother David and set sail for America in search of religious freedom, cheap land and a better life. On arrival in Wisconsin they purchased a section of virgin land. Muir's father was a harsh disciplinarian and worked his family from dawn to dusk. Whenever they were allowed a short period away from the plough, John and David would roam the rich fields and woods of Wisconsin. Later, whilst working at a carriage parts shop, Muir suffered a blinding eye injury that would change his life. When he regained his sight one month later, Muir resolved to turn his eyes to the fields and woods. There began his years of wanderlust. It was the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite that truly enchanted him. Beginning in 1874, a series of articles by Muir entitled "Studies in the Sierra" launched his successful career as a writer. From there he took many trips, including his first to Alaska in 1879, where he discovered Glacier Bay. In 1880, settling down to some measure of domestic life, he married Louie Wanda Strentzel and moved to Martinez, California, where they raised their two daughters, Wanda and Helen. In 1890, due in large part to the efforts of Muir, an act of Congress created Yosemite National Park. Many people agreed with Muir and helped him set up The Sierra Club; a conservation organisation that now has 600,000 members. Alongside Muir, they argued that National Parks be set aside to save nature for future generations. Muir and the Sierra Club fought many battles to protect Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada, the most dramatic being the campaign to prevent the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley within Yosemite National Park to provide a reservoir for San Francisco. The battle was lost in 1913. The following year, after a short illness, Muir died of pneumonia in Los Angeles. Let's return to John Muir clinging to the side of Mount Ritter. What happened next....? ‘When this final danger flashed upon me, I became nerve-shaken for the first time since setting foot on the mountains. Then my trembling muscles became firm again and my limbs moved with a precision with which I seemed to have nothing at all to do. The strength I had received seemed inexhaustible. I found a way without effort, and soon stood upon the topmost crag in the blessed light.' John Muir showed the people of his time and ours the importance of experiencing and protecting our natural heritage. His personal and determined involvement in the great conservation questions of the day was, and remains, an inspiration for environmental activists everywhere. (Compiled from articles by G. White and the Sierra Club Newsletter) John Muir Information Guide 1 John Muir Bibliography Selection of Titles The Eight Wilderness Discovery Books Our National Parks My First Summer in the Sierra The Story of My Boyhood and Youth A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf Travels in Alaska John Muir in His Own Words- Quotations John Muir, His Life Letters and Other Writings Son of the Wilderness, The Life of John Muir John Muir, Form Scotland to Sierra The Pathless Way: John Muir and the American Wilderness John Muir (Rookie Biographies) Essential Muir: A Selection of John Muir's Best Writing ‘Star Book’ Recommended by John Muir Birthplace Staff: The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures Related Works: Meditations of Henry David Thoreau: A Light in the Woods Meditations of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Into the Green Future Yearning For the Land: A Search for Homeland in Scotland and America Wilderness Visionaries On The Trail of John Muir Books more suited to young people: Stickeen: John Muir and the Brave Little Dog Call Him Father Nature: The Story of John Muir Two Bear Cubs: A Miwok Legend From California's Yosemite Valley ‘Star Book’ Recommended by John Muir Award Staff: John Muir My Life with Nature Author John Muir John Muir John Muir John Muir John Muir John Muir John Muir John Muir Linnie Marsh Wolfe Frederic Turner Michael P. Cohen Will Mara ed. Fred D. White Lee Stetson ed.Chris Highland ed.Chris Highland John W. Simpson Jim Dale Vickery Cherry Good Number ISBN 0906371341 ISBN 1931839212 ISBN 0395353513 ISBN 1841584681 ISBN 0877971935 ISBN 0375760490 ISBN 0944220029 ISBN 0898864631 ISBN 0299186342 ISBN 0862417015 ISBN 0299097242 ISBN 0516273426 ISBN 1597140279 ISBN 0939666758 ISBN 0899973213 ISBN 0899973523 ISBN 0375725474 ISBN 0934802270 ISBN 0946487626 John Muir ISBN 1883220785 Patricia Topp ISBN 1577330471 Robert D. San Souci ISBN 0939666871 Joseph Cornell ISBN 1584690997 John Muir Experience John Muir‟s Birthplace – a stunning interactive visitor centre (+ many of the titles above available for sale) Admission FREE 126 High Street, Dunbar, East Lothian EH42 1JJ Tel: 01368 865899 Email: info@jmbt.org.uk Web: www.jmbt.org.uk Find out more about Muir from the John Muir Birthplace website downloadable factsheets. www.jmbt.org.uk Titles include; John Muir for Young People John Muir the Writer John Muir and Yosemite John Muir the Inventor John Muir and the Sea John Muir and Martinez John Muir Information Guide 2 John Muir Quotes Despite John Muir being born over a hundred years ago, his message is just as relevant and meaningful today as it was then. Below is a collection of quotes that express his thoughts and feelings on wild places. On his own memories of Wilderness: “I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”  “My fire was in all its glory about midnight, and, having made a bark shed to shelter me from the rain and partially dry my clothing, I had nothing to do but look and listen and join the trees in their hymns and prayers.”  “As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I‟ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can.”  “Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars. This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality.” On Nature: “Nature is always lovely, invincible, glad, whatever is done and suffered by her creatures. All scars she heals, whether in rocks or water or sky or hearts.”  “God never made an ugly landscape. All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild.”  “So extraordinary is Nature with her choicest treasures, spending plant beauty as she spends sunshine, pouring it forth into land and sea, garden and desert. And so the beauty of lilies falls on angels and men, bears and squirrels, wolves and sheep, birds and bees....”  “How infinitely superior to our physical senses are those of the mind! The spiritual eye sees not only rivers of water but of air. It sees the crystals of the rock in rapid sympathetic motion, giving enthusiastic obedience to the sun's rays, then sinking back to rest in the night. The whole world is in motion to the centre. So also sounds. We hear only woodpeckers and squirrels and the rush of turbulent streams. But imagination gives us the sweet music of tiniest insect wings, enables us to hear, all around the world, the vibration of every needle, the waving of every bole and branch, the sound of stars in circulation like particles in the blood.”  “Everything is flowing -- going somewhere, animals and so- called lifeless rocks as well as water. Thus the snow flows fast or slow in grand beauty-making glaciers and avalanches; the air in majestic floods carrying minerals, plant leaves, seeds, spores, with streams of music and fragrance; water streams carrying rocks... While the stars go streaming through space pulsed on and on forever like blood ... in Nature's warm heart.”  “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”  “Who publishes the sheet-music of the winds or the music of water written in river-lines?”  “Winds are advertisements of all they touch, however much or little we may be able to read them; telling their wanderings ever by their accents alone.” John Muir Information Guide  3 On People and the Wilderness: “Fresh beauty opens one's eyes wherever it is really seen, but the very abundance and completeness of the common beauty that besets our steps prevents its being absorbed and appreciated. It is a good thing, therefore, to make short excursions now and then to the bottom of the sea among dulse and coral, or up among the clouds on mountain-tops, or in balloons, or even to creep like worms into dark holes and caverns underground, not only to learn something of what is going on in those out-of-the-way places, but to see better what the sun sees on our return to common everyday beauty.”  “Camp out among the grass and gentians of glacier meadows. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”  “Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods. Here grow the wallflower and the violet. The squirrel will come and sit upon your knee, the logcock will wake you in the morning. Sleep in forgetfulness of all ill. Of all the upness accessible to mortals, there is no upness comparable to the mountains.”  “How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof! In such places standing alone on the mountain-top it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make - leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents or piled stone - we all dwell in a house of one room - the world with the firmament for its roof - and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track.”  “Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.”  “Most people are on the world, not in it. - have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.”  “One day's exposure to mountains is better than cartloads of books. See how willingly Nature poses herself upon photographers' plates. No earthly chemicals are so sensitive as those of the human soul.”  “Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter.”  “When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with islands and continents, flying through space with all the other stars, all singing and shining together as one, the whole Universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty. This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere. The dew is never dried all at once. A shower is forever falling; Vapour forever rising. Eternal sunrise, Eternal sunset, Eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn as the round Earth rolls. ”  “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”  “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”  “One touch of nature ... makes all the world kin.” John Muir Information Guide 4 John Muir Chronology John Muir’s Life 1838 1841 1849 1850 1853 1860 Born April 21st in Dunbar, Scotland. Begins school and later at Grammar learns Latin, French, English, Maths, Geography. February, sails from Glasgow to New York, then to Great Lakes, then Wisconsin. Farmhand scholar teaching himself maths, geometry, literature and philosophy. Ploughboy-inventor constructs clocks, barometers, hydrometers, table-saws, etc. Exhibits inventions at State Fair in Madison; enrolls at the University of Wisconsin. 