麻豆APP

Top 10 facts about John Muir

John Muir was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America. He was largely responsible for the establishment of Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park.

In early 1892 Muir and Professor Henry Senger founded The Sierra Club, the first large-scale environmental preservation organizations in the world, and currently engages in lobbying politicians to promote environmentalist policies.

Muir鈥檚 personal and determined involvement in the conservation of nature has heightened people鈥檚 perception of nature, taught people the importance of protecting and exploring our natural heritage, and remains an inspiration for environmental activists everywhere.

Below are the top 10 facts about John Muir;

1. John Muir鈥檚 hidden talent

John Muir’s Desk Clock – Flickr

In 1860 John exhibited some of his inventions at the Madison State Fair. He took one of his clocks and his famous 鈥榚arly rising machine鈥�. This was also a timekeeping machine. Attached to a bedstead, it set the sleeper on his feet in the morning. John鈥檚 inventions were a huge success. The Wisconsin State Journal called the young inventor 鈥楢n Ingenious Whittler鈥�.

At university, he invented a 鈥榮tudy desk鈥�. This could open books in the correct order and turn the pages. A thread connected to a lens, burnt through by sunbeams, ensured that it began at sunrise.

Around 1866 he started to work in a wagon wheel factory, where he proved valuable to his employers because of his inventiveness in improving the machines and processes.

2. You can take the boy from the village, but you can not take the village from the boy

John Muir birthplace – Wikipedia

John Muir was born in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland. His family immigrated to the United States in 1849, settling on a farm near Portage, Wisconsin. Although he spent the majority of his life in America, he never lost his Scottish accent.

He held a strong fondness of his birthplace and Scottish identity throughout his life, and was frequently heard talking about his childhood spent amid the East Lothian countryside. He greatly admired the works of Thomas Carlyle and the poetry of Robert Burns; he was known to carry a collection of poems by Burns during his travels through the American wilderness.

Muir returned to Scotland on a trip in 1893, where he met one of his Dunbar schoolmates and visited the places of his youth that were etched in his memory.

3. The bible at his fingertips

The Holy Bible – Wikipedia

Muir鈥檚 father, Daniel Muir, was a religious zealot who found the Church of Scotland insufficiently strict in faith and practice, leading to their immigration and joining a congregation of the Campbellite Restoration Movement, called the Disciples of Christ.

By the age of 11, the young Muir had learned to recite “by heart and by sore flesh” all the New Testament and most of the Old Testament.

In maturity, while remaining a deeply spiritual man, Muir may have changed his orthodox beliefs. His view of nature as a permanently benevolent entity appears to be at odds with the Judeo-Christian culture which dominated his time.

4. Vicious cycles can be broken

Muir and his family, 1888 – Wikipedia

Muir recalled in 鈥淭he Story of My Boyhood and Youth鈥�, 1913 that his father was religious and extremely strict, keeping his children in line with frequent whippings. His father worked him hard on the farm and would not allow him to waste daylight hours on reading. A form of labor which he remembered with special aversion was the hoeing of corn before the days of cultivators.

John Muir did cause controversy because he did not lead the same sort of life as most people in the area. However, from diaries and letters, it appears the family had a very loving and understanding relationship. Louie Muir often urged her husband to go to the mountains for his health and was very supportive of his fight for preservation. When his daughters were younger, he took them on nature walks around the ranch, and as they grew older, they accompanied him on Sierra Club outings and trips to the southwest.

This was in complete contract to his father.

5. His writings have swayed the hardest of hearts, politicians

Our National Parks by John Muir – Flickr

Muir was described as an ecological thinker, political spokesman, and religious prophet, whose writings became a personal guide into nature for many people, making his name “almost ubiquitous” in the modern environmental consciousness. The spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings has inspired readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas.

Muir published two landmark articles on wilderness preservation in The Century Magazine, “The Treasures of the Yosemite” and “Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park”; this helped support the push for U.S. Congress to pass a bill in 1890 establishing Yosemite National Park.

6. John Muir was listed as an 鈥渋rregular gent鈥� in university

Aerial view of University of Wisconsin, Madison – Wikiwand

In 1860, when Muir was 22 years old, he enrolled in the University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison, and studied chemistry, math, physics, Greek, Latin, botany and geology. He took an eclectic approach to his studies, attending classes for two years but never being listed higher than a first-year student due to his unusual selection of courses.

However, despite his statues as “irregular gent” and never graduating, he learned enough geology and botany to inform his later wanderings.

7. A blessing in disguise

John Muir, 1875 – Wikimedia Commons

While working in a wagon wheel factory in Indianapolis, Muir had an accident in early March 1867 that completely changed the course of his life. While working in the factory, a tool he was using slipped and struck him in the eye. The file slipped and cut the cornea in his right eye, and then his left eye sympathetically failed. He was confined to a darkened room for six weeks to regain his sight.

When he regained his eyesight, Muir was determined to “be true to himself” and follow his dream of exploration and study of plants. Later in his life he wrote that, “he saw the world鈥攁nd his purpose鈥攊n a new light” in regard to this incident, further adding, “This affliction has driven me to the sweet fields. God has to nearly kill us, sometimes, to teach us lessons”.

8. He went camping with a president

Muir and Roosevelt – Wikipedia

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt accompanied Muir on a visit to Yosemite. After entering the park and seeing the magnificent splendor of the valley, the president asked Muir to show him the real Yosemite. Muir and Roosevelt set off largely by themselves and camped in the back country.

It was a night that left an impression on Roosevelt, as he later told a crowd, “Lying out at night under those giant Sequoias was like lying in a temple built by no hand of man, a temple grander than any human architect could by any possibility build.”

9. He was the first to attribute the spectacular Yosemite formations to glacial erosion

Yosemite National Park – Unsplash

Muir was convinced that glaciers had sculpted many of the features of the Yosemite Valley and surrounding area. This notion was in contradiction to the accepted contemporary theory, promulgated by Josiah Whitney, head of the California Geological Survey, which attributed the formation of the valley to a catastrophic earthquake.

As Muir’s ideas spread, Whitney tried to discredit Muir by branding him as an amateur. However, in 1871, Muir discovered an active alpine glacier below Merced Peak, which helped his theories gain acceptance.

10. An inspiration to all

The Sierra Club – Flickr

John Muir is the best example of what sheer determination can do in a person鈥檚 life. Despite being handed a hard hand early in his life, he was able to make a big difference in the United States of America and inspire the whole world.

The Sierra Club that he founded back in 1892 continues today continues to promoting sustainable energy and mitigating global warming, as well as opposition to the use of coal, hydropower and nuclear power. Through the club, his legacy continues to live on.