Places Important to John Muir

Contents

• The World
• Australia
• Canada
• Cuba
• New Zealand
• Russia
• Scotland
• South America
• United States of America
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • California
    • Yosemite National Park
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Indiana
  • Kentucky
  • Maine
  • Massachusetts
  • Missouri
  • New Hampshire
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • Oregon
  • Tennessee
  • Vermont
  • Washington
  • Wisconsin
  • Wyoming

See also John Muir Geography Cards ( John Muir Day Study Guide )

The World

• Muir's two world tours - from the John Muir Day Study Guide
• Crossword Puzzles - Online Interactive and Printable Puzzles involving Places Muir Traveled!
• Explore John Muir's life in Google Earth - Explore 10 special "Muir places" on the web, or even better, with Google Earth, powerful mapping software you can download for free.

Australia

• Muir in Australia

Canada

• "The Calypso Borealis" by John Muir, excerpted from The Life and Letters of John Muir.
• John Muir Historical Plaque, Epping Lookout, Bruce Trail, 12 miles from Meaford, Ontario.
• Meaford, Ontario -(Offsite-Link) Re-Visit John Muir's Meaford Experience on June 13, 1998! - Muir wrote, "When I came to the Georgian Bey of Lake Huron, whose waters are so transparent and beautiful, and the forests about its shores with their ferny, mossy dells and deposits of boulder clay, it seemed to be a most favorable place for study... In a beautiful dell, only a mile or two from the magnificent bay, I fortunately found work in a factory where there was a sawmill and lathes for turning out rakes, broom, and fork handles, etc." Muir worked at Trout's mill for a year and a half, greatly improving the efficiency of output of rake handles by making efficiency improvements. But on February 21 of 1866, the factory building and all of its contents took fire, thus ending Muir's Meaford sojourn.
• Canadian Friends of John Muir
• Parks Canada

Cuba

• "A Sojourn in Cuba" Chapter Seven of A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir

New Zealand

• Muir Geography Card (from the John Muir Day Study Guide )
• Answer to a reader's question about Muir's travels to Australia and New Zealand
• Ministry for the Environment
• New Zealand government Web server

Russia

• John Muir in Russia , by Bill Brennan

Scotland

• Dunbar , the birthplace of John Muir
  • John Muir Birthplace Visitor Center Opens (March 23, 2003)
  • A Boyhood in Scotland, Chapter 1 of The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, by John Muir
  • Photo of historical plaque at Muir's birthplace (44 kilobytes)
  • John Muir and the United States National Park System , a speech by Lawrence Downing sponsored by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Glasgow, Scotland, October 7, 1992 and Edinburgh, Scotland, October 8, 1992.
  • Off-site links:
    • John Muir House (Muir's birthplace; now a museum, from Dunbar's John Muir Association)
    • John Muir's Dunbar -- an Interpretive Walk
    • Dunbar's John Muir Association
    • John Muir Birthplace Trust
    • John Muir House - East Lothian Council
    • Discover Dunbar - Official Site
    • Aerial Photos of Dunbar - From Belhaven Holiday
• Edinburgh
  • Engraved John Muir Quote at Scottish Parliament Building
  
  

  South America

  • "John Muir in the Amazon Basin" , by Laurel Bemis
  • John Muir's Last Journey - Press Release about Muir's travel journals and correspondence covering his travels to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile - fulfilling his life-long dream to explore the Amazon and to see the famed Monkey-Puzzle Tree.
  
  

  United States of America

  • General
    • John Muir's America by Dewitt Jones and T.H. Watkins, a book jacket summary

  • Muir's Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf
    • A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf, the full text of the book by John Muir
    • A map showing the route of Muir's walk (file size = 26 kilobytes)
    • John Muir's Longest Walk by John Earl - A book jacket summary
  • Alaska
    • General
      • Travels in Alaska, by John Muir, full text of this book arranged by chapter.
      • Alaska Days with John Muir by Samuel Hall Young, a book jacket summary.
      • Erigeron muirii , Muir's Fleabane: an endemic plant in the aster family
      • Letters from Alaska by John Muir , edited by Robert Engberg and Bruce Merrell
        • Publisher's press release
        • Book Jacket Summary
        • A book review by Frank E. Buske
        • A book review by Bill Hunt : "John Muir was no ordinary tourist in Alaska"
      • Places and Schools Named After John Muir
      • Haines, Alaska, John Muir Association (off-site link)
      • Harriman Expedition Retraced (off-site link)

