John Muir

John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was a Scottish-born American 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.

John Muir has been considered "an inspiration to both Scots and Americans". Muir's biographer, Steven J. Holmes, believes that Muir has become "one of the patron saints of twentieth-century American environmental activity", both political and recreational. As a result, his writings are commonly discussed in books and journals, and he has often been quoted by nature photographers such as Ansel Adams. "Muir has profoundly shaped the very categories through which Americans understand and envision their relationships with the natural world", writes Holmes. while biographer Donald Worster says he believed his mission was "saving the American soul from total surrender to materialism". On April 21, 2013, the first John Muir Day was celebrated in Scotland, which marked the 175th anniversary of his birth, paying homage to the conservationist.

Early life

Boyhood in Scotland

thumb|left|alt=photo of John Muir's birthplace in Dunbar, Scotland|Muir was born in the small house at left. His father bought the adjacent building in 1842, and made it the family home.

John Muir was born in Dunbar, Scotland, in a three-story stone building now preserved as a museum. He was the third of eight children of Daniel Muir and Ann Gilrye; their other children were Margaret, Sarah, David, Daniel, Ann and Mary (twins), and the American-born Joanna. His earliest recollections were of taking short walks with his grandfather when he was three. In his autobiography, he described his boyhood pursuits, which included fighting, either by re-enacting romantic battles from the Wars of Scottish Independence or just wrestling on the playground, and hunting for birds' nests (ostensibly to one-up his fellows as they compared notes on who knew where the most were located). Author Amy Marquis notes that he began his "love affair" with nature while young, and implies that it may have been in reaction to his strict religious upbringing. "His father believed that anything that distracted from Bible studies was frivolous and punishable." But the young Muir was a "restless spirit" and especially "prone to lashings". As a young boy, Muir became fascinated with the East Lothian landscape, and spent a lot of time wandering the local coastline and countryside. It was during this time that he became interested in natural history and the works of Scottish naturalist Alexander Wilson.

Although he spent the majority of his life in America, Muir never forgot his roots in Scotland. He held a strong connection with 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 poetry of Robert Burns; he was known to carry a collection of poems by Burns during his travels through the American wilderness. He 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.

Immigration to America

In 1849, Muir's family immigrated to the United States, starting a farm near Portage, Wisconsin, called Fountain Lake Farm. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Stephen Fox recounts that Muir's father 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 of the New Testament and most of the Old Testament. In maturity, while remaining a deeply spiritual man, Muir may have changed his orthodox beliefs. He wrote, "I never tried to abandon creeds or code of civilization; they went away of their own accord ... without leaving any consciousness of loss." Elsewhere in his writings, he described the conventional image of a Creator "as purely a manufactured article as any puppet of a half-penny theater".

thumb|right|upright=1.2|Entrance to [[Fountain Lake Farm near Portage, Wisconsin]]

When he was 22 years old, Muir enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, paying his own way for several years. There, under a towering black locust tree beside North Hall, Muir took his first botany lesson. A fellow student plucked a flower from the tree and used it to explain how the grand locust is a member of the pea family, related to the straggling pea plant. Fifty years later, the naturalist Muir described the day in his autobiography. "This fine lesson charmed me and sent me flying to the woods and meadows in wild enthusiasm".

thumb|left|Muir

In 1863, his brother Daniel left Wisconsin and moved to Southern Ontario (then known as Canada West in the United Canadas), to avoid the draft during the US Civil War. Muir left school and travelled to the same region in 1864, and spent the spring, summer, and fall exploring the woods and swamps, and collecting plants around the southern reaches of Lake Huron's Georgian Bay. While there, he continued "botanizing", exploring the escarpment and bogs, collecting and cataloging plants. One source appears to indicate he worked at the mill/factory until the summer of 1865,

