John Muir Explorer, Naturalist* April 21, 1838 - December 24, 1914 Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web gardenofpraise.com

John Muir was one of the first environmentalists* in America. He along with President Theodore Roosevelt saved millions of acres of forestland from the logger's blade.

He was born in Dunbar, Scotland, and as a boy enjoyed exploring the coast by the North Sea near his home. He started school when he was three years old. His grandfather had already taught him the alphabet by pointing out the letters on shop signs as they walked around town.

He began practicing for his mountain climbing adventures by climbing up on the roof of their house and daring his brother to do the same.

He says his father made him memorize scripture. He writes, "...by the time I was eleven years of age I had about three fourths of the Old Testament and all of the New by heart and by sore flesh".

(My Boyhood and My Youth - Chapter 1)

Boyhood sports included playing with gunpowder, climbing trees, and scaling garden-walls.

He was exceedingly interested in the stories in his readers about Audubon and his study of birds, and of lessons describing American forests.

One night his father announced the family was going to America. Father took only Sarah, John, and his brother David whose ages were 13, 11, and 9. He left the three youngest children and their mother in Scotland. They were to come later after he had a place for the family to settle. The voyage took six weeks and three days.

Father found some farmland in Wisconsin. John was utterly happy in this wilderness setting. Then the hard work began of clearing the land and building a house so they could send for Mother and the younger siblings. Finally the house was finished, and Mother and the young ones joined them in Wisconsin.

Father had promised the boys a pony, and bought them a little two-year-old Indian pony which they learned to ride. Now they could roam even further.

Father wanted the boys to learn how to swim. He told them to observe how the frogs swam, and to do likewise. Once John nearly drowned when he panicked in the water. He later went by himself in a boat out to the deep water and dove off several times and swam back to the boat in order to overcome his fear.

Within a few years the land around them was settled almost every quarter section with home-seekers from Great Britain. Some of the people died of consumption* (tuberculosis), and some of plague or accident, but John's family remained intact.

John as a twelve-year-old boy ploughed the ground like a man, and it was also his job to dig out the remaining tree stumps to make way for the McCormick reaper after it replaced hand harvesting.

He also had to split rails to make long lines of fencing. He and his brothers and sisters worked seventeen-hour days. He continued working in the fields even while he had the mumps. Only once was he allowed to leave the field and stay in bed - when he had pneumonia. What a hard life for a child!

After the original farm was all cleared and the house was built, Father bought another farm; a half section of wild land, and they started all over again.

Once when John was not yet 20 years old he was digging a 90-foot water well by hand. When he had dug down about 80 feet he almost died when poisonous gas accumulated in the well. After he recovered and they found a way to stir the air in the hole, he was lowered again and chipped away until he struck water at 90 feet.

His father insisted John go to bed when everyone else in the family retired, but he gave him permission to get up early if he wanted to. He began waking up at 1 AM each morning, and he used this precious time to invent such things as clocks, thermometers (left),and barometers* (right), whittling* the parts out of wood. His neighbor encouraged him to display them at the State Fair.

Though he had slaved for his father for years, Father would not promise him any financial help when John was ready to leave home. He left with $15 in his pocket and his father's advice, "Depend entirely on yourself".

He rode the train to Madison, Wisconsin, made his way to the State Fair and displayed his inventions. People were fascinated. He won a prize and a diploma. An article about him appeared in the Eastern newspapers. His father had never praised him for anything while he was growing up for fear of filling him with a sinful pride. Concerning the newspaper article John wrote, "I was afraid to read those kind newspaper notices, and never clipped out or preserved any of them, just glanced at them and turned away my eyes from beholding vanity".

He later said those early inventions opened many doors for him for years to come.

He went to State University for four years. One winter he taught school during the day and attended the University at night. He did not receive a diploma because he didn't pursue one course of study. He would pick and choose the courses he thought would be most useful to him.

In 1867 he had a terrible accident. The point of a file pierced his eye and he lost his sight in that eye. Then the other eye went dark for a period of months. When his sight returned he determined to spend the rest of his life looking at the beauties of nature.

And that he did. He trekked on foot for hundreds of miles and once made a thousand-mile trek* to Florida. He traversed* the country and spent a lot of time in Yosemite. He traveled several times to Alaska.

He later would persuade President Theodore Roosevelt to set aside 148 million acres of land to be preserved as forestland and national parks.

He married Louisa (Louie) Strentzel, a woman from Texas, and moved to Martinez, California. He was forty-two years old and she was nine years younger. They had two daughters, Wanda and Helen, and he became quite wealthy.

In 1892 he created and became president of the Sierra Club. Its purpose was to preserve and open up a way into the Sierra Nevada mountains. In 1901 he led a group of 97 members of the club on a month-long exploring expedition. The group included his two daughters. He then began to hold the outings every year.

He died of pneumonia in 1914 at the age of sixty-six.

Muir's work lives on in today's ecology and environmental movements.