    • Glacier Bay
      • The Discovery of Glacier Bay, chapter 10 of Travels in Alaska by John Muir
      • Glacier Bay National Park
        • Stickeen - Illustrated overview of Muir's classic story of an adventure with a dog on a glacier.
          • "Stickeen: An Adventure with a Dog and a Glacier" , by John Muir -- the 1915 (shorter) version
          • "Stickeen: The Story of a Dog" , by John Muir -- the 1909 (longer) version, with annotations (file size = 54 kilobytes)
        • National Park Service
        • USGS Glacier Bay Field Station - located near Muir's cabin
    • Haines, Alaska, John Muir Association
    • Muir Glacier
      • Painting by Thomas Hill

        Original owned by John Muir, used on the cover of Muir's book Travels in Alaska

      • Painting by Francis C.M. Davis

        Oil. 1940. Alaska State Museum. Juneau, Alaska. Photographed by Stephen R. Larson. (file size = 19 kilobytes)

    
    
  • Arizona
    • The Grand Canyon
      • Grand Canyon National Park
        • The Grand Canyon of the Colorado, Chapter 24 of Steep Trails , by John Muir
    • Petrified Forest
      • The Muir Family in Arizona by Lilian Whiting
      • Muir Geography Card for Arizona (from the John Muir Day Study Guide )
      • U.S. National Park Service - Petrified Forest National Park
    
    
  • California
    • General
      • Places and Schools Named After John Muir
    • Daggett
      • "John Muir and the Desert Connection" , by Peter Wild
      • Homecoming: Walter Muir, grandson of the naturalist John Muir, returns to the house in Daggett where he was born and spent his boyhood Story and photos by Stuart Kellogg, Daily Press (undated, off-site link) - Built by Helen Muir Funk in 1915 with money inherited from her father, the famed naturalist John Muir, the Funk-Mir houe in Daggett has been a private home, a tuberculosis sanitarium, a chicken ranch, and, now, the headquarters of the Augustan Society.
    • Martinez
      • John Muir National Historic Site
        • Official National Park Service Site (Off-site link)
      • John Muir Memorial Association (Off-site link)
      • Historic Martinez , by the Martinez Chamber of Commerce
      • Places and Schools Named After John Muir
      • John Muir's gravesite
      • Martinez Historical Society (Offsite link)
    • Mount Diablo
      • Where John Muir Slept- John Muir slept on the summit of Mount Diablo, but had breakfast at the Mountain House Hotel that existed during his visit in 1877.
    • Mount Shasta
      • Mount Shasta and Muir , his writings from the Mount Shasta Collection
      • Snow Storm on Mt. Shasta , by John Muir, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1877 September (with illustrations)
      • Shasta Rambles and Modoc Memories, Chapter 5
        cite>Steep Trails by John Muir
    • Sierra Nevada
      • General
        • "Range of Light" , a quotation from Muir
        • "Mountain Thoughts" , written by John Muir during the 1870s, collected by Linnie Marsh Wolfe in John of the Mountains (1938).
        • The Mountains of California (1894) by John Muir
        • My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir
        • Studies in the Sierra by John Muir
        • "Twenty-Hill Hollow," Chapter Nine of A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir

        • Sierra Club Ecoregions Program for the Sierra Nevada
        • Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project (SNEP)
      • Hetch Hetchy Valley
        • Sierra Club Restore Hetch Hetchy Website - Includes Muir's writings on Hetch Hetchy, as well as photos and other articles about Muir's last battle.
        • Restore Hetch Hetchy - New campaign organization working to find a win-win solution allowing for the restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley while providing water and power supplies to San Francisco.
      • John Muir Trail - 211.9 miles long, beginning at Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley, and ending on the summit of Mount Whitney.
        • John Muir & I: The Man, The Trail, and The Wilderness Ideal , by Don Weiss