In March 1866, Muir returned to the United States, settling in Indianapolis to work in a wagon wheel factory. He proved valuable to his employers because of his inventiveness in improving the machines and processes; he was promoted to supervisor, being paid $25 per week. He was confined to a darkened room for six weeks to regain his sight, worried about whether he would end up blind. When he regained his sight, "he saw the world—and his purpose—in a new light". Muir later wrote, "This affliction has driven me to the sweet fields. God has to nearly kill us sometimes, to teach us lessons". When Muir arrived at Cedar Key, he began working for Richard Hodgson at Hodgson's sawmill. However, three days after accepting the job at Hodgson's, Muir almost died of a malarial sickness. After spending three months in an oft delirious state, Muir's condition improved such that he was able to move about the Hodgson's house and look outside. Due to their unending kindness in caring for his life, Muir stated that he "doubtless owe my life" to the Hodgsons.

One evening in early January 1868, Muir climbed onto the Hodgson house roof to watch the sunset. He saw a ship, the Island Belle, and learned it would soon be sailing for Cuba. Muir boarded the ship, and while in Havana, he spent his hours studying shells and flowers and visiting the botanical garden in the city.

Explorer of nature

California

Experiencing Yosemite

thumb|right|Muir

Finally settling in San Francisco, Muir immediately left for a week-long visit to Yosemite, a place he had only read about. Seeing it for the first time, Muir notes that "He was overwhelmed by the landscape, scrambling down steep cliff faces to get a closer look at the waterfalls, whooping and howling at the vistas, jumping tirelessly from flower to flower." and wrote about this period in his book First Summer in the Sierra (1911). Muir's biographer, Frederick Turner, notes Muir's journal entry upon first visiting the valley and writes that his description "blazes from the page with the authentic force of a conversion experience". He usually spent his evenings sitting by a campfire in his overcoat, reading Emerson under the stars. As the years passed, he became a "fixture in the valley", respected for his knowledge of natural history, his skill as a guide, and his vivid storytelling. Allen would move to California in 1872 and become the principal of the California State Normal School (now San Jose State University), Muir gave several lectures at the normal school, and Allen joined Muir in several mountain hikes.

In 1871, after Muir had lived in Yosemite for three years, Emerson, with several friends and family, arrived in Yosemite during a tour of the Western United States. The two men met, and according to Tallmadge, "Emerson was delighted to find at the end of his career the prophet-naturalist he had called for so long ago ... And for Muir, Emerson's visit came like a laying on of hands."

Geological studies and theories

thumb|left|Muir in 1907

Pursuit of his love of science, especially geology, often occupied his free time. Muir soon became convinced that glaciers had sculpted many of the features of the Yosemite Valley and surrounding area. This notion was in strong 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. But Louis Agassiz, the premier geologist of the day, saw merit in Muir's ideas and lauded him as "the first man I have ever found who has any adequate conception of glacial action".

In 1871, Muir discovered an active alpine glacier below Merced Peak, which helped his theories gain acceptance.

A large earthquake centered near Lone Pine in Owens Valley strongly shook occupants of Yosemite Valley in March 1872. The quake woke Muir in the early morning, and he ran out of his cabin "both glad and frightened", exclaiming, "A noble earthquake!" Other valley settlers, who believed Whitney's ideas, feared that the quake was a prelude to a cataclysmic deepening of the valley. Muir had no such fear and promptly made a moonlit survey of new talus piles created by earthquake-triggered rockslides. This event led more people to believe in Muir's ideas about the formation of the valley.

Botanical studies

In addition to his geologic studies, Muir also investigated the plant life of the Yosemite area. In 1873 and 1874, he made field studies along the western flank of the Sierra on the distribution and ecology of isolated groves of Giant Sequoia. In 1876, the American Association for the Advancement of Science published Muir's paper on the subject.

