Muir, John (Paper II)

By Michael Barendse, Ed.D.

Biographical Highlights

John Muir is credited, along with Theodore Roosevelt, as being the father of our national parks system.  He was also one of the founders of the Sierra Club, one of the largest conservation advocacy groups in the United States.  Through his publications and other advocacy, Muir helped educate leaders, and the American public, about the need for preservation of wild lands and the animals that inhabit those areas. This advocacy initiated the conservation movement in the United States.


Historic Roots

John Muir was born in Dunbar, Scotland, in 1838.  He lived and attended school there until 1849, when his family emigrated to the United States, eventually settling on a farm in Wisconsin.  For the next several years, Muir spent most of his time working the farm.  He did not attend school, but attempted to educate himself in his spare time.  Muir also spent time in the workshop constructing several innovative machines.  He took some of these inventions to the Wisconsin State Fair in 1860, and attracted the attention of someone at the University of Wisconsin.  He was offered admission to the university, and he accepted.

At Wisconsin Muir majored in science and intended to follow a career in medicine as a way of fulfilling his goal of helping his fellow man.  However, after three years of study, Muir chose not to return to school for reasons that are not clear.  Instead, he went to Canada, where he took a job as a mechanic in a factory.  He spent his spare time in the surrounding forests, studying the plants and animals of the area.  When the building burned to the ground Muir went to Indianapolis where he took a job with Osgood, Smith, & Company, a wheel manufacturer.  His expertise with machinery served him well, and he quickly rose in the company as his improvements led to higher profits for Osgood, Smith.  Once again, Muir spent his spare time in the forests surrounding Indianapolis, studying the natural phenomenon that he found there.  A factory accident in 1867 nearly blinded Muir, and, while he was recovering from the injury, he came to the conclusion that studying nature was more important than improving machinery.  He decided to devote the rest of his life to “the inventions of God.”

Muir resigned his job at the wheel factory and began walking south, with intention of reaching the Amazon and its rain forest.  A bout with malaria convinced him to change destinations, and he eventually arrived in California.  Once there, Muir traveled into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where he stayed.  Muir spent the next several years exploring the area, particularly the country around Yosemite falls, and began writing about his observations and feelings concerning the wilderness and the animals that he saw there.

Muir clearly viewed preservation of wilderness areas and protection of wildlife as two parts of a whole.  He repeatedly referred to the oneness of nature, and the idea that everything on the planet was interconnected with everything else in his writings.  Muir did not believe hunting wild animals was a moral activity, calling the practice the “murder business.”  He noted the outrage when an animal attacked and killed a human, and suggested that there should be a similar reaction when a human killed an animal.  Muir felt that it was the duty of humans to protect their “fellow mortals”, writing that “no right way is easy in this rough world. We must risk our lives to save them.” (http://www.gutenberg.org/text/1163).  His recognition that an ecological system included all the elements that lived in a habitat was a precursor to much of the modern ecological preservation movement.  The creation of Yosemite National Park in 1890, was the first official recognition that the protection of wilderness ecosystems was a legitimate interest of government and the society-at-large. 

Muir’s work eventually came to the notice of President Theodore Roosevelt, who shared some of Muir’s reverence for the wilderness.  Roosevelt spent some time with Muir camping in the mountains.  Roosevelt saw value in the ideas advocated by Muir and was instrumental in the creation of the National Park System, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

During the 1890’s Muir recruited some followers who shared his vision and formed the Sierra Club.  The Sierra Club membership was dedicated to the preservation of the Sierra Nevada Range.  The group sought to limit the impact of human incursion on the landscape and the wildlife of the area.  Muir remained the President of the Sierra Club until his death in 1914.

Importance

John Muir is centrally important to the development of the conservation and animal welfare movements in the United States.  His work and writing educated influential Americans about the value of the remaining wilderness areas in the country, and the need to protect and preserve them.   Muir’s philosophical position that all things are interrelated in an ecological system has informed generations of advocates of environmental protection and habitat preservation who have followed his lead.  The Sierra Club has been a formidable advocate for the protection of the environment and for wildlife preservation since its inception in 1890.  His work helped to infuse American culture with a sense of responsibility for the preservation of wild places.

Ties to the Philanthropic Sector

Much of the philanthropic sector concerned with the cause of animal welfare has grown out of the work and ideas popularized by John Muir and the Sierra Club.  His emphasis on ecosystems has resulted in widespread interest and support for environmental protection and protection of endangered species.  The Sierra Club has been particularly involved in that effort.  In addition, Muir’s view that animals were “fellow mortals,” deserving of our interest and protection, supported the work of organizations advocating humane treatment of animals of all kinds.  By popularizing the idea of wilderness, Muir created an atmosphere within the culture that favored efforts to preserve and protect wilderness areas and the animals that inhabit them.


Key Related Ideas

• Animal Welfare:  The compassion and respect due animals as living, responsive beings.  Animals are entitled to kind and respectful treatment at the hands of humans, and this is not to be left to the compassionate impulses of humans, but is an entitlement that must be protected under the law.
• Ecosystem:  A community of organisms together with their physical environment, viewed as a system of interacting and interdependent relationships.  (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ecosystem).
• Wilderness:  An unsettled region left in its natural condition.  (http://www.answers.com/wilderness?cat=technology).

Important People Related to the Topic

• Gifford Pinchot, (1865-1946).  Pinchot was the first head of the U.S. Forest Service under President Theodore Roosevelt.  With Roosevelt he made conservation a national policy issue, and helped create the conservation movement in the United States.
• Theodore Roosevelt.  Roosevelt, following Muir’s advice, established the national park system by creating five new parks during his term as President.

Related Nonprofit Organizations

• The National Audubon Society focuses on the preservation of environments critical to the survival of wildlife, especially birds. (http://www.audubon.org).
• The National Wildlife Federation has a very large membership and focuses on wildlife conservation and protection issues. (http://nwf.org).
• The Sierra Club is the oldest conservation advocate group in the United States and focuses on many environmental and conservation causes. (http://www.sierraclub.org).
• American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) (http://www.aspca.org)

Related Web Sites

• Animal People Online at (http://www.animalpeoplenews.org) provides access to information about John Muir and other animal welfare advocates.
• The Center for Biological Diversity at (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org) offers links to many topics related to the issues of species preservation and habitat protection.
• The John Muir Exhibit at (http://www.sierraclub.org/john-muir-exhibit) provides access to a great deal of material by and about John Muir.

Bibliography and Internet Sources

Todd Dornbos. “Muir, John.” htpp://www.learningtogive.org/papers/index.asp?bpid=116.

(http://www.gutenberg.org/textt/1163).

The John Muir Exhibit. http://www.sierraclub.org/john-muir-exhibit.