John Muir Gajanth Anigol Period 1

                John Muir was a Scottish naturalist who advocated the spread of the preservation of the wilderness. He has written books, essays, and letters on how he spent his time in the Sierra Nevadas. He founded the Sierra Club which has now grown into a huge conservation organization.

                John Muir was born in Scotland and was the son of Daniel Muir and Ann Gilyre. John Muir had always had an affinity with the wilderness from even when he was a child; he usually used interaction with the wilderness as a way to escape from his father’s strict religious rules of conduct. When his family moved to Wisconsin, his dad joined a group called the Disciples of Christ which made John adhere to a strict religious life. This, on the contrary, only caused John Muir to change his orthodox views and change his view on the creator.  Muir then enrolled in the University of Wisconsin where he took his first lesson on botany. Though Muir attended college, he never passed his first year since always skipped on class and had an odd variety of classes. In 1864, Muir then went to Canada to avoid the draft, and here, he studied a variety of plants and animals around Lake Huron. In 1866, Muir returned back to America and stared to work at a factory that made wagon wheels. He then, here, had an accident with a tool that changed him as a person. While he was working, his tool hit him in the eye which caused him to look at the world in a new light.       

                Muir then left to California and visited Yosemite. He was absolutely stunned and awed by the beauty and grandeur of Yosemite, and after, he even wrote a book about it. He made a cabin in Yosemite and lived there for two years to stay in the wild. John Muir was also influenced by the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson and then met him in Yosemite. Muir also created the thought that the valley of Yosemite was created by glaciers.

                Muir came to head in views with Gifford Pinchot who had a more conservational, or “tree farming” view. Then, Muir went on a trip with Roosevelt into Yosemite which convinced Roosevelt to preserve Yosemite. He also very much opposed the building of dams in these pristine areas. Afterwards, he also tried to help the Native American, and he also started a career as a writer for nature. He used writing as a medium to describe his experiences in nature.