the john muir exhibit - important places
Places Important to John Muir
Contents
See also
John Muir Geography Cards
(
John Muir Day Study Guide
)
- "The Calypso Borealis" by John Muir, excerpted from The Life and Letters of John Muir.
- John Muir Historical Plaque, Epping
Lookout, Bruce Trail, 12 miles from Meaford, Ontario.
- Taking the train route from Madison Wisconsin via Chicago on March 1, 1864, Muir crossed the international border at Windsor, Canada West, which later became the Province of Ontario. Alighting somewhere in present southern Ontario, his purpose was to botanize and pursue his inventions. He explored the area bounded by lakes Erie, Ontario, and Huron over the following several months.
He spent the spring, summer, and fall of 1864 exploring the woods and swamps, and collecting plants around the southern reaches of Lake Huron's Georgian Bay. Muir hiked along the Niagara Escarpment, including much of today's Bruce Trail. In May of 1864, he had penetrated northward as far as Simcoe County. On the 18th of that month he started on a three weeks' ramble through Simcoe and Grey Counties, walking an estimated distance of about three hundred miles. During July he was botanizing north of Toronto in the Holland River swamps, and on highlands near Hamilton and Burlington bays. In August he is again about the shores of Lake Ontario and in the vicinity of Niagara Falls, which he described as "the grandest sight in all the world."
ith his money running low and winter coming, he reunited with his brother Daniel near Meaford, Ontario, who persuaded him to work with him at the sawmill and rake factory of William Trout and Charles Jay. Muir lived with the Trout family in an area called Trout Hollow, south of Meaford, on the Bighead River.
He did not leave Canada until March of 1866, when the rake factory burned down.
- Was John Muir a Draft Dodger? by Harold Wood. Essay details the timeline of Muir's Canada sojourns, and specific locations, showing that Muir did not go to Canada to evade the Civil War draft..
-
Meaford, Ontario -(Offsite-Link) - Muir wrote,
"When I came to the Georgian Bey of Lake Huron, whose waters are so transparent and beautiful,
and the forests about its shores with their ferny, mossy dells and deposits of boulder clay,
it seemed to be a most favorable place for study... In a beautiful dell, only a mile
or two from the magnificent bay, I fortunately found work in a factory where there was
a sawmill and lathes for turning out rakes, broom, and fork handles, etc."
Muir worked at Trout's mill for a year and a half, greatly improving the efficiency
of output of rake handles by making efficiency improvements. But on February 21 of 1866, the factory building and all of its contents took fire, thus ending Muir's Meaford sojourn.
- Canadian Friends of John Muir
-
Parks Canada
-
Dunbar
, the birthplace of John Muir
- John Muir Birthplace Visitor Center Opens (March 23, 2003)
-
A Boyhood in Scotland, Chapter 1
of The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, by John Muir
-
Photo of historical plaque at Muir's birthplace
(44 kilobytes)
- Phoro of John MuIr Stone with quote 'Happy the man to whom every tree is a friend' at entrance to Lochend Woods. The stone is of Dunbar Marble from the old quarry to the south of the town. Photo by Jim Thompson.
-
John Muir and the United States National Park System
, a speech by Lawrence Downing sponsored by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society
Glasgow, Scotland, October 7, 1992 and Edinburgh, Scotland, October 8, 1992.
- Off-site links:
- Edinburgh
-
Alaska
-
Arizona
-
California
-
General
- Coulterville
- John Muir Highway -
The John Muir Highway was established to honor the legendary naturalist John Muir by developing visitor sites along the County Road J132 route of Muir’s 1868 walk to Yosemite from San Francisco. See also the John Muir Highway Fan Club on Facebook.
- John Muir Geotourism Center - Educational organization, growing out of the John Muir Highway project, promoting exploring, learning, sharing, and preserving the natural environment for mental, spiritual and physical development, as exemplified in John Muir's life.
-
Daggett
-
"John Muir and the Desert Connection"
, by Peter Wild
- Homecoming:
Walter Muir, grandson of the naturalist John Muir, returns to the
house in Daggett where he was born and spent his boyhood Story
and photos by Stuart Kellogg, Daily Press (undated, off-site
link - deleted by owner) - Built by Helen Muir Funk in 1915 with money inherited from
her father, the famed naturalist John Muir, the Funk-Mir houe in Daggett
has been a private home, a tuberculosis sanitarium, a chicken ranch,
and, from 1999 to 2006, the headquarters of the Augustan Society.
-
Martinez
-
Mount Diablo
-
Where John Muir Slept- John
Muir slept on the summit of Mount Diablo, but had breakfast at the Mountain House Hotel that
existed during his visit in 1877.
-
Mount Shasta
-
Sierra Nevada
-
General
-
Hetch Hetchy Valley
- Sierra Club Restore
Hetch Hetchy Website - Includes Muir's writings on Hetch Hetchy, as well as photos and other articles about Muir's last battle.
- Restore Hetch Hetchy - New campaign organization working to find a win-win solution allowing for the restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley while providing water and power supplies to San Francisco.
