John Muir ( / m jʊər / MURE ; April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914), also called "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks," was a Scottish-born American naturalist, writer, environmental thinker, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and early supporter of protecting wild areas in the United States.

His books, letters, and essays about his experiences in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada, have been read by millions of people. His efforts helped protect Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park. His work also inspired the protection of many other natural areas. The Sierra Club, which he helped start, is a well-known American group that works to protect the environment. Later in his life, Muir focused on his family and protecting forests in the West. To help make Yosemite a national park, Muir wrote two important articles in The Century Magazine titled "The Treasures of the Yosemite" and "Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park." These articles supported a law passed in 1890 that created Yosemite National Park. His writings showed a deep respect for nature and encouraged leaders, including presidents and lawmakers, to protect large natural areas.

John Muir is seen as an important figure for both Scots and Americans. His biographer, Steven J. Holmes, said Muir became "one of the patron saints of twentieth-century American environmental activity," both in politics and recreation. His writings are often discussed in books and journals, and he is frequently quoted by photographers like Ansel Adams. Holmes wrote that Muir helped shape how Americans think about their connection to nature.

Muir was known as someone who cared about nature, spoke for people, and worked to protect the environment. His writings helped many people learn about the natural world, and his name is now widely recognized in environmental discussions. Author William Anderson said Muir showed "the archetype of our oneness with the earth," while biographer Donald Worster said Muir believed his mission was "saving the American soul from total surrender to materialism." On April 21, 2013, the first John Muir Day was celebrated in Scotland to honor his 175th birthday and his work as a conservationist.

Early life

John Muir was born in Dunbar, Scotland, in a three-story stone building that is now kept as a museum. He was the third of eight children born to Daniel Muir and Ann Gilrye. Their other children were Margaret, Sarah, David, Daniel, Ann, Mary (twins), and Joanna, who was born in America. When he was three years old, Muir began taking short walks with his grandfather. In his autobiography, he described his childhood activities, which included reenacting battles from the Wars of Scottish Independence, wrestling on the playground, and searching for birds' nests. Author Amy Marquis wrote that Muir developed a deep love for nature as a child, possibly in response to his strict religious upbringing. His father believed that anything that distracted from Bible study was not important and should be avoided. However, Muir was described as a "restless spirit" and often acted out. As a young boy, he became fascinated with the East Lothian landscape and spent much time exploring the local coastline and countryside. During this time, he developed an interest in natural history and the work of Scottish naturalist Alexander Wilson.

Although Muir lived most of his life in America, he never forgot his Scottish roots. He always felt a strong connection to his birthplace and often spoke about his childhood in East Lothian. He admired the writings of Thomas Carlyle and the poetry of Robert Burns, and he carried a collection of Burns' poems with him during his travels. In 1893, Muir returned to Scotland to visit a former schoolmate and see the places from his childhood that he remembered. He never lost his Scottish accent, as he was already 11 years old when his family moved to America.

In 1849, Muir's family moved to the United States and settled near Portage, Wisconsin, where they started a farm called Fountain Lake Farm. This location has been named a National Historic Landmark. Stephen Fox wrote that Muir's father found the Church of Scotland too lenient in its religious practices, which led the family to join a group called the Disciples of Christ. By the time he was 11 years old, Muir had memorized the entire New Testament and most of the Old Testament. As an adult, Muir remained deeply spiritual but may have changed his strict religious beliefs. He wrote, "I never tried to abandon creeds or codes of civilization; they went away of their own accord… without leaving any sense of loss." In other writings, he described the idea of a Creator as something man-made, like a puppet from a theater.

At age 22, Muir enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he paid for his own education. He took his first botany class under a large black locust tree near North Hall. A classmate used a flower from the tree to explain how the locust is related to the pea plant. Muir later wrote that this lesson inspired him to explore nature more deeply. While a student, he studied chemistry with Professor Ezra Carr and his wife, Jeanne, who became lifelong friends. Muir took a wide range of classes but never graduated because he did not follow a traditional course path. His academic records showed he was classified as an "irregular gent," but he learned enough about geology and botany to support his future work.