Pacific Northwest

Between 1879 and 1899, Muir made seven trips to Alaska, as far as Unalaska and Barrow. Muir, Mr. Young (Fort Wrangell missionary) and a group of Native American Guides first traveled to Alaska in 1879 and were the first Euro-Americans to explore Glacier Bay. Muir Glacier was later named after him. He traveled into British Columbia a third of the way up the Stikine River, likening its Grand Canyon to "a Yosemite that was a hundred miles long". Muir recorded over 300 glaciers along the river's course.

He returned for further explorations in southeast Alaska in 1880 and in 1881 was with the party that landed on Wrangel Island on the USS Corwin and claimed that island for the United States. He documented this experience in journal entries and newspaper articles—later compiled and edited into his book The Cruise of the Corwin. In 1888 after seven years of managing the Strentzel fruit ranch in Alhambra Valley, California, his health began to suffer. He returned to the hills to recover, climbing Mount Rainier in Washington and writing Ascent of Mount Rainier.

Activism

Preservation efforts

thumb|right|upright=1.2|Yosemite Valley and the [[Merced River]]

Establishing Yosemite National Park

Muir threw himself into the preservationist role with great vigor. He envisioned the Yosemite area and the Sierra as pristine lands. He thought the greatest threat to the Yosemite area and the Sierra was domesticated livestock—especially domestic sheep, which he referred to as "hoofed locusts". In June 1889, the influential associate editor of The Century magazine, Robert Underwood Johnson, camped with Muir in Tuolumne Meadows and saw firsthand the damage a large flock of sheep had done to the grassland. Johnson agreed to publish any article Muir wrote on the subject of excluding livestock from the Sierra high country. He also agreed to use his influence to introduce a bill to Congress to make the Yosemite area into a national park, modeled after Yellowstone National Park.

On September 30, 1890, the US Congress passed a bill that essentially followed recommendations that Muir had suggested in two Century articles, "The Treasures of the Yosemite" and "Features of the Proposed National Park", both published in 1890.

The Sierra Club immediately opposed efforts to reduce Yosemite National Park by half, and began holding educational and scientific meetings. At one meeting in the fall of 1895 that included Muir, Joseph LeConte, and William R. Dudley, the Sierra Club discussed the idea of establishing 'national forest reservations', which were later called National Forests. The Sierra Club was active in the successful campaign to transfer Yosemite National Park from state to federal control in 1906. The fight to preserve Hetch Hetchy Valley was also taken up by the Sierra Club, with some prominent San Francisco members opposing the fight. Eventually a vote was held that overwhelmingly put the Sierra Club behind the opposition to Hetch Hetchy Dam. Muir valued nature for its spiritual and transcendental qualities. In one essay about the National Parks, he referred to them as "places for rest, inspiration, and prayers". He often encouraged city dwellers to experience nature for its spiritual nourishment. Both men opposed reckless exploitation of natural resources, including clear-cutting of forests. Even Muir acknowledged the need for timber and the forests to provide it, but Pinchot's view of wilderness management was more resource-oriented. 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." Muir, too, cherished the camping trip. "Camping with the President was a remarkable experience", he wrote. "I fairly fell in love with him".

Nature writer

thumb|left|upright=1.2|[[Lake Tenaya, Yosemite]]

In his life, Muir published six volumes of writings, all describing explorations of natural settings. Four additional books were published posthumously. Several books were subsequently published that collected essays and articles from various sources. Miller writes that what was most important about his writings was not their quantity, but their "quality". He notes that they have had a "lasting effect on American culture in helping to create the desire and will to protect and preserve wild and natural environments".

thumb|right|The [[John Muir National Historic Site|Muirs' home in Martinez, California, is a US National Historic Site]]

Muir was often invited to the Carrs' home; he shared Jeanne's love of plants. In 1864, he left Wisconsin to begin exploring the Canadian wilderness and, while there, began corresponding with her about his activities. Carr wrote Muir in return and encouraged him in his explorations and writings, eventually having an important influence over his personal goals. At one point she asked Muir to read a book she felt would influence his thinking, Lamartine's The Stonemason of Saint Point. It was the story of a man whose life she hoped would "metabolize in Muir", writes Gisel, and "was a projection of the life she envisioned for him". According to Gisel, the story was about a "poor man with a pure heart", who found in nature "divine lessons and saw all of God's creatures interconnected".