-
John Muir Trail - 211.9 miles long, beginning at
Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley, and ending on the summit of Mount Whitney.
-
Kings Canyon National Park
-
Lake Tahoe
- Muir first visited Lake Tahoe in October-November of 1873, calling it the "queen of lakes" and writing his friend Jeanne Carr that he had "sauntered through the piney woods, pausing countless times to absorb the blue glimpses of the lake, all so heavenly clean, so terrestrial yet so openly spiritual." He wrote further, "The soul of Indian summer is brooding this blue water, and it enters one's being as nothing else does. Tahoe is surely not one but many. As I curve around its heads and bays and look far out on its level sky fairly tinted and fading in pensive air, I am reminded of all the mountain lakes I ever knew, as if this were a kind of water heaven to which they all had come." [Source: Letters to a Friend, 1915]
- Muir returned to Tahoe several other times in his life, enjoying its "delightful" beauty.
-
Mount Ritter
-
Sequoia National Park
-
Yosemite National Park
- John Muir Tree in Yosemite Valley
-
General Management Plan
(from the
John Muir Day Study Guide
)
-
National Park Service Goals for Yosemite
(from the
John Muir Day Study Guide
)
-
Viewpoints on Yosemite Management
(from the
John Muir Day Study Guide
)
-
The Yosemite
, by John Muir
(1912).
The complete text of this book arranged by chapter.
-
"The Yosemite"
, chapter 5 of the book
My First Summer in the Sierra
(1911) by John Muir
-
"The Yosemite National Park"
, chapter 3 of the book
Our National Parks
(1901) by John Muir
-
Topographic map of Yosemite
-
Yosemite Web Index - A comprehensive site linking to many others
-
Yosemite Valley
, from the TerraQuest company;
includes a
list of links
-
History of Yosemite
, by Moira Magneson
-
Yosemite Time Line
, from the TerraQuest company
-
Bibliography for Yosemite Valley
, by Moira Magneson
-
Geology of Yosemite
, by Moira Magneson
-
National Park Service
-
halfdome.com
: yosemite on the web
-
Sierra Club Yosemite Committee
-
Yosemite Online
, by the Yosemite Association
-
Yosemite Valley: A Photo Essay
, photos taken by Nick Cuccia in October 1995.
- Yosemite Fund
-
Florida
- Historical Marker - Cedar Key
-
"Through Florida Swamps and Forests," Chapter Five of
A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir
-
"Cedar Keys," Chapter Six of
A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir
- Cedar Key -
Historical and Area Information (offsite link)
- 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.
- Georgia
- Idaho
-
Indiana
- Muir lived in Indiana from the spring of 1866
through June, 1867, working in a carriage-parts factory. He spent what little
free time he had exploring the nearby forests for their botanical
treasures. When an
industrial accident temporarily blinded him, he wrote, "I
bade adieu to all my mechanical inventions, determined to
devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of
God."
- Indiana State Historical Marker - John
Muir in Indiana - View text and photos of maker dedicated July 2, 2004
- Indiana State Historical Marker
Text Annotation - References and citations
for Historical Marker by Indiana Historical Bureau
- John
Muir Remembered in Indiana with New Historical Marker by Lori Hazlett, The
Indiana Sierran, (Fall, 2004) (off-site link) - Sierra Club hoosier
Chapter members celebrate the dedication.
- John
Muir Marker to Be Erected in Indianapolis - The Indiana Sierran,
Spring, 2004. (off-site link)
- Background about the marker
- John Muir in
Indiana (PDF) by
Harold W. Wood, Jr. - required research paper submitted to Indiana Historical
Bureau in support of the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter request for a commemortive
historical plaque in Indianapolis.
- "A Genius in the Best Sense: John Muir, Earth, and Indianapolis" by Catherine
E.
Forrest Weber,
in Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, Vol. 5, no. 1, Winter
1993.
A review of Muir's life, with a focus on his early inventions and his time
spent in Indiana,
including his friendships with Catharine Merrill and her nephew Merrill Moores.
Nicely illustrated with Muir
portraits and his drawings of inventions. The issue of Traces that
includes this
article is available as a back issue from the Indiana Historical Society, 315
W. Ohio St.,
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3299; or by calling 1-800-IHS-1830.
- While in Indiana, John Muir met and was cared for in his illness byCatharine
Merrill, one of the first woman professors in America.
-
Kentucky
- Massachusetts
- Hunnewell Arboretum - Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Muir visited this Arboretum, near Boston, in October, 1898, where he
met and had dinner with its founder, philanthroposit and amateur botanist
H.H. Hunnewell.
- Arnold Arboretum
& Library - Harvard University, Jamaica Plain, Boston.
Muir was a close friend and traveling companion of its director, Charles
Sprague Sargent.
- Maine
- Moosehead Lake - Muir visited this area near Greenville, Maine, in October, 1898. He described it inn a letter to his daughter Wanda as "a charming sheet of pure water 40 ms. long full of picturesque islands."