In 1863, Muir's brother Daniel moved to Southern Ontario to avoid being drafted into the U.S. Civil War. Muir followed him in 1864 and spent the next few seasons exploring the forests, swamps, and areas around Lake Huron's Georgian Bay. He hiked along the Niagara Escarpment, including parts of today's Bruce Trail. When his money ran out and winter approached, Muir reunited with his brother near Meaford, Ontario, where he worked at a sawmill and factory owned by William Trout and Charles Jay. While living with the Trout family in Trout Hollow, he continued collecting and studying plants. Some sources say he worked at the mill until 1865, while others claim he stayed until a fire destroyed Trout Hollow in February 1866.

In March 1866, Muir returned to the United States and settled in Indianapolis, where he worked in a wagon wheel factory. He was promoted to supervisor because of his ability to improve machines and processes, earning $25 per week. In early March 1867, an accident changed his life: a tool slipped and cut the cornea of his right eye, causing his left eye to also fail. He was kept in a dark room for six weeks to recover, fearing he might go blind. When his sight returned, he said, "I saw the world—and my purpose—in a new light." Muir later wrote, "This affliction has driven me to the sweet fields. God has to nearly kill us sometimes, to teach us lessons." From that point, he decided to follow his passion for exploring and studying plants.

In September 1867, Muir walked about 1,000 miles from Kentucky to Florida, a journey he later wrote about in his book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. He chose the "wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way" he could find. When he reached Cedar Key, he began working at a sawmill owned by Richard Hodgson. However, three days later, he fell seriously ill with malaria and spent three months in a confused state. His condition improved enough for him to move around the Hodgson house and look outside. He later said the Hodgsons likely saved his life.

One evening in early January 1868, Muir climbed onto the Hodgson house roof to watch the sunset. He saw a ship called the Island Belle and learned it would soon sail to Cuba. Muir boarded the ship and studied shells and flowers in Havana before traveling to New York City and booking a passage to California. In 1878, Muir worked as a guide and artist for the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, helping map the 39th parallel across the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah.

Explorer of nature

After settling in San Francisco, Muir traveled to Yosemite for a week-long visit. He had only read about the area before, and when he saw it for the first time, he was deeply impressed. He climbed steep cliffs to view waterfalls, shouted excitedly at the views, and moved quickly from flower to flower. Later, he returned to Yosemite and worked as a shepherd for a season. He climbed mountains like Cathedral Peak and Mount Dana and hiked an old trail from Bloody Canyon to Mono Lake.

Muir built a small cabin along Yosemite Creek, designing it so that a stream flowed through one corner of the room. This allowed him to hear the sound of running water. He lived in the cabin for two years and wrote about this time in his book First Summer in the Sierra (1911). His biographer, Frederick Turner, noted that Muir’s journal entry about his first visit to Yosemite reads like a powerful and meaningful experience.

During his time in Yosemite, Muir was unmarried, often without a job, and had no clear career plans. He also experienced difficult times, as described by naturalist John Tallmadge. In 1880, he married Louisa Strentzel and worked with her father for 10 years managing a 2,600-acre farm in Martinez, California. Together, they had two daughters, Wanda Muir Hanna and Helen Muir Funk. Muir found comfort in nature and in reading the writings of naturalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, who had described a life similar to Muir’s. On trips into Yosemite’s backcountry, Muir carried only a tin cup, tea, bread, and a copy of Emerson’s essays. He often sat by a campfire in his overcoat, reading under the stars. Over time, he became well-known in the valley for his knowledge of nature, his ability to guide visitors, and his storytelling. Scientists, artists, and celebrities often visited him.

At the University of Wisconsin, Muir studied with Charles H. Allen, a lifelong friend who shared his love of natural sciences. Allen later moved to California and became principal of the California State Normal School (now San Jose State University). Muir gave lectures there, and Allen joined him on mountain hikes.

Muir remained close friends with William Keith, a California landscape painter. Both were born in the same year in Scotland and shared a love for California’s mountains.

In 1871, three years after moving to Yosemite, Ralph Waldo Emerson visited the area with friends and family during a tour of the Western United States. The two men met, and Emerson was pleased to find someone who lived the life he had long described. Emerson offered Muir a teaching job at Harvard, but Muir refused. He later wrote, “I never for a moment thought of giving up God’s big show for a mere profship!”

