JOHN MUIR -
FATHER OF OUR NATIONAL PARKS
By Matt Larson
Living in California we either see or hear the name John
Muir quite a bit. Be it the John Muir National Historic Site
in Martinez, John Muir Health, one of many John Muir
elementary or high schools, not to mention the Muir Woods
National Monument in Marin, or the fact that John Muir
is immortalized on the back of the official California State
Quarter.
John Muir lived from 1838-1914, and is a prime example
of how one individual can have a lasting impact on the world.
A naturalist, conservationist, and a self-proclaimed “poeticotrampo
geologist-botanist and ornithologist-naturalist etc., etc.”
He’s most renowned for his adventures in California’s Sierra
Nevada. He was a prolific writer who taught people about the
importance of experiencing the natural beauty of our earthly
heritage. His writings helped contribute to the creation of the
Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest, and Grand
Canyon national parks.
Born in Dunbar, Scotland, Muir first came to the United
States when he was 11 years old. In 1849 his family emigrated
from Glasgow, Scotland to New York; it was a six-week trip
via sailing ship. They then went straight to Wisconsin where
Muir spent most of his 20s. He enrolled at the University of
Wisconsin and it was here that he first learned about geology
and developed his love for botany—this is where he also met
his future mentor, Jeanne Carr. At 30 years old in 1868, Muir
sailed to California. He arrived in San Francisco and soon made
his first visit to Yosemite, where he’d spend much of his time in
the coming years.
He would always find his way back to the Bay Area though,
where he did much of his writings over the years. His first
published writing was in the Boston Recorder in 1866 when
he was 28-years old. It was called The Calypso Borealis, written
about a rare orchid he discovered while botanizing in Ontario.
Then in 1871 the New York Tribune published Muir’s first
article from
California
titled Yosemite
Glaciers. San
Francisco’s
The Overland
Monthly
publishes several
of his writings
in 1872, and
by 1874 began
publishing
Muir’s series,
Studies in
the Sierra.
Ultimately
he wrote
more than
300 magazine
articles and 10
John Muir in the woods
major books.
The same
year his series was being published in the The Overland
Monthly, Muir’s Wisconsin mentor Jeanne Carr introduces him
to his future wife, Louisa “Louie” Wanda Strentzel, the daughter
of a prosperous Polish immigrant who owned a large fruit farm
in Alhambra Valley near Martinez, whom he married in 1880.
By then, Martinez was his home. He began construction of a
mansion in Martinez for his father and mother-in-law in 1882.
His brother David and his family moved to Martinez 10 years
later in 1892, and Muir had even gone into partnership with
his father-in-law Dr. John Strentzel and helped managed the
family’s large fruit ranch for 10 years.
John Muir made friends wherever he went. Ralph Waldo
Emerson paid a 33-year-old Muir a visit in Yosemite in 1871,
he became lifelong friends with John and Annie Bidwell of
Chico in 1877, and even spent 3 days and nights camping alone
with President Theodore Roosevelt in Yosemite in 1903.
It is widely accepted that Yosemite National Park, amongst
with many others, wouldn’t exist without the influence of John
Muir. And of all the places in the world he could have landed,
he wound up right here in Contra Costa County. Today, Muir’s
remains lie beside those of his wife in a small family cemetery
one mile south of the Muir House in Martinez. Together they
had two daughters and 10 grandchildren.
If you’d like to dive deeper, as there’s an encyclopedia’s worth
of information on John Muir and his adventures, head to vault.
sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit, or visit nps.gov/jomu.