      • Kings Canyon National Park
        • National Park Service
        • Great Outdoors Recreation Pages
      • Lake Tahoe
        • Muir first visited Lake Tahoe in October-November of 1873, calling it the "queen of lakes" and writing his friend Jeanne Carr that he had "sauntered through the piney woods, pausing countless times to absorb the blue glimpses of the lake, all so heavenly clean, so terrestrial yet so openly spiritual." He wrote further, "The soul of Indian summer is brooding this blue water, and it enters one's being as nothing else does. Tahoe is surely not one but many. As I curve around its heads and bays and look far out on its level sky fairly tinted and fading in pensive air, I am reminded of all the mountain lakes I ever knew, as if this were a kind of water heaven to which they all had come." [Source: Letters to a Friend, 1915]
        • Muir returned to Tahoe several other times in his life, enjoying its "delightful" beauty.
      • Mount Ritter
        • "Mount Ritter" , from The Mountains of California (1894) by John Muir
      • Sequoia National Park
        • "The Sequoia and General Grant National Parks" , chapter 9 of the book (file size = 89 kilobytes) Our National Parks (1901) by John Muir

        • National Park Service
        • Great Outdoors Recreation Pages
      • Yosemite National Park
        • John Muir Tree in Yosemite Valley
        • General Management Plan (from the John Muir Day Study Guide )
        • National Park Service Goals for Yosemite (from the John Muir Day Study Guide )
        • Viewpoints on Yosemite Management (from the John Muir Day Study Guide )
        • The Yosemite , by John Muir (1912). The complete text of this book arranged by chapter.
          • The Yosemite , by John Muir, photographs by Galen Rowell, reviewed by Harold W. Wood, Jr.
        • "The Yosemite" , chapter 5 of the book My First Summer in the Sierra (1911) by John Muir
        • "The Yosemite National Park" , chapter 3 of the book Our National Parks (1901) by John Muir

          

        • Topographic map of Yosemite
          • file size = 300 kilobytes; image size = 1000 x 773 pixels
          • file size = 1,044 kilobytes; image size = 3952 x 3056 pixels ; the same map at higher image resolution, all names are clearly legible
        • Yosemite Web Index - A comprehensive site linking to many others
        • Yosemite Valley , from the TerraQuest company; includes a list of links
        • History of Yosemite , by Moira Magneson
        • Yosemite Time Line , from the TerraQuest company
        • Bibliography for Yosemite Valley , by Moira Magneson
        • Geology of Yosemite , by Moira Magneson
        • National Park Service
        • halfdome.com : yosemite on the web
        • Sierra Club Yosemite Committee
        • Yosemite Online , by the Yosemite Association
        • Yosemite Valley: A Photo Essay , photos taken by Nick Cuccia in October 1995.
        • Yosemite Fund
    
    
  • Florida
    • Historical Marker - Cedar Key
    • "Through Florida Swamps and Forests," Chapter Five of A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir
    • "Cedar Keys," Chapter Six of A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir
    • Cedar Key - Historical and Area Information (offsite link)
    • Marquesas Keys - 30 miles west of Key West, Florida. Muir visited this group of atolls with botanist Charles Sprague Sargent in November, 1898. He observed palms, mangroves, sand fleas, mosquitoes, and fiddler-crabs. These islands today are part of the Key West National Wildlife Refuge.
    
    
  • Georgia
    • "Through the River Country of Georgia," Chapter Three of A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir
    • "Camping Among the Tombs," Chapter Four of A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir
    
