Nature Bulletin No. 601 April 23, 1960
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Daniel Ryan, President
David H. Thompson, Senior Naturalist

****:JOHN MUIR: NATURALIST

1838 - 1914

Some of John Muir's own friends called him mountain-drunk and tree-
drunk. His eyes, ears and entire being could never get their fill of native 
land-scape and all the living things that go with it. He wandered 
America throughout a long life, usually alone and on foot, sleeping 
where darkness overtook him, and, more often than not, eating only dry 
bread dipped in tea. In later life he drew on the diaries kept during these 
trips to write several widely read magazine articles and books attacking 
the growing exploitation of America's natural beauties and resources by 
miners, lumbermen, ranchers and the encroaching cities.

No tongue-tied hermit, Muir's convincing sincerity and wealth of 
firsthand experience brought many powerful friends to the cause. 
People who appreciate our natural resources and love the out-of-doors 
should thank John Muir as much as anyone for our great systems of 
national parks and national forests.

In 1849, when John was eleven years old, the Muir family migrated 
from their native Scotland to clear a farm on the thin soils of the "oak 
opening" country of central Wisconsin. The youngster gloried in the 
great flocks of passenger pigeons and the abundant bird life of the New 
World. The father was a religious fanatic and harsh to his children -- 
beating them outrageously for every misdeed or bit of forgetfulness.

The machine age was dawning in the Middle West. John dreamed of 
becoming an inventor. With naturally skillful hands and a fine sense of 
mechanics, he managed to steal time and, with crude farm tools, 
fashioned machine after machine from wood and scraps of metal. In 
1860 he escaped his father's tyranny. Two homemade clocks and a very 
sensitive thermometer exhibited at the State Fair in Madison attracted 
wide attention. For three years he earned his own way at the University 
of Wisconsin. Then began a series of botanical and geological trips -- to 
the Mississippi, to Lake Superior, to Canada. Working in a sawmill in 
Ontario and, later, in a carriage factory in Indianapolis, he perfected 
several labor-saving inventions which he refused to patent for his own 
profit.

After an accident in the factory which almost cost the loss of an eye, he 
abandoned his interest in machinery, Taking a train to the Ohio River 
opposite Louisville he started a thousand-mile walk to the Gulf, 
avoiding cities and towns, by "the leafiest, wildest, and least trodden 
way I could find. " He carried only a plant press, a change of 
underclothing, a comb, brush, towel and three small books He 
botanized, made friends along the way, and reached the Gulf after two 
months. Soon, he took passage to Panama and up the Pacific coast to 
San Francisco.

In California he fell in love with the Sierras which he called the "Range 
of Light", with glaciers, and with the giant Sequoias. His studies 
furnished proof that the Yosemite Valley was glacier-made and not the 
results of earthquakes. Though he traveled the wild places of the world 
throughout the remainder of a long life, after the age of thirty, 
California was to be his home base. Editors, administrators, teachers 
and scientists came from distant parts of the country to listen to him and 
be shown the way to conserve the beauties of nature. During four days 
with President Theodore Roosevelt, in Yosemite, they hiked, camped, 
talked and saw eye to eye.  John Muir spoke with a soft Scotch burr, 
had piercing blue eyes, silky reddish brown hair, and he never shaved.