John Muir. Photo by Isaiah West Taber and Thomas H Boyd – Wikimedia

Top 10 Unbelievable Facts about John Muir


 

John Muir was born on April 21, 1838 in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland. He was Scottish-born American naturalist, writer, and advocate of U.S. forest conservation.

Muir emigrated from Scotland with his family to a farm near Portage, Wisconsin, in 1849. In 1860 he travelled the short distance south to Madison, where he subsequently attended the University of Wisconsin until 1863.

He later devoted himself to nature. He walked from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, keeping a journal, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf (1916), as he went.

In 1868 he went to the Yosemite Valley in California. From there he took many trips into Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, inspired by his interest in glaciers and forests. In a series of articles published in 1874–75 in the magazine Overland Monthly, Muir attributed the spectacular Yosemite formations to glacial erosion; he was the first to present this theory, which is now generally accepted.

1.A hiking trip caused him to study botany

John Muir. Photo by unknown – Wikimedia

Muir studied science, philosophy and literature at the University of Wisconsin. He intended to eventually go to medical school.

When in college, he realized his true love was botany. He was influenced by the works of naturalist philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

After spending a summer hiking in the wilderness with friends, he gave up school to study botany and explore the natural world.

2.Near blindness aroused love for nature

John Muir, American conservationist. Photo by Francis M. Fritz – Wikimedia

Muir took odd jobs to support himself, including working at a carriage parts factory in Indianapolis. One day he stayed late to readjust a new belt. As he was unlacing the joining using a slender and sharp file, it slipped, flew and pierced his right eye.

The injury was to the edge of the corona. He was left temporarily blind. For weeks he lay in a darkened room fearing he would never see again.

When he regained his sight, he was determined to devote the rest of his life to seeing nature. He began traveling the world.

3.He was a writer

John Muir. Potrait by Orlando Rouland – Wikimedia

Not only did Muir experience the beauty of nature, but also shared his appreciation for such natural wonders with the world. He began writing articles and articles for publications like the New York Tribune, Scribner’s and Harper’s magazine. His work focused on nature, the environment and conversation. He developed a reputation in the scientific community and a popular public following.

Later on in life, he eventually published 300 articles and 10 major books recounting all his travels.

To spark people’s interest in nature, Muir wrote 12 books and more than 300 articles about nature and his travels – which took him to every continent except Antarctica.

4.He was referred as the Father of National Parks

Muir wrote so many passionate articles about his beliefs. This caused many people to write letters and to lobby Congress to establish a new national park. An act of Congress created both Yosemite and Sequoia national parks.

He was later involved in the creation of Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest and Grand Canyon national parks.

In 1903, Muir and Roosevelt went camping above Yosemite Valley, where Muir asked for Roosevelt’s help to preserve the beauty of the area. Roosevelt was impressed with Muir’s plea. During his administration, Roosevelt set aside 148 million acres of forest reserves and the number of national parks doubled.

5.He had a difficult childhood

His father Daniel was a strict religious man. He immigrated with his family from Scotland because he wanted to practice and preach the gospel as he saw fit.

The family relocated to a wilderness. He drove John mercilessly in an effort to transform the wilderness into a Garden of Aden.

He endorsed his sons work through regime floggings and sermons. The Scottish had a custom of whipping for every act of disobedience or simple playful forgetfulness. This was greatly adhered to in the household. However, most beatings were directed to John and not his siblings.

6.Over 200 sites names in his honour

John Muir Trail in Yosemite Valley, California. Photo by Steveshelokhonov – Wikimedia

One of the most well-known hiking trails in the U.S., the 211-mile (340 km) John Muir Trail, was named in his honour.

Roosevelt named Muir Woods – the towering redwood forest north of San Francisco – as a national monument in honour of his friend. And there’s the John Muir College, part of the University of California, which promotes environmental studies.

Americans have named over 200 sites in his honour. In 1964, Congress designated his Martinez home The John Muir National Historic Site, in recognition of his campaigns and the books in which he celebrated the natural heritage of the United States.

7.He was an innovator

With no technical training, John invented small machines. One such machine was a contraption to flip him out of bed every morning! He took his machine to the Madison State Fair. He attracted attention from the University of Wisconsin and got awarded a scholarship.

At Madison, he invented a “study desk” to open books and turn the pages. Sunlight would burn a thread that was connected to a lens, ensuring that the contraption would be set off at sunrise.

During a job as a teacher, he invented a clock that could light the classroom’s fire early each morning. This caused the room to be warmed up by the time the students arrived.

8.He had President Teddy Roosevelt as a close friend

Theodore Roosevelt with one of his closest friends, John Muir. Photo from Wellcome Images – Wikimedia

The President personally wrote to Muir in 1901, requesting a tour through Yosemite. In the letter Roosevelt said that he wanted to be out there in the open four days, politics aside.

In the spring of 1903, Muir travelled for two months with Roosevelt from the White House to Yellowstone with dozens of flesh-pressing stops along the way.

Later that year, Muir toured the President on a 4-day trip through Yosemite. Roosevelt ditched his security detail and set out with Muir on the trip.

During his presidency, Roosevelt would preserve more than 230 million acres of public land, including Yosemite and four other national parks and 18 national monuments.

9.He once walked a 1000 miles from Indiana to Florida

In September 1867, Muir undertook a walk of about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from Kentucky to Florida. This was recounted in his book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. He had no specific route chosen, except to go by the wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way he could find.

He slept beneath bushes at night and awoke to the earliest bird calls in the morning.

Muir faced harsh conditions when he set foot in Florida. The distances he travelled became shorter and more indirect as he navigated through the “vine-tangled” landscape. He paused often to admire vibrant species, some of which he was seeing for the first time.

10.He never lived off the land

Even if Muir spent most of the time wandering the earth, he did not dine off it. From a very young age Muir had mastered the art of eating very little. The most Muir ever weighed was 148 pounds.

Since he wasn’t a hunter or fisherman, he was frequently hungry. He lived off bread and was sometimes very faint on his trips. However this did not tempt him to help himself to a piece of steak!

As he roamed the continent, his endeavour was to preserve the land as much as he could. He was a naturalist and had his bounds. For example he ate fruit but kept off the seeds.

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