John Muir: The Father of American Environmentalism
By Louis Kallgren
“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” That quote came from John Muir, an essential individual in America’s push for preservation of our natural lands. He is regarded by many as “the father of national parks.” In fact without John Muir, America’s park system could be potentially radically different today.
Born in Scotland in 1839 Muir became obsessed with nature from a young age. He and his family immigrated to America in 1849 (Sierra Club). For the next eighteen years Muir had a fairly normal upbringing. In 1967 however Muir had a workplace accident that threatened his vision. For weeks he was at risk of losing his vision permanently. It was this incident that led him to pursue his life in nature. In September of the next year Muir underwent a walk of about 1000 miles from Kentucky to Florida. After that he continued to bounce around occupations for a few more years.
Muir eventually moved to San Francisco where he began to explore the Sierra mountains and the Yosemite Valley. He built a small cabin along Yosemite Creek and lived mainly in isolation with no spouse or family. (Wikipedia)
After living in this environment for some time Muir realized that this land must be preserved and that he had to be the one to spearhead the movement. Muir wrote articles on the subject and had a friend with influence introduce a bill to congress. The result was congress passing a bill that put the Yosemite Valley under the control of the state of California. (sierra club)
Perhaps Muir’s most influential contribution to modern day environmentalism was the formation of the Sierra Club, which is now the largest and most influential environmental organization. The Sierra Club and Muir were responsible for transferring Yosemite from a state run park to a Federally run national park. (sierra club)
Muir’s stance on environmentalism was for the preservation of nature. So when Muir became familiar with his future rival, Gifford Pinchot, who was a large advocate for conservation, their conflicting views led to a fundamental split in views in environmentalism. The two remained friends for a period of time but their opposing views eventually tore them apart.
In 1903, Muir met with president Theodore Roosevelt, a monumental meeting in which Muir took Roosevelt into the Yosemite backcountry to explore its beauty. Roosevelt left feeling inspired. This meeting had a large impact on Roosevelt and was one of the factors that gave him the title of “conservative president.” (PBS)
Muir had a large influence on the preservation of American lands, especially on the west coast. He worked tirelessly throughout his life to make sure these lands were free from development. Without Muir there likely wouldn’t be a Yosemite National Park. Even with his modest upbringing John Muir was arguably one of the most influential environmentalists in history, and influenced the field to be what it is today.