Muir also studied the work of photographer Carleton Watkins, who had taken pictures of Yosemite.

Muir spent much of his free time studying science, especially geology. He believed that glaciers shaped the features of Yosemite Valley and its surroundings. This idea contradicted the widely accepted theory that the valley was formed by a powerful earthquake, a view held by Josiah Whitney, head of the California Geological Survey. Whitney tried to discredit Muir, calling him an amateur, but Louis Agassiz, a leading geologist, supported Muir’s ideas and praised him. In 1871, Muir discovered an active alpine glacier below Merced Peak, which helped support his theories.

In March 1872, a large earthquake centered near Lone Pine in Owens Valley shook Yosemite Valley. The quake woke Muir, who ran outside and said, “A noble earthquake!” Some settlers feared the quake was a sign of a future disaster, but Muir believed otherwise. He conducted a nighttime survey of new rock piles caused by landslides triggered by the earthquake. This event increased support for Muir’s ideas about how the valley was formed.

In addition to geology, Muir studied the plant life of Yosemite. Between 1873 and 1874, he researched the distribution and ecology of Giant Sequoia groves along the western side of the Sierra. In 1876, the American Association for the Advancement of Science published his paper on the subject.

Between 1879 and 1899, Muir made seven trips to Alaska, reaching as far as Unalaska and Barrow. In 1879, Muir, missionary Mr. Young, and Native American guides were the first Euro-Americans to explore Glacier Bay. Muir Glacier was later named after him. He also traveled up the Stikine River in British Columbia, comparing its Grand Canyon to “a Yosemite that was a hundred miles long.” He recorded over 300 glaciers along the river.

In 1880, Muir returned to Alaska and joined a group that landed on Wrangel Island aboard the USS Corwin, claiming the island for the United States. He wrote about this journey in his book The Cruise of the Corwin. In 1888, after managing a fruit ranch in California for seven years, Muir’s health declined. He returned to the mountains to recover, climbing Mount Rainier in Washington and writing Ascent of Mount Rainier.

Activism

John Muir worked hard to protect nature. He believed the Yosemite area and the Sierra Mountains were special places that needed to stay untouched. He thought the biggest danger to these areas was domestic sheep, which he called "hoofed locusts" because they damaged the land. In June 1889, Robert Underwood Johnson, an editor of The Century magazine, stayed with Muir in Tuolumne Meadows and saw the harm caused by a large group of sheep. Johnson agreed to publish Muir’s articles about keeping livestock out of the Sierra highlands. He also helped introduce a bill to Congress to create a national park in Yosemite, similar to Yellowstone National Park.

On September 30, 1890, Congress passed a law that included ideas Muir had written about in two articles, "The Treasures of the Yosemite" and "Features of the Proposed National Park," both published in 1890. However, Muir was upset because the law left Yosemite Valley under state control, as it had been since the 1860s.

In early 1892, Professor Henry Senger of the University of California, Berkeley, asked Muir to help form a local group for people who loved mountains. Senger and Warren Olney, a lawyer from San Francisco, invited others to join a new organization called the Sierra Club, with Muir as president. On May 28, 1892, the Sierra Club held its first meeting to write its rules. One week later, Muir became president, Warren Olney was vice-president, and a board of directors was chosen, including David Starr Jordan, president of Stanford University. Muir remained president until his death 22 years later.

The Sierra Club quickly worked to stop plans to reduce Yosemite National Park’s size. It held meetings to educate people and discuss ideas, such as creating "national forest reservations," which later became National Forests. The Sierra Club also helped move Yosemite National Park from state to federal control in 1906. It also fought to protect Hetch Hetchy Valley, even though some members in San Francisco disagreed. A vote later showed most Sierra Club members supported opposing the Hetch Hetchy Dam.

In July 1896, Muir began working with Gifford Pinchot, a leader in the conservation movement. Pinchot became the first head of the United States Forest Service and promoted using natural resources in ways that could be used long-term. He believed managing forests meant growing trees for future use. Muir, however, saw nature as a place for spiritual and emotional value. He described national parks as "places for rest, inspiration, and prayers" and encouraged people to find spiritual comfort in nature. Both men agreed that forests should not be destroyed, but they had different ideas about how to use them.

