Introduction
John Muir is recognized as one of the earliest people to champion for the establishment of national parks, and he is popular for his eloquence speeches. He was born in Dunbar, a town in Scotland on 21st April in the year 1838. He went to schools within the Durban town until he turned eleven when his family moved to the Fountain Lake in the United States before relocating to the Hickory Hill Farm which is near Portage in Wisconsin. Muirs father was very harsh and he was a disciplinarian who worked hard to see his family achieve the expectations and goals he set. For this reason he kept Muir busy forcing him to memorize the bible by the time he reached eleven (Muir et al 180).
When Muir and his younger brother were given some time off the family duties and the hard work of plow and hoe, they could still spend this sublime and rear chance to roam in the woods and fields in the countryside of the Wisconsin. With time he develop this love for natural environment and he natured it throughout his life. In addition to his crave for the natural environment, Muir was a remarkable inventor, a carver of the woods and he was able to develop a device that he used to wake him up from the sleep every morning.
Muir went to University of Wisconsin and studied geology and botany which propelled him so much to the world of natural conservation. In 1867 he suffered a temporary blindness when he got involved in a factory accident. This was the turning point in his life, and when he regained his sight he had to stop this factory work and instead move fully to the woods and fields.
Muir realized that he can use his writing talent to change lives and champion for the conservation and preservation of the environment. He managed to achieve this through a series of his articles that he wrote through century magazine. In deed he was able to draw attention of most of the people when he wrote an article on the devastation to the forests and mountains meadows brought about by the cattle and sheep. Muir was given a chance by the associate editor, Johnson Robert to find a solution to this devastation and destruction of the forest. Through his effort and Johnson’s they were able to contribute to the creation of the National Park, and they are the ones who influenced the acceptance of an act of congress to form the Yosemite National Park. In addition to this achievement, Muir was able to participate in the formation and creation of the Grand Canyon National park, Petrified Forest, Sequoia and Mount Rainier. Therefore Muir is worth being called the founder and the father of the national park system which has been very important in the fight against destruction of the natural cover. Additionally, through the national park system, the country has been able to participate in the conservation and preservation of the environment, including natural cover and forests, an idea that was brought about by the great Muir.
As noted by Williams (200), the year 1901, Muir published another book titled Our National Parks, and it is this book that brought him close to the president Theodore Roosevelt. After a year of study of this book by the president, his Excellency took an initiative to visit Muir in the Yosemite. And it is there beneath the trees that they founded and erected the Roosevelt Innovative and conservation programs. This three night camping trip with the president in 1903 is still considered the most significant camping trip in the conservation history. In deed during this camping he managed to persuade the president to give federal the mandate to own Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Groove. And from this time henceforth, his work was recognized by the president who later convinced the house on the need for conservation. In deed his innovation and writing abilities were very important for the future success of the conservation work. Thus Muir was able to develop over the years, from being a self-motivated conservationist and preservationist, to developing Sierra club and environment movements. Coupled with his closeness to the president, he guided the whole nation to the right course of seeing the continuity of the environment for so many generations to come. Hence his preservation work was not experienced only in the Yosemite National Park or in only selected places but to the inner regions of the environment world, because he was able to move people and develop emotional response from them, particularly in the world of the wild nature (Muir et al 186).
However, even after being close to the president the battle didn’t stop but instead he fought more battles. Together with his friends in the Sierra Club they faced and fought the biggest battle in protecting the Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. And during these battles they were involved in a dramatic campaign to stop the damming of the Hatch Hetchy Valley which is located within the Yosemite National Park. Nevertheless, Muir and his supporters lost the battle in the year 1913 after many years of fight and the valley was developed to a water reservoir to meet the water supply needs of the San Francisco population which was ever growing. This was a bitter defeat that was hard to take from the federal government; in fact, even today the lovers of environment have found it hard to cope with the manner in which the federal government approved this project. A year later, Muir died following a short illness that he suffered after paying a visit to his daughter Wanda (Williams, 204).
According to Holmes (199), doctors confirmed pneumonia as the cause of his death since when he suffered the short illness in January 1914; he was shortly hospitalized in Los Angeles. In deed this was unexpected and a mundane end to a great man who overcame death in mountains tops icy glaciers and rocky crags. In the years after his death, his fame still increased and in the year 1976 he was voted the greatest Californian by the California Historical Society. Actually the United State Geological Survey have also confirmed and approve of his fame as a commemoration for his great works in the preservation and conservation activities, thus they have named mountains and lakes after him. However, the greatest honor that was ever given to him took place when the popular mountaineers discussed in a closed room and resolved that no development activities including, hotels, railways and veritable cities should be constructed at the peril of the nature as a way of honoring the great Muir.
Works Cited
Holmes, S. The Young John Muir: An Environmental Biography. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1999. p. 178-199.
Muir, J. and Teale, E. W. The Wilderness World of John Muir. Mariner Books, 1954. p. 169-187.
Williams, D. C. God's Wilds: John Muir's Vision of Nature. College Station: Texas A&M Univ. Press. p. 197-205.
