John Muir travelled alone, 'carrying only a tin cup, a handful of tea, a loaf of bread, and a copy of Emerson'
John Muir is widely known as the ‘Father of the National Parks’. Almost singlehandedly, the author and ecologist was responsible for the safeguarding of such famous and vital habitats as Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park and many of America’s most untouched wildernesses. He is loudly and deservedly hailed in the United States as a conservation pioneer, visionary, and activist. But back here in Scotland, where John Muir was born, you could be forgiven for having overlooked him entirely. However, this April sees the opening of the John Muir Way, which should change that forever.
Early years: John Muir was born in the Scottish town of Dunbar, East Lothian, on April 21 1838. The third child of eight in a strict Presbyterian family, John had a less than happy upbringing and endured many a beating at the hands of his father Daniel Muir. Forbidden to study anything other than the bible at home, John read secretly, devouring books on natural history and other subjects into the small hours, while his family slept. In 1849, the family emigrated to Winsconsin in the United States, where the restless boy had even wider landscapes to discover – this time on horseback.
A new purpose: Age 22, John began University, studying an eclectic mix of subjects including botany, chemistry and geology, though he never graduated. However, after two years he’d learned enough for his own needs, which were to study and understand the natural world around him. In 1866 John was working as a sawyer, when an eye injury focussed his ambitions. John was confined to darkness for six weeks, where he contemplated the future. Regaining both his sight and his purpose, he soon set off on his famous 1,000 mile walk from Indiana to Florida, published as ‘A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf’.
John Muir and President Roosevelt camped together at Glacier Point, Yosemite in 1903
A figurehead for nature: Muir then travelled to California, where he lived for three years in a simple cabin in Yosemite. Scientists, artists, and celebrities of the day visited, drawn by his knowledge of the terrain and his skills of storytelling. Among them was Ralph Waldo Emerson. The essayist and lecturer offered John a teaching position at Harvard, which he declined. Despite his obvious reluctance to follow a ‘typical’ career path, John was writing ever more widely about his studies and travels, catching the eye of Century magazine. Editor Robert Underwood Johnson promised to publish anything John could write about the preservation of the Yosemite area, and crucially, helped introduce a bill to Congress to establish it as a national park. It was successful. In 1892, Muir was also elected President to the newly created ‘Sierra Club’, a conservation society protecting the American wilderness. John’s standing as a spokesperson for nature was secured, and he went on writing and campaigning until his death on Christmas Eve, 1914.
John Muir's birthplace in Dunbar will mark the starting point of the new John Muir Way
The John Muir Way: Back home in Scotland, the John Muir Festival will take place from 17 to 26 April 2014. The festival’s strapline ‘Bringing John Muir Home’ says it all; as a nation we need to get to know John Muir better – he is, after all, one of our most influential exports. The newly created John Muir Way will commemorate 100 years since his death, and will stretch from his birthplace in Dunbar to the waters of the Clyde at Helensburgh. The new path will open up the varied landscape of Central Scotland for all to enjoy and respect, as well as provide a walker’s gateway into Scotland’s first National Park at Loch Lomond and the Trossachs. John Muir would definitely have approved.
For information on the John Muir Festival and maps of the John Muir Way see: http://www.johnmuirfestival.com/
- Photo credits: John Muir’s Birthplace: By Otter (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
- John Muir/John Muir with Roosevelt: public domain images