Posted on 12/26/2014 10:44:50 AM PST by Borges
On Christmas Eve in 1914, famed naturalist John Muir lay in a Los Angeles hospital bed, taking his last few breaths.
A prolific nature writer and passionate preservationist, the 74-year-old spent his final moments racked with pneumonia, hundreds of miles from the 17-room Martinez Edwardian mansion he called home.
A century later, Muir’s former residence — now the John Muir National Historic Site — is where national park staffers and about 30 Muir enthusiasts gathered on a gray Christmas Eve morning to mark the passing of the man who co-founded the Sierra Club and preserved Yosemite and other natural park treasures for generations to come, among other achievements.
They paid tribute to his life, shared stories and reflected on Muir’s legacy, which has recently come under scrutiny by scholars, the media and others who question whether his philosophies about the natural world and the public’s access to it continue to be relevant.
For Kelli English, the site’s Chief of Interpretation, Muir’s life and observations continue to fascinate despite how much the world has changed since the environmental giant made his transformative and well-documented forays into the wilderness.
“(His) legacy is a profound one, a complex one,” she told the small crowd sitting in the home’s South Parlor, where Muir’s body lay in wake after being taken to Martinez by train from Southern California.
Jim MacDonald, who has worked for the park service for 23 years, called Muir a “hero” and told the small crowd how people from all over the world come to Martinez to visit Muir’s home to learn more about the man. “People still want to see wild places … breathe fresh air and renew their souls,” MacDonald said while pondering Muir’s legacy.
Ranger Matt Holmes shared anecdotes about Muir’s life, from his birth in Scotland to his boyhood and adolescence in Wisconsin as the hardworking and later somewhat rebellious son of an itinerant preacher. He then read the eulogy William Frederick Bade delivered as Muir’s body lay in its casket in front of the bay windows overlooking the home’s fruit orchards, and mourners sang a song from Muir’s childhood days in Scotland.
Park rangers then took turns reading tributes penned by Muir’s friends and admirers, including then-ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, naturalist Enos Mills and U.S. Geological Survey geographer Robert B. Marshall, who wrote that Muir’s simplicity was his power and he knew nature “as no one else did.”
Muir continues to impact people’s lives, including that of Karen Conerly-Walls, who drove from Stockton to share how the naturalist’s writings inspired her son to beat congestive heart failure and lead a more active life.
Muir has also made an impression on Martinez resident Karen Najarian, who called him her “spiritual father” and spoke of his impact on backpacking trips she’s led in Yosemite. Sherida Bush recalled moments in her life connected to Muir such as moving to Martinez and living on a street bearing his name. “I didn’t expect to fall in love with him, but I did,” she said.
As the tribute ended, it was evident that despite the passage of time, Muir’s allure endures.
“John Muir may have been a man of his time but the lessons and writings he left with us are timeless,” Ranger English said as attendees dispersed to chat with one another and wander the halls of Muir’s home.
The greatest naturalist of the 19th Century.
He essentially founded the vast National Park system as we have it today.
Thanks to John Muir, America has preserved more untamed wilderness than Europe since the beginning of European settlement of North America over three centuries ago.
“A century later, Muir’s former residence — now the John Muir National Historic Site — is where national park staffers and about 30 Muir enthusiasts gathered on a gray Christmas Eve morning to mark the passing of the man who co-founded the Sierra Club.”
Kind of sounds like a government sanctioned and financed religion with priests, church and all. Perhaps we can find some lawyer willing to be offended and give the progressive/repressives a dose of their own medicine.
John Muir’s legacy will live far longer then these current radical groups will survive.
Yes, it is too bad that they have publicly demonstrated that environment is not their top priority. Instead, it is a leftist agenda.
Finally, at the end of the thread, I find some balance!!!
The non-prodical son of a preacher, this Pagan prodigy is actually being idolized here by conservative capitalists? Wow!!!
Some of these FReepers ought to have to deal with the government fed litigators of the Sierra Flub known as Earth Justus!!!
Hey! Before any of you git all worked up at me over this comment, the chances of your city/county or any other governmentMental entity being sued by these allegators, then settling with large monetary collections from your local government for "attorney's fees" is substantial!
This is where a large amount of your local government taxes are being siphoned off into their big fat pockets. And it's legal, though illegitimate to the MAX!!!
By worshipping at the John Muir shrine and this insanely liberal Santa Cruz rag is doing, you are endorsing the unbelievable perversion of the original "TREE HUGGER!" Just think of the fiscal ravages promoted in just the past quarter century by these fiendish Sierra Club lowyers!!
I got eye-ball to eye-ball, belly button to belly button with 'em as a local county elected trying shield our timber industry from their wiles, so I know! I saw them snear at capitalism, free enterprise, free markets and any other freedoms claiming just like the Demonicrats that "government is the one thing we all belong to!"
You can’t blame Muir for what’s been done in his name. It’s like blaming Thoreau for same.
Muir perpetuated the racist myth that the landscape he found so "Natural" was not the result of aboriginal management (and he's just as bad as Leopold in that regard). He inculcated and promoted the idea that socializing management of "Nature" as a government monopoly in the land entertainment business was the way to maintain that beauty he coveted. That myth is what allows the Sierra Club he organized to do massive damage to the land by the same means, doing nothing about massive fuel loads in the presence of exotic weeds. These thugs have sold out to corporate manipulators in everything from real estate, to mining, manufacturing, and resource management, impoverishing both the nation and the land they think they are "protecting."
You bet I can blame Muir.
I highly recommend hiking the John Muir trail if you poses the health and resources to make the journey. it is spectacular.
A lot of people bought into racist myths back then. The damage the Sierra Club does now is not his responsibility. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea of national parks.
Those worshipping at the shrine of either Muir, or his club that has grown militant and malicious in their "Winning Through Intimidation" tactics are just enhancing the fog of romantickism to provide these modern day monsters more and more cover!!!
Do you also blame Thoerau for this sort of thing? Blame Malthus for Mao’s population control ideas?
The Sierra Club wasn’t always what it is today. I used to listen to a part time conservative talk show host in the Bay Area (I can’t remember his name) who was on the board back in the 60s. At that time they were mainstream conservationists. He quit in the 70s when the board was taken over by radical leftie lawyers who only wanted to focus on suing people.
Indian land management. ... yeahhhh. That’s what caused the land to look like it did. Please.
My pleasure. :’)
I suggest you investigate their common origin.
The damage the Sierra Club does now is not his responsibility.
In part, it is. His writings are still in publication for the present purposes of the Sierra Club to this day.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea of national parks.
Well let's start with Article I, Section 8, shall we?
As to the idea of a need to protect habitat, there is a great deal wrong with National Parks there too. Unfortunately, you apparently just don't understand enough about their true condition for me to even begin. Nor are you aware of what private management has accomplished by comparison. Nor are you aware that there is an alternative to the government environmental behemoth.
Kindly offer your authority for that judgment.
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