John Muir

1. John Muir By Logan Hickox Engineer, naturalist, writer, botanist, geologist

2. Biography facts Born: April 21, 1838, Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland Death: December 24, 1914(aged 76), Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. Spouse: Louisa Strentzel Children: Wanda Hanna, Helen Funk

3. Childhood Experiences with Nature Muir enjoyed most of his time climbing in trees and studying birds nests. Though his parents were extremely religious, he would show signs of his non-interest in religion and hide from his abusive father outside and pick flowers to blow off steam.

4. Education Muir was home-schooled and was taught religion; by age 11 he could recite the all of the New Testament and more than half of the Old Testament. At the age of 22, Muir attended University of Wisconsin-Madison. Muir took a number of different botany classes yet only stayed in college for two years before being listed as “less-educated than a first-year student” because of his unusual selection of courses.

5. Environmental Experiences In the Summer of 1868, Muir, being a gifted inventor, built a water-powered mill and a small cabin along Yosemite Creek, cutting a corner out so that the creek can run through a section of his house. Muir stayed at the cabin for the majority of his life because of his “nature affair” as he called it, with the geology part of Yosemite specifically.

6. Preservation and Conservation John Muir founded the “Sierra Club,” a club for mountain and nature lovers. In 1903, Muir befriended President Theodore Roosevelt as Roosevelt had heard of his Muir’s thoughts on Yosemite and nature and later accompanied him on nature trips. In 1906 the Sierra Club later succeeded in their biggest campaign, turning over Yosemite State Park to Federal hands to preserve it’s natural beauty. Theodore Roosevelt(left) and John Muir(right) in the Yosemite National Park

7. List of Books Written Studies in the Sierra (1950 reprint of serials from 1874) Picturesque California (1888–1890) The Mountains of California (1894) Our National Parks (1901) Stickeen Stickeen: An Adventure with a Dog and a Glacier (1915) Stickeen: The Story of a Dog (1909) My First Summer in the Sierra (1911) Edward Henry Harriman (1911) The Yosemite (1912) The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913) Letters to a Friend (1915) Travels in Alaska (1915) A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf (1916) The Cruise of the Corwin (1917) Steep Trails (1919)

8. Tributes and Honors • California celebrates John Muir Day on April 21 each year • The following places were named after Muir Knoll, University of Wisconsin–Madison • Mount Muir • Muir Glacier, Alaska • Three John Muir Trails (in California, Tennessee, and Wisconsin) • John Muir Wilderness (southern and central Sierra Nevada, California) • Muir Woods National Monument just north of San Francisco • Muir Beach, California • John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez, California • John Muir High School (Pasadena, California) • John Muir Middle School (Los Angeles, California, San Jose, California, San Leandro, California and Wausau, Wisconsin) • Muirlands Middle School (La Jolla, California) • John Muir Elementary School (Martinez, California; Antioch, California; Merced, California; Modesto, California; San Bruno, California; Santa Monica, California; Stockton, California; Hoffman Estates, Illinois; Parma, Ohio; Kirkland, Washington; Madison, Wisconsin; and Portage, Wisconsin) • John Muir College (a residential college of the University of California, San Diego) • John Muir Country Park, in Dunbar; the John Muir Way in East Lothian

9. Tributes and Honors cont. • John Muir Medical Center in Brentwood, Concord, and Walnut Creek, California • The main-belt asteroid 128523 Johnmuir • Muir's Peak next to Mount Shasta, California (also known as Black Butte) • Mount Muir (elevation 4688') in Angeles National Forest, California, north of Pasadena[51][52] • Camp Muir in Mount Rainier National Park • School of Life Sciences building at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland • John Muir Park (Green Bay, Wisconsin) • John Muir neighborhood and elementary school in Sooke, British Columbia, Canada. • A section of California State Route 132 between Coulterville and Smith Station at California State Route 120 has been designated the John Muir Highway. This road roughly follows part of the route Muir took on his first walk to Yosemite.[53] • American visual artist, musician and naturalist Wesley Berg released an album entitled "Listen to John Muir" in July 2010 under the nomme d'arte The Redwoods. • Muir is featured on a 5-cent stamp and the California state quarter.

10. Quotes God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools. In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. The power of imagination makes us infinite. When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

11. What I Learned I learned that one person really can make a difference in society. For example, without John Muir their would be no Yosemite National Park because it would have been destroyed. • John Muir has published over 300 • articles and 12books. • The Sierra Club now has more • than 1.3 million members.