John Charles Van Dyke and Dix Strong Van Dyke

John Charles Van Dyke was an author and Professor of Art at Rutgers College (now Rutgers, State University of New Jersey). His nephew Dix Strong Van Dyke had gone to Daggett, California to seek his fortune. Like his uncle, Dix was an author, who wrote Daggett: Life in a Mojave Frontier Town (Creating the North American Landscape). John Muir found his way to Daggett and had many conversations with the uncle and nephew Van Dyke at the Dix ranch. This likely had an effect on his writings. His daughter Helen married Frank Buel and lived in Daggett.

Writing becomes his work

Muir's friend, zoologist Henry Fairfield Osborn, writes that Muir's style of writing did not come to him easily, but only with intense effort. "Daily he rose at 4:30 o'clock, and after a simple cup of coffee labored incessantly. ... he groans over his labors, he writes and rewrites and interpolates". Osborn notes that he preferred using the simplest English language, and therefore admired above all the writings of Carlyle, Emerson and Thoreau. "He is a very firm believer in Thoreau and starts by reading deeply of this author". His secretary, Marion Randall Parsons, also noted that "composition was always slow and laborious for him. ... Each sentence, each phrase, each word, underwent his critical scrutiny, not once but twenty times before he was satisfied to let it stand". Muir often told her, "This business of writing books is a long, tiresome, endless job". In one of his essays, he gave an example of the deficiencies of writing versus experiencing nature.

Philosophical beliefs

Nature and theology

thumb|left|Muir at age 73 on March 29, 1912

Muir believed that to discover truth, he must turn to what he believed were the most accurate sources. In his book, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913), he writes that during his childhood, his father made him read the Bible every day. Muir eventually memorized three-quarters of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament. But as Muir became attached to the American natural landscapes he explored, Williams notes that he began to see another "primary source for understanding God: the Book of Nature". According to Williams, in nature, especially in the wilderness, Muir was able to study the plants and animals in an environment that he believed "came straight from the hand of God, uncorrupted by civilization and domestication".

Sensory perceptions and light

thumb|right|upright=1.2|

During his first summer in the Sierra as a shepherd, Muir wrote field notes that emphasized the role that the senses play in human perceptions of the environment. According to Williams, he speculated that the world was an unchanging entity that was interpreted by the brain through the senses, and, writes Muir, "If the creator were to bestow a new set of senses upon us ... we would never doubt that we were in another world ..." adding that his words "exactly parallels its Hebraic origins", in which biblical writings often indicate a divine presence with light, as in the burning bush or pillar of fire, and described as "the glory of God".

Seeing nature as home

thumb|left|Posthumous portrait by Orlando Rouland (1917)

Muir often used the term "home" as a metaphor for both nature and his general attitude toward the "natural world itself", notes Holmes. He often used domestic language to describe his scientific observations, as when he saw nature as providing a home for even the smallest plant life: "the little purple plant, tended by its Maker, closed its petals, crouched low in its crevice of a home, and enjoyed the storm in safety".

Not surprisingly, Muir's deep-seated feeling about nature as being his true home led to tension with his family at his house in Martinez, California. He once told a visitor to his ranch there, "This is a good place to be housed in during stormy weather, ... to write in, and to raise children in, but it is not my home. Up there", pointing towards the Sierra Nevada, "is my home". His earliest encounters, during his childhood in Wisconsin, were with Winnebago Indians, who begged for food and stole his favorite horse. In spite of that, he had expressed sympathy for their "being robbed of their lands and pushed ruthlessly back into narrower and narrower limits by alien races who were cutting off their means of livelihood". His early encounters with the Paiute in California left him feeling ambivalent after seeing their lifestyle, which he described as "lazy" and "superstitious".

