Perhaps the name John Muir (1838-1914) does not ring a bell for everyone. This Scottish-born American writer was a pioneer in conservation. Muir was one of the founders of Yosemite National Park and founded the Sierra Club, one of the most important American organizations in the field of nature conservation. Muir’s treks through nature, often written in diary form, were inspiring. Among other things, a glacier, a mountain peak and a 338.6 kilometer long hiking trail through the Sierra Nevada Mountains were named after him. The book ,In the wilderness, trips through Wisconsin, Nevada, California and Alaska,, published in February 2018, contains a number of texts that the naturalist wrote.
The Childhood of John Muir
John Muir was born in Dunbar, Scotland. In 1849, he emigrated to the US with his family at the age of eleven. His father started a farm in Wisconsin. Muir spent entire summers studying the fauna and flora. Muir’s fascination with all living things made him decide to study botany. This did not go down well with his very religious father. This man’s influence made John Muir a deeply religious man. However, he did not practice his faith in a strictly orthodox way, but brought it together in a spiritual way with his admiration for nature.
The very beginning on the farm
In the Wilderness begins with a chapter in which Muir describes his childhood on the farm. A logical choice because that is where the fire for his passion was ignited. He studied the farm animals his father acquired and called working with them a never-ending source of delight and wonder. We read how young John attributed each animal its own character traits, how he attributed human traits to them and how important he found the bond with the animals. In this chapter the reader is already introduced to the man’s beliefs. Muir stated that in his view, respect and appreciation for animals created a divine appreciation that went beyond the church and school lessons that he believed taught stultifying doctrines.
John Muir, naturalist and writer
The tangibility and enthusiasm with which Muir wrote almost places the reader in the unexplored wilderness that the naturalist sketched at that time. The landscapes of Muir are thousands of hectares full of ancient forests and miles of impressive glaciers. Muir’s precision and his drive to understand nature, to become one with it, are omnipresent in his work. The texts in the book are often very detailed descriptions of the areas through which he, more than once at the risk of his own life, passed through or, as he would describe it himself, got lost in.
Stickeen, about the bond with a dog
A moving passage in the collection is undoubtedly the chapter with the dog Stickeen. During an expedition to Southeast Alaska, a traveling companion brought Stickeen on board. Although Muir initially objected to the arrival of the animal, which he believed would be a nuisance and would be destroyed by the icy cold, a deep bond would later develop between the two. Stickeen appeared to have no problems and went his own fearless way. Just like the writer, the dog had a thirst for adventure. On one of their explorations, Muir and Stickeen found themselves stuck in the middle of a storm on a glacier that consisted of a maze of deep crevasses and shifted blocks of ice. The way back was closed and the way forward also seemed to be littered with life-threatening obstacles. The cold-blooded Muir and the dog managed to reach the camp alive. After the expedition their paths parted. “When my work for that season was over, I left for California and never saw my dear buddy again.”
Yosemite National Park, Muir’s influence
Source: Underwood & Underwood, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Muir’s many visits to the Sierra Nevada and his numerous publications made Yosemite known to a wide audience. Muir was concerned about the intensive logging of the giant sequoias and the overgrazing of the area’s grasslands. In 1871, Muir went into the mountains with some influential guests to convince them to protect the park. On this trip he received the support of Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of The Century Magazine. Muir could now publish all his articles directly in this magazine while Johnson lobbied in Washington for national protection of Yosemite. On October 1, 1890 the time had come. Yosemite National Park was born. No one in Congress voted against it. On the same day, General Grant National Park was established and Sequoia National Park, established by Congress six days earlier, was expanded. However, the foundation of Yosemite National Park did not entirely satisfy Muir. The two major attractions, Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove, were owned by the state of California.
Camping with Theodore Roosevelt
In 1892, the Sierra Club, a conservation organization, was co-founded by Muir. Within this association he continued to campaign with the government for a unified national park. In May 1903, Muir camped for three days near Glacier Point with President Theodore Roosevelt. It was on this trip that the foundation was laid for a unified park under federal responsibility. In 1906, Roosevelt, himself a great nature lover, signed the law that made this possible. In the photo, also the cover of In the Wilderness, we see Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir at Glacier Point in 1903.
The fascinating but dangerous world of John Muir
The collection of texts that comprise In the Wilderness paint a picture of the character of John Muir. At the same time, they show the reader a part of the wonderful but dangerous habitat of the naturalist who, often alone but anything but lonely, traveled through the wilderness far from civilization. Without a compass or map in his pocket, he played with the world around him, as it were. For example, we read that he crawled into a tree during the height of a storm to fully experience the power of nature. The dire situation with Stickeen on the glacier that Muir fearlessly faced is another example of the man’s passion. “We could undoubtedly have weathered the storm for one night, dancing on a level place so as not to freeze, and I faced that possibility without any despair.”
Book details ,In the wilderness, tours through Wisconsin, Nevada, California and Alaska,
- Number of pages: 197
- Release date: February 2018
- Published and compiled by Uitgeverij Van Oorschot, Amsterdam
- Translation texts: Eefje Bosch
- ISBN number: 9789028280328