Many of the facts in this story were taken from Muir's writing, (My Boyhood and My Youth )
(You may want to "View - Text size" and enlarge the print twice.)

The John Muir Exhibit extensive resources at the Sierra Club (You may want to "View - Text size" and enlarge the print twice.) John Muir at Wikipedia John Muir Ecology Hall of Fame John Muir National Historic Site lots of photos Earthkeeper Hero: John Muir from My Hero John Muir Project video "Among the Giant Sequoias" John Muir Trust protecting wild land John Muir California State Quarter puzzle at John Muir Birthplace Trust John Muir's Clocks John Muir Lesson Plans

America's Explorers and Pioneers on DVD Moral Values By Goldhil Entertainment From sailing ships to spaceships, the development of America is filled with stories of courageous adventurers. Your students will thrill to the exploits of Columbus, Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, and John Muir---and the vast country they discovered. Includes onscreen captions; printable teacher's guide, quizzes, and historic documents; and conversations with two explorers of the final frontier. Approx. 50 minutes.

John Muir By Carole Marsh / Gallopade International

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From Word Central's Student Dictionary
by Merriam - Webster
(Pronunciation note: the schwa sound is shown by &)

naturalist
Pronunciation: 'nach-(&-)r&-l&st
Function: noun
a person who specializes in natural history

environmentalist
Pronunciation: -"vI-r&n-'ment-&l-&st, -"vI(-&)rn-
Function: noun
a person concerned about environmental quality and especially with controlling pollution

traverse
Pronunciation: tr&-'v&rs
Function: verb
to move back and forth or from side to side

trek
Pronunciation: 'trek
Function: verb
1 chiefly South African : to travel or migrate by ox wagon or in a train of such wagons
2 : to make one's way slowly and painfully

barometer
Pronunciation: b&-'rahm-&t-&r
Function: noun
an instrument that measures the pressure of the atmosphere
to determine probable weather changes

whittle
Pronunciation: 'hwit-&l, 'wit-
Function: verb
a: to shave or cut off chips from the surface of wood with a knife
b : to shape or form by so shaving or cutting

consumption
Pronunciation: k&n-'s&m(p)-sh&n
Function: noun
a gradual and continuous wasting away of the body especially from tuberculosis of the lungs

Biographies in this Series

Presidents of the United States	George Washington 1st U.S. President	John Adams 2nd U.S. President	Thomas Jefferson 3rd U.S.President
	James Monroe 5th U.S. President	Andrew Jackson 7th U.S. President	Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S.President
	Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd U.S. President	John F. Kennedy 35th U.S. President	James Madison 4th U.S. President
	Theodore Roosevelt 26th U.S. President
American Patriots	Benjamin Franklin patriot and statesman	Francis Scott Key Star Spangled Banner	Deborah Sampson woman soldier in the Revolutionary War
World Leaders	Constantine Roman Emperor	Alexander the Great conqueror	Winston Churchill British Prime Minister
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell telephone	Johann Gutenberg printing press	Cyrus McCormick mechanical reaper
	The Wright Brothers first airplane	Henry Ford Automaker	Thomas A. Edison electric light bulb
	Sequoyah Cherokee alphabet	Nikola Tesla 700 patents	.
Explorers	Christopher Columbus explorer	Meriwether Lewis explorer	Robert Peary Arctic explorer
	John Muir Naturalist	Matthew Henson Arctic Explorer	Sir Edmund Hillary Mr.Everest
	Kit Carson Indian agent	"Johnny Appleseed" orchardist	.
Women who made a difference	Clara Barton founder of the Red Cross	Helen Keller overcame blindness & deafness	Florence Nightingale founder of nursing profession
	Joan of Arc religious and military leader	Amelia Earhart Aviator	Annie Oakley sharpshooter
	Susan B. Anthony Suffragette	Elizabeth Keckly Seamstress	Harriet Tubman deliverer of slaves
	Anne Frank Diarist	Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian	.
Scientists	George Washington Carver botanist and educator	Sir Isaac Newton explained gravity and properties of light	Marie Curie scientist, physicist
	Louis Pasteur Biologist	Albert Einstein physicist, genius	Galileo Astronomer, physicist
Educators	Noah Webster writer of dictionary	Booker T. Washington leader and educator	Aristotle Greek philosopher
Physicians	Hippocrates father of medicine	Walter Reed discovered cause of yellow fever	Albert Schweitzer humanitarian
Religious Leaders	Increase Mather Salem witch trials	.
Athletes	Lou Gehrig baseball player	Wilma Rudolph Olympic gold medal winner	Tiger Woods golfer
Civil Rights Leaders	Martin Luther King civil rights leader	Rosa Parks bus desegregation	Sojourner Truth Former slave
	Frederick Douglass Abolitionist	Mary Ann Shadd Cary Civil rights leader	James Forten Inventor, abolitionist
Composers	Beethoven composer
Artists	John James Audubon artist and naturalist	Gutzon Borglum sculptor, Mount Rushmore	Ansel Adams photographer

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