Muir wrote of the Miwoks in Yosemite as "most ugly, and some of them altogether hideous" and said "they seemed to have no right place in the landscape, and I was glad to see them fading out of sight down the pass." Later, after living with Indians, he praised and grew more respectful of their low impact on the wilderness as compared to the heavy impact by European Americans.

In response to claims about Muir's attitudes about Native Americans, Sierra Club national Board member Chad Hanson wrote, "Muir wrote repeatedly about the intelligence and dignity of Native Americans, and honored how traditional Indigenous peoples lived in peaceful coexistence with Nature and wild creatures, expressing his view that Native peoples ‘rank above’ white settlers, who he increasingly described as selfish, base, and lacking honor. This would become a constant theme in Muir's writings, as he attacked the dominant white culture's destructive and greedy ways, and its anthrosupremacist mindset that placed humans above all else and recognized no intrinsic value in ecosystems or wildlife species beyond whatever profit could be gained by exploiting them."

African Americans

Muir spoke and wrote about the equality of all people, "regardless of color, or race", and wrote about the immorality of slavery in his final book, Travels in Alaska. During his time in Alaska he also wrote,<blockquote>...how we were all children of one father; sketched the characteristics of the different races of mankind, showing that no matter how far apart their countries were, how they differed in color, size, language, etc. and no matter how different and how various the ways in which they got a living, that the white man and all the people of the world were essentially alike, that we all had ten fingers and toes and our bodies were the same, whether white, brown, black or different colors, and speak different languages.</blockquote>

In his earlier years, Muir did make some disparaging remarks about African Americans. In A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, Muir described African Americans as "well trained" but "making a great deal of noise and doing little work. One energetic white man, working with a will, would easily pick as much cotton as half a dozen Sambos and Sallies." Describing the sight of two African Americans at a campfire, he wrote, "I could see their ivory gleaming from the great lips, and their smooth cheeks flashing off light as if made of glass. Seen anywhere but in the South, the glossy pair would have been taken for twin devils, but here it was only a Negro and his wife at their supper." However, at no point in Muir's personal journey to the Gulf did he support or empathize with the institution of slavery, avoiding entreaties from Southern hosts when they prodded him.

In 2020, in light of the movement to remove Confederate monuments across the country, Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, reflected on Muir's complex and controversial legacy and announced that the club would shift towards investing in racial justice work and determine which of its monuments need to be renamed or removed. On July 22, 2020, the Sierra Club wrote:<blockquote>Muir was not immune to the racism peddled by many in the early conservation movement. He made derogatory comments about Black people and Indigenous peoples that drew on deeply harmful racist stereotypes, though his views evolved later in his life. As the most iconic figure in Sierra Club history, Muir's words and actions carry an especially heavy weight. They continue to hurt and alienate Indigenous people and people of color who come into contact with the Sierra Club. Some claim Muir did not espouse such beliefs. Mair, along with two other Sierra Club board members, Chad Hanson and Mary Ann Nelson, wrote a response to Brune's attack on Muir, writing:<blockquote>...while some of Muir’s colleagues promoted White supremacist myths and exclusionary views regarding national parks and forests, Muir spoke out about the importance of making these areas accessible and encouraging all people to experience them, writing, "Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish." He came to believe deeply in the equality of all people, writing, "We all flow from one fountain Soul. All are expressions of one Love. God does not appear, and flow out, only from narrow chinks and round bored wells here and there in favored races and places." Muir, the Sierra Club and Robert Underwood Johnson fought against inundating the valley. Muir wrote to President Roosevelt pleading for him to scuttle the project. Roosevelt's successor, William Howard Taft, suspended the Interior Department's approval for the Hetch Hetchy right-of-way. After years of national debate, Taft's successor Woodrow Wilson signed the bill authorizing the dam into law on December 19, 1913. Muir felt a great loss from the destruction of the valley, his last major battle. He wrote to his friend Vernon Kellogg, "As to the loss of the Sierra Park Valley [Hetch Hetchy] it's hard to bear. The destruction of the charming groves and gardens, the finest in all California, goes to my heart."