    
  • Indiana
    • Muir lived in Indiana from the spring of 1866 through June, 1867, working in a carriage-parts factory. He spent what little free time he had exploring the nearby forests for their botanical treasures. When an industrial accident temporarily blinded him, he wrote, "I bade adieu to all my mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of God."
    • Indiana State Historical Marker - John Muir in Indiana - View text and photos of maker dedicated July 2, 2004
    • Indiana State Historical Marker Text Annotation - References and citations for Historical Marker by Indiana Historical Bureau
    • John Muir Remembered in Indiana with New Historical Marker by Lori Hazlett, The Indiana Sierran, (Fall, 2004) (off-site link) - Sierra Club hoosier Chapter members celebrate the dedication.
    • John Muir Marker to Be Erected in Indianapolis - The Indiana Sierran, Spring, 2004. (off-site link) - Background about the marker
    • John Muir in Indiana (PDF) by Harold W. Wood, Jr. - required research paper submitted to Indiana Historical Bureau in support of the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter request for a commemortive historical plaque in Indianapolis.
    • "A Genius in the Best Sense: John Muir, Earth, and Indianapolis" by Catherine E. Forrest Weber, in Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, Vol. 5, no. 1, Winter 1993.
      A review of Muir's life, with a focus on his early inventions and his time spent in Indiana, including his friendships with Catharine Merrill and her nephew Merrill Moores. Nicely illustrated with Muir portraits and his drawings of inventions. The issue of Traces that includes this article is available as a back issue from the Indiana Historical Society, 315 W. Ohio St., Indianapolis, IN 46202-3299; or by calling 1-800-IHS-1830.
    • While in Indiana, John Muir met and was cared for in his illness byCatharine Merrill, one of the first woman professors in America.
      
    
    
  • Kentucky
    • "Among Kentucky Forests and Caves," Chapter One of A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir
    • John Muir's Longest Walk by John Earl (book jacket summary)
    
    
  • Massachusetts
    • Hunnewell Arboretum - Wellesley, Massachusetts. Muir visited this Arboretum, near Boston, in October, 1898, where he met and had dinner with its founder, philanthroposit and amateur botanist H.H. Hunnewell.
    • Arnold Arboretum & Library - Harvard University, Jamaica Plain, Boston. Muir was a close friend and traveling companion of its director, Charles Sprague Sargent.
    
    
    
  • Maine
    • Moosehead Lake - Muir visited this area near Greenville, Maine, in October, 1898. He described it inn a letter to his daughter Wanda as "a charming sheet of pure water 40 ms. long full of picturesque islands."
    
    
  • Missouri
    • Daniel Muir Gravesite - Elmwood Cemetery, Kansas City - In 1885, John Muir visited Kansas City to see his father, Daniel, on his deathbed. In late August of that year, John had "the most powerful inner compulsion" he had ever known, sensing that he must go east if he would see his father alive. Muir gathered up his siblings in Portage, Wisconsin and nearby Nebraska, insisting that they visit their father in Kansas City where he was visiting Muir's sister Joanna and her family. The family had several days visiting with the 80 year-old Daniel, who died on October 6, 1885, surrounded by 7 of his 8 children, including John, who later wrote an obituary about his father for the Portage Recorder newspaper. Daniel is buried in the historic Elmwood Cemetery of Kansas City, Block N, Lot 57, along with 2 deceased infants of Muir's sister Joanna and her husband Walter Brown. In May, 2004, the Muir-Hanna Trust donated a headstone to commemorate him.
    • John Muir In Kansas City by David Anderson, Sierra Club Thomas Hart Benton Group Chair
    
    
  • New Hampshire
    • A Note on John Muir and the Appalachian Mountain Club by Richard Fleck (Muir's advocacy of preserving the White Mountains of New Hampshire). [Appalachian Mountain Club remains today one of the longest running mountaineering and conservation organizations.]
    
    
  • New York
    • On his first visit to New York in 1868, Muir stayed on the ship until he sailed to California. He wrote, "My walks extended but little beyond sight of my little schooner home. I saw the name Central Park on some of the street-cars and thought I would like to visit it. but fearing that I might not be able to find my way back, I dared not make the adventure. I felt completely lost in the vast throngs of people, the noise of the streets, and the immense size of the b buildings. Often I thought I would like to explore the city if, like a lot of wild hills and valleys, it was clear of inhabitants."
    • Late, Muir wrote, "I can make my exhilarated way over an unknown ice-field or sure-footedly up a titanic gorge, but in these terrible canyons of New York, I am a pitiful, unrelated atom that loses itself at once."
    • Years later, with his friend and editor Robert Underwood Johnson, he visited Central Park, where he ws interested in the clacial scratchings on outcroppings of granite.
    • In later years, Muir spent time in the Hudson River Valley, visiting friends John Burroughs and Osborn.
    