Their friendship ended in 1897 when Pinchot supported allowing sheep to graze in forest reserves. Muir confronted Pinchot and said he no longer wanted to work with him. This disagreement divided the conservation movement into two groups: Muir’s "preservationists," who wanted to protect nature as it was, and Pinchot’s "conservationists," who focused on using resources wisely. They debated their ideas in magazines like Outlook and Harper’s Weekly. Their conflict became clear again when the United States considered building a dam in Hetch Hetchy Valley. Pinchot supported the dam, calling it "the highest possible use" of the land. Muir strongly opposed it, saying, "Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the hearts of man."

In 1899, Muir traveled with railroad executive E. H. Harriman and scientists on a famous trip along Alaska’s coast on the George W. Elder, a large ship. He later used his friendship with Harriman to help Congress pass conservation laws.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited Yosemite with Muir. They traveled by train to Raymond, then rode in a stagecoach into the park. During the trip, Muir told Roosevelt about problems with state management of the valley and its resources. Before entering the park, Muir convinced Roosevelt that federal control was the best way to protect the area.

After entering Yosemite, Roosevelt was amazed by its beauty. He asked Muir to show him the real Yosemite. They camped in the backcountry, talked late into the night, and slept under the stars near Glacier Point. Roosevelt later described the experience as being in a temple "grander than any human architect could build." Muir also cherished the trip, writing that camping with the president was "a remarkable experience."

After the visit, Muir worked to improve park management. In 1906, Congress transferred the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the park.

Nature writer

John Muir wrote six books about his explorations of natural places. Four more books were published after his death. Later, other books collected his essays and articles from different sources. Miller says the most important thing about Muir’s writings was not how many he wrote, but how good they were. He explains that Muir’s work had a long-term impact on American culture by helping people want to protect wild and natural areas.

Muir’s first published work happened by accident. A person he did not know sent a letter to his friend Jeanne Carr without his permission. The letter described a rare flower called Calypso borealis that Muir had seen. The letter was published anonymously and was said to be written by an “inspired pilgrim.” Throughout his life, Muir often rewrote and expanded on earlier journal entries and magazine articles. He collected these writings into essay books or included them in longer stories.

Muir’s friendship with Jeanne Carr greatly influenced his career as a naturalist and writer. They met in 1860 when Muir, then 22, entered homemade inventions at the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society Fair. Carr, a fair assistant, reviewed his work and believed it showed talent. She helped Muir win a diploma and a prize for his handmade clocks and thermometer. While studying at the University of Wisconsin, Muir became friends with Carr and her husband, Ezra, a professor at the same university. A biographer named Bonnie Johanna Gisel says the Carrs saw Muir as having a “pure mind, unsophisticated nature, and independent thought.” Jeanne Carr, who was 35, admired Muir’s youthful individuality and his belief in religious ideas similar to her own.

Muir often visited the Carrs’ home and shared Jeanne’s love for plants. In 1864, he left Wisconsin to explore Canada and began writing to Jeanne about his adventures. She encouraged him and influenced his goals. At one point, she asked him to read a book, Lamartine’s The Stonemason of Saint Point, which she hoped would inspire him. Gisel says the book was about a poor man with a pure heart who found lessons in nature and saw all living things connected.

After returning to the United States, Muir spent four years exploring Yosemite and writing articles. He and Jeanne continued to write to each other. She invited friends to Yosemite to meet Muir and “hear him preach the gospel of the mountains,” including naturalist Ralph Waldo Emerson. Gisel says Jeanne’s support helped Muir find his voice and purpose. She also tried to publish his letters in a magazine. Muir considered her his “spiritual mother,” and they stayed friends for 30 years. In one letter, she encouraged him to keep going when he felt unsure of his purpose.

The importance of their friendship was first shared by a friend of Jeanne’s, G. Wharton James. He published articles about their friendship using their private letters, even after Muir asked him to return them. In one article, James said Jeanne was Muir’s “guiding star” who helped him follow noble paths in life.

John Charles Van Dyke was an author and professor of art at Rutgers College (now Rutgers, State University of New Jersey). His nephew, Dix Strong Van Dyke, went to Daggett, California, to find success. Like his uncle, Dix was an author who wrote Daggett: Life in a Mojave Frontier Town. Muir visited Daggett and had conversations with both Van Dykes at the family ranch. This likely influenced his writings. His daughter, Helen, married Frank Buel and lived in Daggett.

