John Muir Newsletter, Winter 1994/1995

John Muir Newsletter winter 19i4-9a university of the pacific volume 5, number 1 FOLLOWING MUIR\u27S FIRST SUMMER ROUTE by John Fiske (Editor\u27s note: John Fiske, retired engineer and Muir aficionado, lives near Coulterville and has thoroughly explored the region, tracking Muir\u27s 1869 route as described in My First Summer in the Sierra. A year ago he accompanied a group of Muir enthusiasts from Japan on an excursion that began near Snelling and ended in Tuolumne Meadows. Fiske\u27s trail notes are reprinted below. His meticulous research, and his careful delineation of the current topography and nomenclature, are valuable contributions to modern Muir scholarship). June 3, 1869 Delaney Bottoms: My Japanese guests and I started near Basso Bridge (Basso Ferry in Muir\u27s time) to follow closely the path taken by Muir and his companions while herding 2,050 sheep to their summer pasture in Tuolumne Meadows. We succeeded in viewing or visiting all their campsites except that of Hazel Green. Yosmite Park has closed to entry all routes leaving Hazel Green on the park side. Between Tamarack Flat and Tenaya Lake, we were forced to look down on those camps 8,9,10,11,12, from Olmsted Point and to pick up the route again from the western meadows of Tenaya Lake (now tourist camp sites) to the watershed divide between Mariposa and Tuolumne Counties, and then to Soda Springs, Tuolumne Meadows. June 4. Camp 1 The shepards and their flock left camp 1 early in the day while it was still cool. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. the heat of the day is usually intense and in the hot dry, dusty, environment animals and people suffer. Where the fields a few miles in the San Joaquin Valley had been converted to grain, when harvesting wheat by pulling harvesting machines, the mules would die in the harness. Mercifully the mules were eventually replaced by steam tractors. Setting a moderate pace, the party traveled from 12 to 18 miles in a 12-hour day. June 5. Camp 2 The trail took them through the Sonoran Lifezone where the Blue Oak and the chaparral were dominant. As they rose into the hills, the brush became an impenetrable barrier sometimes called the Elfin Forest. The Sonoran is divided into 3 zones: the lower, middle and the upper. Following Muir\u27s trail, we went through the latter two. The middle Sonoran dominant tree is the Blue Oak. We climbed over the first great land uplift at Peno Blanco lookout. The Sabine Pine appears and oaks, still dominant, become more varied. This we found on the Haigh Ranch. We had been following the trail by taking the road from La Grange to Coulterville. Muir\u27s party went by the Haigh Ranch by way of the Peno Blanco Road. Camp 2 is not defined by Muir and although we know his route accurately we do not know where he made camp along that route. I have arbitrarily shown Camp 2 en route at a position that will quickly allow access to the crest of the second geological uplift where the flora is in marked contrast to the upper Sonoran Zone. June 6. Camp 3 We left the Haigh Ranch and turned right on the Priest-Coulterville Road (Boneyard Road in the old days). (continued on page 4) BOOK REVIEW Place, Susan E. ed. Tropical Rainforests: Latin American Nature and Society in Transition. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1993. Reviewed by Larry Pippin, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Geography, Univ. of the Pacific This timely volume on forests and cultures in the tropics was edited after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), or Earth Summit, had been held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. By that time destruction of the world\u27s remaining rainforests had accelerated to a rate of 2.5 acres every second. Authors of the 30 articles in this edited collection reject the destruction of the forests and accompanying plant species. Instead, they favor sustainable development, or the promotion of rational use of forest resources by/for present and future generations, with respect for forest dwellers and their culture, as well as national development goals. Their articles are arranged in four groups: perceptions of the rainforest; explanations for deforestation; reasons for saving the rainforest; and prospects for development. Initial contributions include contemporary as well as traditional images of the jungle, the latter taken from early 20th Century literature that appeared in both the Spanish and English languages. Among the explanations for removing the forest cover, appearing in the second part, is the need of pasture land for cattle that could be fattened and sold abroad. Unfortunately, tropical soils and grasses are not suitable for grazing. Agriculture has claimed a share of the cleared space, as has mining. Because of leaching of the soil, as a consequence of heavy rainfall, crop yields are low. Homesteaders have no funds