    
  • North Carolina
    • John Muir Visited Grandfather Mountain 100 Years Ago (offsite link)

    
    

  • Oregon
    • John Muir in Oregon , by Ronald Eber
    • John Muir's Mount Hood, by Ronald Eber
    • The Physical and Climatic Characteristics of Oregon, Chapter 21 of Steep Trails by John Muir (1918)
    • The Forests of Oregon and Their Inhabitants, Chapter 22 of Steep Trails by John Muir (1918)
    • The Rivers of Oregon, Chapter 23 of Steep Trails by John Muir (1918)
    • William Gladstone Steel - father of Crater Lake National Park and Muir colleague on conservation efforts.
    • History of the Prospect Hotel - History of a still-operating hotel that Muir stayed at located near Crater Lake National Park.
    
    
  • Tennessee
    • "Crossing the Cumberland Mountains," Chapter Two of A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir
    • Roan Mountain - Muir, Michaux, And Gray On The Roan By Bob Fulcher - reprint from The Tennessee Conservationist, September-October, 1998, about Muir's 1898 botanical excursion to Roan Mountain
    
    
  • Vermont
    • Mt. Mansfield in the Green Mountains - highest peak in Vermont - John Muir wrote that he had gone up "to the snowy summit" of this peak in October, 1898.
    
    
  • Washington State
    • General
      • Places and Schools Named After John Muir in Washington State
      • Puget Sound, Chapter 17 of 'Steep Trails by John Muir (1918)
      • The Forests of Washington, Chapter 18 of 'Steep Trails by John Muir (1918)
      • People and Towns of Puget Sound, Chapter 19 of 'Steep Trails by John Muir (1918)
      • Edmond S. Meany - Muir's fellow mountaineer and conservationist
    • Mt. Rainier
      • An Ascent of Mount Rainier, Chapter 20 of 'Steep Trails' by John Muir (1918)
      • Philemon Beecher Van Trump - Muir's guide climbing Mount Rainier and fellow conservationist.
    
    
  • Wisconsin
    • General
      • Places and Schools Named After John Muir
    • Fountain Lake Farm, Boyhood Home, near Montello
      • Fountain Lake Farm
      • Muir's sketch of Fountain Lake and meadow
      • Dedication Speech by Erik Brynildson
      • A Visit to John Muir's Wisconsin Farm by Bill Tweed
      • Directions to Fountain (Ennis) Lake and Muir County Park
      • Marker at Muir County Park, Fountain (Ennis) Lake
        • Photograph (file size = 44 kilobytes)
        • Text of the Inscription
        
        
      • Photo of Fountain Lake
      • Restoring the Fountain of John Muir's Youth , by Erik Brynildson
      • The Heart of John Muir's World: Wisconsin, Family, and Wilderness Discovery , by Millie Stanley (press release)
      • "John Muir's Wisconsin Days" , by Dave Leshuk
      • John Muir Memorial Park - Off-site link to Marquette County website
    • Madison
      • "An Ingenious Whittler" - 1860 newspaper account of Muir's inventions at the state fair
      • "College Friend Describes Muir's Mechanical Marvels" by Harvey Reid
      • University of Wisconsin
        • John Muir's Clocks
        • John Muir- Address Delivered by Charles R. Van Hise upon the Occasion of the Unveiling of a Bronze Bust of John Muir by the Sculptor C. S. Pietro at the University of Wisconsin, - December 6, 1916 (offsite link).
    • Observatory Hill - Sauntering in the Footsteps of John Muir by Dennis McCann (offsite link) Now a State Natural Area, Observatory Hill was one of John Muir's boyhood haunts.
    • Oregon, Wisconsin
      • John Muir Taught School at Lake Harriet school in Oregon, Wisconsin
      (offsite link)
    
    
  • Wyoming
    • "The Yellowstone National Park" , chapter 2 of the book (file size = 55 kilobytes) Our National Parks (1901) by John Muir

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