- Missouri
- Daniel Muir Gravesite - Elmwood
Cemetery, Kansas City - In 1885, John Muir visited Kansas City to see his
father, Daniel, on his deathbed. In late August of that year, John had "the
most powerful inner compulsion" he
had ever known, sensing that he must go east if he would see his father
alive. Muir gathered up his siblings in Portage, Wisconsin and nearby Nebraska,
insisting that they visit their father in Kansas City where he was visiting
Muir's sister Joanna and her family. The family had several days visiting
with the 80 year-old Daniel, who died on October 6, 1885, surrounded by
7 of his 8 children, including John, who later wrote an obituary about
his father for
the Portage Recorder newspaper. Daniel is buried in the historic Elmwood
Cemetery of Kansas City, Block N, Lot 57, along with 2 deceased infants
of Muir's sister Joanna and her husband Walter Brown. In May, 2004, the
Muir-Hanna Trust donated a headstone to
commemorate him.
- John
Muir In Kansas City by David Anderson, Sierra Club Thomas Hart Benton Group Chair
-
New Hampshire
-
New York
- On his first visit to New York in 1868, Muir stayed on the ship until he sailed to California. He wrote, "My walks extended but little beyond sight of my little schooner home. I saw the name Central Park on some of the street-cars and thought I would like to visit it. but fearing that I might not be able to find my way back, I dared not make the adventure. I felt completely lost in the vast throngs of people, the noise of the streets, and the immense size of the b buildings. Often I thought I would like to explore the city if, like a lot of wild hills and valleys, it was clear of inhabitants."
- Late, Muir wrote, "I can make my exhilarated way over an unknown ice-field or sure-footedly up a titanic gorge, but in these terrible canyons of New York, I am a pitiful, unrelated atom that loses itself at once."
- Years later, with his friend and editor Robert Underwood Johnson, he visited Central Park, where he ws interested in the clacial scratchings on outcroppings of granite.
- In later years, Muir spent time in the Hudson River Valley, visiting friends John Burroughs and Osborn.
-
North Carolina
-
Oregon
-
Tennessee
- Utah
- Muir visited the Salt Lake City area in 1877 with the U.S. Geodetic Survey, and wrote of the Mormon pioneer descendents, mountain storm scenery, Utah lilies, and bathing in the Great Salt Lake in several chapters of Steep Trails.
- Years later, in 1913, Muir visited the Mormon Tabenacle in Salt Lake City where he heard "memorable organ music," especially "Nearer, my God to Thee," which he described as "so devout, so sweet, so whispering low." (John Muir's August 1913 "Island Park" Idaho journal.)
-
Vermont
-
Mt. Mansfield in
the Green Mountains - highest peak in Vermont - John Muir wrote that he had
gone up "to the snowy summit" of this peak in October, 1898.
-
Washington State
-
Wisconsin
-
General
- Muir
is Still Here, by Daryl Christensen and Kathleen McGwin - summary of book featuring Muir's boyhood ties to Marquette County, Wisconsin.
-
Fountain Lake Farm,
Boyhood Home,
near Montello (Buffalo Township, Marquette County):
- The video below is from Wisconsin Public Television In
Wisconsin - May 21, 2009 - Ice Age Trail - John Muir - 3 minute video clip
showcasing Muir's boyhood home at Fountain Lake Farm, near Buffalo Township,
Wisconsin, with Muir quotes and outstanding videography.
-
Fountain Lake Farm
- John
Muir Memorial Park - YouTube video by jjwanswer - Excellent
10 minute video slide show of the Memorial Park showing Muir's
ties there. (off-site link)
- John Muir's Homestead Video: In
Wisconsin March 25, 2010 - Muir Property
- WHYY Public television interview on location of Erik Brynildson,
the current owner of the John Muir Homestead in Marquette County,
Wisconsin. (off-site link)
- Muir's sketch of Fountain Lake and meadow
-
Dedication Speech by Erik Brynildson
- A Visit to John Muir's
Wisconsin Farm by Bill Tweed
-
Directions to Fountain (Ennis) Lake and Muir County Park
-
Marker at Muir County Park, Fountain (Ennis) Lake
-
Photo of Fountain Lake
-
Restoring the Fountain of John Muir's Youth
, by Erik Brynildson
- John
Muir Memorial Park - Off-site link to Town of Buffalo (Marguette
County) website
- Montello
Historic Preservation Society - Off-site link to website
hosted by author Kathleen McGwin. The Montello Historic Preservation
Society is collaborating with many other organizations to make
2010 the Year of John Muir in Marquette County, Wisconsin. Also
available: book Muir is Still Here celebrating John
Muir's boyhood ties to Marquette County, Wisconsin.
A series
-
The Heart of John Muir's World:
Wisconsin, Family, and Wilderness Discovery
, by Millie Stanley
(press release)
-
"John Muir's Wisconsin Days"
, by Dave Leshuk
-
Madison
- Observatory
Hill - Sauntering in the Footsteps of John Muir by Dennis McCann (offsite
link) Now a State Natural Area, Observatory Hill was one of John Muir's boyhood
haunts. - Note - this is a broken link. We suggest you contact the site owner
and ask them why they did not put a re-direct to the new location of this
page.
- Oregon, Wisconsin
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