1861-2 Teaching and farmwork to earn university fees. 1863 1864 1866 1867 1868 1869 1871 1872 1873 1874 1876 1877 1879 1880 1881 1882 1885 1886 1888 1890 1892 1893 1894 1896 1897 1899 1901 Returns to Hickory Hill awaiting draft for the American Civil War. Joins brother Dan in Canada; mechanic at Meaford sawmill. Foreman-engineer Osgood, Smith & Co., Indianapolis; automates machinery. Blinded in life-changing factory accident but recovery prompts 1000-mile walk. Lands in California via Panama. First visit to Yosemite from April – June. High Sierra shepherd with time to study. First ascent of Cathedral Peak in Yosemite. Ralph Waldo Emerson visits Muir in Yosemite. First glacier article published. Harvard professor Asa Gray, visits Muir in Yosemite. Climbs north face of Mt. Ritter. Solo-climbs Mt. Whitney (14,500 ft.); First recorded ascent by eastern route. Solo ascent of Mt. Shasta (14,400 ft.). Lobbies for forest protection. Guides U.S. Geodetic Survey in Nevada and Utah. Leads Prof. Asa Gray and Sir Joseph Hooker of Kew on expedition to Shasta. First Alaska trip. Glacier Bay and Muir, Geikie, and Hugh Miller Glaciers. April 14, marries Louie Strentzel. Alaskan cruise of the Corwin; birth of Wanda Muir. Confines himself to home as rancher and fruit farmer for 6 years. Daniel Muir dies with John Muir at his bedside. Birth of Helen Muir. Trip to Puget Sound and Mt. Shasta; climbs Mt. Rainier (14,500 ft). Alaska again then Muir campaigns for Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. Co-forms the Sierra Club; serves as President for life. Travels Scotland (Dunbar) and Europe. Campaigns for Rainier National Park. Muir's first book, „The Mountains of California’, published. Joins U.S. Forestry Commission on resource surveys. First honorary degree (University of Wisconsin). Mt. Rainier National Park established; last (7th) Alaska trip. „Our National Parks’ published. John Muir Information Guide 5 John Muir’s Life Cont. 1903 1903 1905 1906 1908 1907 1909 1911 1911 1912 1913 1914 President Roosevelt spends 3 days and nights camping alone with Muir in Yosemite. World tour. At 65 he climbs the Mueller Glacier on Mt.Cook, New Zealand. With daughter Helen in Arizona for her health campaigns for Petrified Forest. Petrified Forest becomes a National Monument; death of Louie Strentzel Muir. Grand Canyon National Park and Muir Woods National Monument established. Muir begins fight to save Hetch Hetchy Valley. „Stickeen‟ published; Muir leads President Taft through Yosemite. „My First Summer in the Sierra‟ published; awarded honorary degree by Yale. Year-long trip to South America and Africa at age 73. ‘The Yosemite’ is published. Hetch Hetchy battle is lost. „Story of my Boyhood and Youth‟ published. John Muir dies in Los Angeles Hospital from pneumonia on Christmas Eve. John Muir’s Legacy 1915 1916 1924 1938 1964 1976 1981 1983 1988 1987 1989 1991 1993 1994 1997 1999 2000 2002 2003 2005 2006 Executor, William F. Bade publishes four more Muir books. Congress creates U.S. National Park Service. „The Life and Letters of John Muir‟ edited by William F. Bade. „John of the Mountains‟, published by Linnie Marsh Wolfe. John Muir House, Martinez, declared National Historic Site. John Muir Country Park designated at Dunbar, Scotland. John Muir House, Birthplace Museum opens at 128 High Street, Dunbar. The John Muir Trust is founded in Scotland to conserve wild land. For the first time some of Muir‟s works published in Scotland. John Muir Trust purchases 3,000 mountain acres at Li and Coire Dhorrcail in Knoydart. April 21st proclaimed John Muir Day by State of California. John Muir Trust purchases 5,000 acres of land at Torrin, Isle of Skye. John Muir Trust purchases 11,000 acres of remote Sandwood Bay, Sutherland. Dunbar's John Muir Association is founded. John Muir Award launched by Minister for the Environment at Dunbar. John Muir Trust purchases Schiehallion. 3000th John Muir Award presented. John Muir Trust purchase Ben Nevis. Work begins on the refurbishment of John Muir‟s Birthplace in Dunbar. 10,000th John Muir Award presented, John Muir‟s Birthplace opens to public. 20,000th John Muir Award presented. John Muir Trust Journey for the Wild campaign, May-October. John Muir Information Guide 6 Related Websites www.johnmuiraward.org www.jmt.org www.jmbt.org.uk www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit John Muir Award website. John Muir Trust website. John Muir Birthplace Trust website. Resources include wide variety of worksheets detailing Muir‟s life. American Conservation Organisation founded by John Muir. Extensive resource on Muir‟s life and current events. Site providing a network of organisation devoted to Muir‟s work and legacies. Links to John Muir‟s Birthplace. Dunbar John Muir Association Website. Website for Muir‟s town of birth in East Lothian. Wisconsin Historical Society site with links to drawing of Muir‟s inventions. UK site for National Parks. Cairngorms National Park website. Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park website. US National Parks website- Quotes and activites. Yosemite National Park website. Organisation campaigning for restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. John Muir Country Park website. www.johnmuir.org www.eastlothian.gov.uk/museums www.djma.org.uk/djma www.dunbar.org.uk www.wisconsinhistory.org/topics/muir/index.asp www.nationalparks.gov.uk www.cairngorms.co.uk www.lochlomond-trossachs.org www.nps.gov www.nps.gov/yose/ www.hetchhetchy.org/history www.eastlothian.gov.uk/content/0,1094,1002,00.html - John Muir and the John Muir Award The ethos of the Award promotes John Muir‟s messages by reflecting on:     Muir‟s belief in the absolute and irreplaceable value of wild places and wild creatures. Muir‟s „Environmental Education Ethos‟ by encouraging people to learn about nature through direct investigation and study at first hand. Muir‟s „Conservation Ethic‟ by urging people to „do something for wild places‟ i.e. to take personal responsibility for the environment. Muir‟s „Recreational Ethos‟ that people need contact with nature, with wild landscapes and wild creatures as part of their personal development and health. The „Wilderness Aesthetic‟ advocated by John Muir that people need access to the beauty and solitude of wild places for their spiritual and aesthetic development. Muir‟s view that it is not enough for people to be in sympathy with the plight of the natural world but that they must become „active conservationists‟, as campaigners, as practical project workers, as scientists, as artists, as writers.   John Muir Information Guide 7 John Muir Related Example Activities Here are a few example activities that can help you discover who John Muir was and what he achieved. Activities can be adapted to suit different groups and individuals. Inspirational Quotes One of the simplest and most effective ways of introducing John Muir is to place some of his quotes around the walls of your residential room, meeting room or canteen. People will begin to read the quotes at their own pace and in their own time. Discussion can be instigated by asking people to choose a favourite quote. What would John Muir‟s message be if he was around today? Mini National Parks John Muir helped pioneer the first ever National Park movement. In your wild place and in small groups use a length of string (1m) to set out a boundary of a „mini National Park‟. Think about where you would place your park and why, important features etc. Take others on a guided tour of the different „mini National Parks‟. This activity can generate varied discussions on conservation and National Parks. Learn about John Muir cards By using this Information Guide, write questions and answers on differently coloured cards (red for questions, blue for answers). After shuffling the cards – everyone takes one question and one answer card then holds the questions in the right hand and the answers in the left. Everyone in the group now has to find the person with the answer for their question and question for their answer- this should make a circle. Read all the questions and answers in turn and now everyone in the group has discovered lots of information for themselves. For Example: Q. When was John Muir born? Q. Where in America did John and his family first settle? Q. What do John Muir and Wallace and Gromit have in common? Etc…….. A. 21st April, 1838. A. Wisconsin. A. Both invented a „get out of bed‟ machine! Tell John Muir’s story to others John Muir – My Life with Nature (Joseph Cornell) Short themed chapters that sparkle with adventure, awareness and enthusiasm. Writing that adults will be just as fond of as young readers. Perfect for storytelling round the campfire (see Bibliography page). - For other publications that aim to share nature with children visit www.dawnpub.com Fill in the blanks using the words below Activity suitable after viewing the John Muir Award DVD/video, as part of a quiz for younger participants. John Muir was born in __________ in Scotland before he moved to America. In America he __________ the surrounding countryside and recorded what he discovered in his ________. He was very upset by how these beautiful places were being ___________. Because he loved these wild places so much, John Muir tried to help _________ them. He did this by trying to educate people in how to care for the land for future generations. This means he is known as the „father of the modern __________ movement‟. To help spread John Muir‟s message of ______ and conservation you are taking part of the John Muir Award, so you will be finding a ____ ______ of your own to take care of and enjoy. diary care protect Dunbar explored destroyed wild place conservation John Muir Information Guide 8