Personal life

thumb|left|upright=1.2|John Muir with wife (Louisa Wanda Strentzel) and children Wanda and Helen circa 1888|alt=

In 1878, when he was nearing the age of 40, Muir's friends "pressured him to return to society". Although Muir was a loyal, dedicated husband, and father of two daughters, "his heart remained wild", writes Marquis. His wife understood his needs, and after seeing his restlessness at the ranch would sometimes "shoo him back up" to the mountains. He sometimes took his daughters with him. In addition, the W.H.C. Folsom House, where Muir worked as a printer, is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Muir became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1903.

Death

Muir died, aged 76, at California Hospital in Los Angeles on December 24, 1914, of pneumonia. He had been in Daggett, California, to see his daughter, Helen Muir Funk. His grandson, Ross Hanna, lived until 2014, when he died at age 91.

Legacy

thumb|right|A portrait of Muir

During his lifetime John Muir published over 300 articles and 12 books. He co-founded the Sierra Club, which helped establish a number of national parks after he died. Today the club has over 2.4 million members.

Muir has been called the "patron saint of the American wilderness" and its "archetypal free spirit". "As a dreamer and activist, his eloquent words changed the way Americans saw their mountains, forests, seashores, and deserts", said nature writer Gretel Ehrlich. He not only led the efforts to protect forest areas and have some designated as national parks, but his writings presented "human culture and wild nature as one of humility and respect for all life". His friend, Henry Fairfield Osborn, observed that as a result of his religious upbringing, Muir retained "this belief, which is so strongly expressed in the Old Testament, that all the works of nature are directly the work of God". In 2019, the University of the Pacific was given full ownership of the Muir collection, which had been expanding over the years. The university has a John Muir Center for Environmental Studies, the Muir Experience, as well as other programs related to Muir and his work.

Tributes and honors

thumb|right|upright=0.8|[[Mount Muir located one mile south of Mount Whitney in the High Sierra]]

thumb|right|upright=0.8|John Muir on a 1964 US commemorative stamp

thumb|right|upright=0.8|John Muir depicted on the California state quarter

California celebrates John Muir Day on April 21 each year. Muir was the first person honored with a California commemorative day when legislation signed in 1988 created John Muir Day, effective from 1989 onward. Muir is one of three people so honored in California, along with Harvey Milk Day and Ronald Reagan Day.

Mountain Days, a 2000 musical by Craig Bohmler and Mary Bracken Phillips, celebrates Muir's life and was performed annually in a custom-built amphitheater in Muir's adult hometown of Martinez, California.

The play Thank God for John Muir, by Andrew Dallmeyer is based on his life.

The following places are named after Muir:

Mount Muir in the Sierra Nevada, California
Mount Muir in Chugach Mountains of Alaska (probable)
Mount Muir (elevation ) in Angeles National Forest north of Pasadena, California
Black Butte, also known as Muir's Peak, next to Mount Shasta, California
Muir Glacier and Muir Inlet, Alaska
John Muir Trails in California, Tennessee, Connecticut, and Wisconsin
John Muir Wilderness (southern and central Sierra Nevada)
Muir Pass Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, the divide at above sea level, between Evolution Creek and Middle Fork of Kings River
John Muir Health hospital network in Walnut Creek, California
Muir Woods National Monument just north of San Francisco, California
John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez, California
Camp Muir in Mount Rainier National Park
John Muir College, the second established of the eight undergraduate colleges of University of California, San Diego
John Muir High School, an Early College Magnet in Pasadena, California
John Muir Elementary School, an elementary school in San Jose, California.
John Muir Highway, a section of California State Route 132 between Coulterville and Smith Station at California State Route 120. This road roughly follows part of the route Muir took on his first walk to Yosemite.
John Muir Memorial County Park, County Park memorializing his father's homestead when they immigrated to Wisconsin
The main-belt asteroid 128523 Johnmuir
John Muir Country Park, East Lothian. Scotland.
John Muir Way long-distance trail in southern Scotland
John Muir House, the headquarters building of East Lothian Council, Scotland.
John Muir Campus, Dunbar One of two campuses of Dunbar Primary School, the successor to the school Muir attended.

