Muir Fights for the Future

John Muir was a mild-mannered guy but he had a passion - protecting natural resources for future generations.  He called the battle one between "landscape righteousness and the devil."  He wrote for Harper's Weekly and the Atlantic Monthly to educate the public.  In 1898, the forest reservation policy was in jeopardy.  Muir was recognized as the leader of the drive to save America's forests and wilderness areas.

In 1903 he went on a camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt, who shared Muir's concerns.  President Roosevelt set aside 100 million acres of government timberland as a forest reserve, and established five national parks.  Roosevelt also designated 16 historic areas as national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906.  The Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon were designated as national monuments in 1906 and 1908, but since have become national parks.

John Muir founded the Sierra Club in 1892 and kept an eye on the nation's forests.  He brought attention to the giant redwoods which were being used for everything from caskets to shingles to cigar boxes.  With conservationists he was able to save some of the redwood groves.  It wasn't until 1968 that the Redwood National Forest was established to protect these trees.

Muir died in 1914 but in his last decade he wrote journals where he recorded, "the forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God, because they were the best He ever planted."  We could use some John Muir today before our protected parks are sold off to private individuals and lost forever.

Next time...Farewell Frontier
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight. 

John Muir - Guardian of the West

Born in Scotland in 1838, John Muir came to America in 1849 with his family to farm in Wisconsin's wilderness.  Although he had no formal education in Wisconsin, John read every book he could find.  His father was a stern taskmaster and would not allow John to read after chores in the evenings. Not to be dissuaded, John build a wooden clock and rigged an "early rising machine" that would raise his bed so he could find the time to read early in the day.

Muir enrolled in the University of Wisconsin  at the age of 22.  When he left, he wandered through the Midwest and Ohio Valley, studying plants.  He worked for a time in a wagon factory in Indianapolis until he injured his eye and decided that machinery work was not for him.  From Indiana he traveled on foot to the Gulf of Mexico, recording his observations on plants.

In 1868, Muir went to California where he spent six years exploring Yosemite.  He wandered through Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, sketching and recording the flora and fauna of what he found.

After marrying a California rancher's daughter, John set out to become an expert on horticulture.  In 1889 he enlisted one of the editors of Century Magazine to survey Yosemite Valley.  Together they observed what Muir had claimed - the forest's upland was being ruined by sheep (hoofed locust, he called them).  The land was stripped of all grass, causing spring floods and summer droughts.  The two men launched a campaign that resulted in Congress establishing Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks in 1890.

In 1891 Muir's articles pressed Congress to pass the Forest Reserve Act which allowed the president to set aside timberlands.  Muir proposed the forest commission, and finally it became a reality in 1896 when Cleveland created 13 forest reserves to protect over 21 million acres.

Next time...Muir Declares War
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Today in Pioneer History: "On December 13, Joseph Reddeford Walker, one of the greatest trailblazing mountain men and the first Anglo-American to see Yosemite, is born in Tennessee.
For more on Walker - see earlier blog posts where we spent a year traveling with Joe across the U.S.  

America's First National Park

In 1872 President Grant signs the bill creating the first national park at Yellowstone. Earlier in the year, Congress had set aside 1,221,773 acres of public land in the future states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho as America's first national park. The Yellowstone Act designated the region as a public "pleasuring-ground" which would be preserved "from injury or spoilation of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within".

Native Americans had lived and hunted in the Yellowstone region for hundreds of years before the white settler came.  Abundant game and mountain streams teaming with fish attracted the Indians to the region, along with the geysers, canyons, and gurgling mud pots that fascinated them.

The first white people to travel through this area in the early 1800s returned with fantastic stories of steaming geysers and bubbling cauldrons.  Some doubters accused these men of telling tall tales.  The first formal expedition into the area in 1869, but it in 1871 the exploration that would be the key to the founding of Yellowstone as a national park was sponsored by the US Government.

The US geologist, Ferdinand Hayden, explored the Yellowstone area in 1871 along with William Jackson, a pioneer photographer, and Thomas Moran, a landscape artist.  Making a visual record of the expedition, they provided the first visual proof of Yellowstone's wonders and caught the attention of the US Congress.

Although America was hell bent on settling and exploiting the West it seems, Yellowstone was a surprising change.  Many members of Congress supported the national park idea simply because they believed the rugged and isolated region was of little economic value.

The Yellowstone Act of 1872 set a precedent and popularized the idea of preserving sections of public domain for use as public parks.  The idea not only spread around the country, but to other nations as well.
As an American, I am so grateful that President Grant saw the magnificent  beauty of Yellowstone and preserved it for future generations.

Next time...Off to Oregon

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