Muir’s friend, zoologist Henry Fairfield Osborn, says Muir did not find writing easy. He rose at 4:30 a.m. every day, drank coffee, and worked hard. Osborn writes that Muir “groans over his labors” and rewrote his work many times. He preferred simple English and admired the writings of authors like Carlyle, Emerson, and Thoreau. He read Thoreau’s works deeply. His secretary, Marion Randall Parsons, says Muir was very careful with his writing. He revised every sentence, phrase, and word many times before being satisfied. He told her, “This business of writing books is a long, tiresome, endless job.”

Miller suggests Muir reused his earlier writings because he disliked the writing process. He says Muir found writing difficult and tedious and was never fully satisfied with the results. However, friends and his wife encouraged him to keep writing. Muir once wrote in 1872, “No amount of word-making will ever make a single soul to ‘know’ these mountains. One day’s exposure to mountains is better than a cartload of books.” In one essay, he showed how writing could not fully capture the experience of being in nature.

Philosophical beliefs

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John Muir believed that to find the truth, he had to rely on the most accurate sources. In his book, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913), he wrote that as a child, his father made him read the Bible every day. Muir eventually memorized three-quarters of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament. Muir's father read Josephus's War of the Jews to learn about the culture of first-century Judea, as it was written by someone who had seen the events, and it helped explain the culture during the time of the New Testament. But as Muir grew to love the American natural landscapes he explored, Williams notes that he began to see another "primary source for understanding God: the Book of Nature." According to Williams, in nature, especially in the wilderness, Muir was able to study the plants and animals in an environment that he believed "came straight from the hand of God, uncorrupted by civilization and domestication." As Tallmadge notes, Muir's belief in this "Book of Nature" made him want to tell the story of "this creation in words any reader could understand." As a result, his writings became "prophecy, for [they] sought to change our angle of vision."

Williams notes that Muir's philosophy and worldview revolved around his belief in the difference between civilization and nature. From this, he developed his core belief that "wild is superior." His nature writings became a "synthesis of natural theology" with scripture that helped him understand the origins of the natural world. According to Williams, philosophers and theologians such as Thomas Dick suggested that the "best place to discover the true attributes of deity was in Nature." He came to believe that God was always active in the creation of life and thereby kept the natural order of the world. As a result, Muir "styled himself as a John the Baptist," adds Williams, "whose duty was to immerse in 'mountain baptism' everyone he could." Williams concludes that Muir saw nature as a great teacher, "revealing the mind of God," and this belief became the central theme of his later journeys and the "subtext" of his nature writing.

During his career as a writer and while living in the mountains, Muir continued to experience the "presence of the divine in nature," writes Holmes. His personal letters also conveyed these feelings of ecstasy. Historian Catherine Albanese stated that in one of his letters, "Muir's eucharist made Thoreau's feast on woodchuck and huckleberry seem almost anemic." Muir was extremely fond of Thoreau and was probably influenced more by him than even Emerson. Muir often referred to himself as a "disciple" of Thoreau.

During his first summer in the Sierra as a shepherd, Muir wrote field notes that emphasized the role that the senses play in human perceptions of the environment. According to Williams, he speculated that the world was an unchanging entity that was interpreted by the brain through the senses, and, writes Muir, "If the creator were to bestow a new set of senses upon us … we would never doubt that we were in another world …" While doing his studies of nature, he would try to remember everything he observed as if his senses were recording the impressions, until he could write them in his journal. As a result of his intense desire to remember facts, he filled his field journals with notes on precipitation, temperature, and even cloud formations.

However, Muir took his journal entries further than recording factual observations. Williams notes that the observations he recorded amounted to a description of "the sublimity of Nature," and what amounted to "an aesthetic and spiritual notebook." Muir felt that his task was more than just recording "phenomena," but also to "illuminate the spiritual implications of those phenomena," writes Williams. For Muir, mountain skies, for example, seemed painted with light, and came to "… symbolize divinity." He often described his observations in terms of light.