Muir Woods also called John Muir Park, in Madison, Wisconsin, was designed by G. William Longenecker and Richard E Tipple from the University of Wisconsin Landscape Architecture Department. Official dedication of John Muir Park took place on February 8, 1964. Ceremonies at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin headquarters building included the unveiling of a John Muir commemorative stamp.
Muir Valley – a privately owned nature preserve and rock climbing area in the Red River Gorge area of Kentucky. The Valley is approximately 400 acres in size and walled in by over seven miles of majestic cliffs of hard Corbin Sandstone. The owners, Rick & Liz Weber, chose the name, "Muir Valley", to honor the memory of John Muir.

John Muir was featured on two US commemorative postage stamps. A 5-cent stamp issued on April 29, 1964, was designed by Rudolph Wendelin, and showed Muir's face superimposed on a grove of redwood trees, and the inscription, "John Muir Conservationist". A 32-cent stamp issued on February 3, 1998, was part of the "Celebrate the Century" series, and showed Muir in Yosemite Valley, with the inscription "John Muir, Preservationist". An image of Muir, with the California condor and Half Dome, appears on the California state quarter released in 2005. A quotation of his appears on the reverse side of the Indianapolis Prize Lilly Medal for conservation. On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted John Muir into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts.

The John Muir Trust is a Scottish charity established as a membership organization in 1983 to conserve wild land and wild places. It has more than 11,000 members internationally.

The John Muir Birthplace Charitable Trust is a Scottish charity whose aim is to support John Muir's birthplace in Dunbar, which opened in 2003 as an interpretative centre focused on Muir's work. A statue of Muir as a boy by the Ukrainian sculptor Valentin Znoba had been unveiled outside the house in 1997.

Muirite (a mineral), Erigeron muirii, Carlquistia muirii (two species of aster), Ivesia muirii (a member of the rose family), Troglodytes troglodytes muiri (a wren), Ochotona princeps muiri (a pika), Thecla muirii (a butterfly), Calamagrostis muiriana (a Sierra Nevada subalpine-alpine grass) and Amplaria muiri (a millipede) were all named after John Muir.

In 2006, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Works

Books

Essays online

"Alaska. The Discovery of Glacier Bay"
"The American Forests"
"Among the Animals of the Yosemite"
"Among the Birds of the Yosemite"
"The Coniferous Forests of the Sierra Nevada"
"Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park"
"The Forests of Yosemite Park"
"Fountains and Streams of the Yosemite"
"In the Heart of the California Alps"
"Living Glaciers of California"
"The New Sequoia Forests of California"
"A Rival of the Yosemite, King's River Canyon"
"Snow-Storm on Mount Shasta"
"Studies in the Sierra: The Glacier Meadows of the Sierra"
"Studies in the Sierra: The Mountain Lakes of California"
"Studies in the Sierra: The Passes of the Sierra"
"The Treasures of the Yosemite"
"The Wild Gardens of the Yosemite Park"
"The Wild Parks and Forest Reservations of the West"
"The Wild Sheep of the Sierra"
"The Yellowstone National Park"
"The Yosemite National Park"

Notes

External links

John Muir Papers at Holt-Atherton Special Collections.
John Muir exhibit hosted by the Sierra Club