John Muir in Florida

John Muir visited Florida twice in his lifetime. Since then, a number of places, and even a landmark tree commemorate him in Florida.

Places Commemorating John Muir Today:

Cedar Key, Florida - Historical and Area Information (offsite link)
Cedar Key Chamber of Commerce - Visitor Information (offsite link)
Cedar Key - John Muir Historical Marker -
Corkscriew Swamp Sanctuary - Landmark Cypress #2 ""Muir"

Orlando - Epcot - The American Adventure-- "Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir"
YouTube video of Epcot - The American Adventure - Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir -video by Mark Brieve showing an excerpt from the show as presented on April 5, 2016.
This is a brief excerpt of the Audio-Animatronics stage show of American history, portrying the famous meeting of John Muir with President Theodore Roosevelt in Yosemite.

Yulee - John Muir Ecological Park - Located near Fernandina Beach and Jacksonville, in Nassau County. The park anchors the abandoned railbed that Muir walked across Florida on, still visibly raised above the surrounding wetlands and low woods. It is the hoped that some day this small park will be the beginning of a system of bike and multiuse trails through the Nassau County. More info: Nassau Community Trails.

John Muir's Writings about Florida:

Man's Place in the Universe by John Muir
(Muir's epiphany in Florida where he concluded that nature was valuable for its own sake.)
Through Florida Swamps and Forests - From A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir
Cedar Keys - From A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir.
Marquesas Keys - 30 miles west of Key West, Florida. Muir visited this group of atolls with botanist Charles Sprague Sargent in November, 1898. He observed palms, mangroves, sand fleas, mosquitoes, and fiddler-crabs. These islands today are part of the Key West National Wildlife Refuge.
In 1898, Muir took a final trip to Florida, at the age of sixty, which itself was replete with color and incident.

One dramatic occurrence was the finding of Mrs. Hodgson, who had nursed him back to health on his thousand-mile walk to the Gulf. The incident is told in the following excerpt from a letter to his wife under date of November 21, 1898:

The day before yesterday we stopped at Palatka on the famous St. Johns River, where I saw the most magnificent magnolias, some four feet in diameter and one hundred feet high, also the largest and most beautiful hickories and oaks. From there we went to Cedar Keys. Of course I inquired for the Hodgsons, at whose house I lay sick so long. Mr. Hodgson died long ago, also the eldest son, with whom I used to go boating, but Mrs. Hodgson and the rest of the family, two boys and three girls, are alive and well, and I saw them all to-day, except one of the boys. I found them at Archer, where I stopped four hours on my way from Cedar Keys. Mrs. Hodgson and the two eldest girls remembered me well. The house was pointed out to me, and I found the good old lady who nursed me in the garden. I asked her if she knew me. She answered no, and asked my name. I said Muir. "John Muir?" she almost screamed. "My California John Muir? My California John?" I said, "Why, yes, I promised to come back and visit you in about twenty-five years, and though a little late I've come." I stopped to dinner and we talked over old times in grand style, you may be sure.

Places Important to John Muir

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