Muir biographer Steven Holmes notes that Muir used words like "glory" and "glorious" to suggest that light was taking on a religious dimension: "It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the notion of glory in Muir's published writings, where no other single image carries more emotional or religious weight," adding that his words "exactly parallels its Hebraic origins," in which biblical writings often indicate a divine presence with light, as in the burning bush or pillar of fire, and described as "the glory of God."

Muir often used the term "home" as a metaphor for both nature and his general attitude toward the "natural world itself," notes Holmes. He often used domestic language to describe his scientific observations, as when he saw nature as providing a home for even the smallest plant life: "the little purple plant, tended by its Maker, closed its petals, crouched low in its crevice of a home, and enjoyed the storm in safety." Muir also saw nature as his own home, as when he wrote friends and described the Sierra as "God's mountain mansion." He considered not only the mountains as home, however, as he also felt a closeness even to the smallest objects: "The very stones seem talkative, sympathetic, brotherly. No wonder when we consider that we all have the same Father and Mother."

In his later years, he used the metaphor of nature as home in his writings to promote wilderness preservation.

Not surprisingly, Muir's deep-seated feeling about nature as being his true home led to tension with his family at his house in Martinez, California. He once told a visitor to his ranch there, "This is a good place to be housed in during stormy weather, … to write in, and to raise children in, but it is not my home. Up there," pointing towards the Sierra Nevada, "is my home."

Muir expressed mixed attitudes towards Native Americans over his life, from sympathy to distaste. He saw nature as ideal when it was free from man's influence, including Native Americans, but he did not recognize that the landscapes he loved had been shaped by Native Americans for millennia, through the use of deliberately-set fires to burn-off understory growth. His earliest encounters, during his childhood in Wisconsin, were with Winnebago Indians, who begged for food and stole his favorite horse. In spite of that, he had expressed sympathy for their "being robbed of their lands and pushed ruthlessly back into narrower and narrower limits by alien races who were cutting off their means of livelihood." His early encounters with the Paiute in California left him feeling ambivalent after seeing their lifestyle, which he described as "lazy" and "superstitious."

Muir wrote of the Miwoks in Yosemite as "most ugly, and some of them altogether hideous" and said "they seemed to have no right place in the landscape, and I was glad to see them fading out of sight down the pass." Ecofeminist philosopher Carolyn Merchant has criticized Muir, believing that he wrote disparagingly of the Native Americans he encountered in his early explorations. Later, after living with Indians, he praised and grew more respectful of their low impact on the wilderness as compared to the heavy impact by European Americans. However, in his journals, he often describes those he encounters as "dirty," "irregular" and "unnatural."

Muir was given the Stickeen (Muir's spelling, coastal tribe) name "Ancoutahan," meaning "adopted chief."

In response to claims about Muir's attitudes about Native Americans, Sierra Club national Board member Chad Hanson wrote, "Muir wrote repeatedly about the intelligence and dignity of Native Americans, and honored how traditional Indigenous peoples lived in peaceful coexistence with Nature and wild creatures, expressing his view that Native peoples ‘rank above’ white settlers, who he increasingly described as selfish, base, and lacking honor. This would become a constant theme in Muir's writings, as he attacked the dominant white culture's destructive and greedy ways, and it"

Personal life

In 1878, when Muir was close to 40 years old, his friends encouraged him to return to society. After returning to the Oakland area, Jeanne Carr introduced him to Louisa Strentzel, the daughter of a well-known doctor and plant grower who owned a 2,600-acre (4.1 square miles; 11 square kilometers) fruit orchard in Martinez, California, located northeast of Oakland. In 1880, after returning from a trip to Alaska, Muir married Strentzel. He then partnered with his father-in-law, John Strentzel, and for ten years focused most of his efforts on managing the large fruit farm. Although Muir was a devoted husband and father of two daughters, "his heart remained wild," as Marquis wrote. His wife understood his needs and, when she noticed his restlessness at the ranch, would sometimes encourage him to return to the mountains. He occasionally took his daughters with him.

The house and part of the ranch are now the John Muir National Historic Site. Additionally, the W.H.C. Folsom House, where Muir worked as a printer, is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Muir became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1903.

Death

John Muir passed away at the age of 76 on December 24, 1914, from pneumonia at a hospital in Los Angeles, California. He had traveled to Daggett, California, to visit his daughter, Helen Muir Funk. His grandson, Ross Hanna, lived until 2014, when he died at the age of 91.

Legacy

John Muir wrote more than 300 articles and 12 books during his life. He helped start the Sierra Club, which played a key role in creating several national parks after his death. Today, the Sierra Club has over 2.4 million members.

People often call Muir the "patron saint of the American wilderness" and the "free-spirited leader of nature." Nature writer Gretel Ehrlich said Muir’s powerful words changed how Americans viewed their mountains, forests, coasts, and deserts. He worked to protect forests and help some become national parks. His writings also showed that human culture and wild nature should be treated with humility and respect for all life.

Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of Century Magazine, which published many of Muir’s writings, said Muir helped people understand and appreciate nature and national parks. This influence became a lasting part of his legacy.

Muir believed wild nature was more important than human culture and civilization. He thought all life was sacred. Turner called him "a man who in his own way rediscovered America. … an American pioneer, an American hero." Wilkins wrote that Muir’s main goal was to challenge people’s belief that humans are the most important part of the world. He moved past the ideas of Emerson’s Transcendentalism to see the world from a perspective that values all living things equally. Muir described nature as "a conductor of divinity" and often compared it to God. His friend, Henry Fairfield Osborn, noted that Muir’s religious background made him believe, as written in the Old Testament, that all natural creations are the work of God. Enos Mills, who helped create Rocky Mountain National Park, said Muir’s writings were "likely to be the most influential force in this century."

Since 1970, the University of the Pacific has kept the largest collection of Muir’s personal papers, including his journals, notebooks, manuscripts, letters, drawings, and books. In 2019, the university gained full ownership of this growing collection. The university also has the John Muir Center for Environmental Studies, the Muir Experience, and other programs focused on Muir’s life and work.

Tributes and honors

California celebrates John Muir Day on April 21 each year. A law passed in 1988 created John Muir Day, which started in 1989. John Muir is one of three people honored with special days in California, along with Harvey Milk and Ronald Reagan.

Mountain Days, a musical written in 2000 by Craig Bohmler and Mary Bracken Phillips, tells the story of John Muir’s life. It was performed each year in a theater built especially for the play in Martinez, California, the town where Muir lived as an adult.

The play Thank God for John Muir, written by Andrew Dallmeyer, is based on Muir’s life.

The following places are named after John Muir:

• Muir Woods, also called John Muir Park, is located in Madison, Wisconsin. It was designed by members of the University of Wisconsin Landscape Architecture Department. A formal ceremony on February 8, 1964, marked the official opening of John Muir Park. A special stamp honoring Muir was unveiled at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
• Muir Valley is a nature area in Kentucky owned by Rick and Liz Weber. It covers about 400 acres and is surrounded by cliffs made of hard Corbin Sandstone. The name "Muir Valley" was chosen to honor John Muir.

John Muir appeared on two U.S. stamps. A 5-cent stamp from 1964 showed Muir’s face over a grove of redwood trees and the words "John Muir Conservationist." A 32-cent stamp from 1998, part of the "Celebrate the Century" series, showed Muir in Yosemite Valley with the words "John Muir, Preservationist." His image, along with the California condor and Half Dome, appears on the California state quarter from 2005. A quote from Muir is on the reverse side of the Indianapolis Prize Lilly Medal for conservation. On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver honored Muir by inducting him into the California Hall of Fame at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts.

The John Muir Trust is a Scottish charity started in 1983 to protect wild lands. It has more than 11,000 members worldwide.

The John Muir Birthplace Charitable Trust is a Scottish charity that supports the John Muir Birthplace in Dunbar, Scotland. The site opened in 2003 as a center that explains Muir’s work. A statue of young Muir, created by Ukrainian sculptor Valentin Znoba, was placed outside the house in 1997.

Many plants and minerals are named after John Muir, including Muirite (a mineral), Erigeron muirii (a type of flower), Carlquistia muirii (another type of flower), Ivesia muirii (a plant in the rose family), Troglodytes troglodytes muiri (a wren), Ochotona princeps muiri (a pika), Thecla muirii (a butterfly), Calamagrostis muiriana (a type of grass), and Amplaria muiri (a millipede).

In 2006, John Muir was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.