available for the purchase of fertilizer and declining crop production soon forces the abandonment of land only recently cleared, in favor of a new plot, where the results only confirm that rainforest soils, once cleared, are not conducive to the growth of commercial crops. Oil companies, operating on the east slope of the Andes, are faulted for contributing to the spontaneous colonization of forested areas by the landless using newly- opened access roads, leading to sites of oil exploration and extraction. Roadbuilding itself destroys valuable timber. Spills of crude oil cause additional environmental deterioration. Planners serving recent military regimes hardly took into account the impact on the environment of their grandiose industrial development projects requiring giant hydroelectric dams and highways penetrating the Amazon Basin. Joshua Karliner targeted the destructive impact on the environment of civil wars in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, as well as the military bases carved out of Honduras\u27 forest land by the United States in implementing its Central American policies during that period. Ecotour- ism came in for its share of blame for deterioration in the tropics. Income is desperately needed by modernizing, neo- liberal regimes in tropical Latin America in order to pay interest on the huge foreign debts accumulated when loans were readily available to faltering, state-driven economies in the 1960s and 70s. Among the important reasons for saving the rain-forest is the fact that many plants in the area have medicinal value for humans and only a few of them are as yet utilized. Once the trees and plants are removed, those having medicinal value will be permanently lost. As forests of the humid tropics are home to hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples, contacts with colonists, prospectors, and tourists often mean decimation of the natives. Forest dwellers still perish in elevated numbers from outsiders\u27 diseases, for which they have no immunity. Clearing plant life from riverbanks has seriously affected the fish supply in rivers of the Amazon Basin. Fighting for forest preservation has cost the lives of countless thousands, including the martyred rubber tapper Chico Mendes, internationally renowned for his grass-roots struggle. In an excerpt from his posthumous book (pp. 155- 57), Mendes, recognizes that development of the region can not be stopped. He proposes that it be pursued on a sustainable basis and reminds us that forest people are best suited to maintain the productivity of their land and its resources, as they have been doing so for thousands of years. The final articles consider reserving portions of the forest in national parks and a subsequent development of ecotourism. Costa Rica is held up as a successful model of such a resolution. Implicit in How a Monkey Saved the Jungle (pp. 217-22), is the superiority of an undertaking in Belize, introduced by Place: The Community Baboon Sanctuary of Belize may prove to be a model for the development of successful grass-roots ecotourism projects elsewhere in Latin (continued on page 7) JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER. VOL. V, NUMBER 1 WINTER 1994-95 Published quarterly by the John Muir Center for Regional Studies, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211 Editor Center Director Staff o Sally M. Miller R.H. Limbaugh This Newsletter is printed on recycled paper. MUIR\u27S EARLY INDIAN VIEWS. ANOTHER LOOK AT MY FIRST SUMMER IN THE SIERRA by Ross Wakefield (Editor\u27s note: the author is a student at the University of the Pacific, majoring in Religious Studies. He is a member of the Mescalero Apache tribe. This paper was prepared in the fall of 1994 for an undergraduate history course, John Muir and the American Environment. ) In many ways, John Muir walked a path ahead of his own time. In western culture, he was among the first to express a limited biocentric view - that is to say, he often expressed the idea that humans had no more intrinsic value than any creature of nature. Many times, in fact, he disparaged humans as something less than natural. However, Muir could not escape his own culture, nor could he ignore his own upbringing by a Calvinist father. At times Muir\u27s new thinking brought apparent contradictions in his own mind; he was unable to meld his nature on a pedestal views with those still buried in his own conscience. On the subject of Indians this seems to be particularly true. Muir at times observes and even envies their near harmony with nature, thus nearly elevating them to his nature pedestal. On other occasions, however, he regards them as little more than dirty beggars. All in all, Muir seemes to have some grudging respect for Indians, but it is often masked behind the institutionalized racism that underlies his writing. He recognizes that Indians are human, yet seems disappointed that they are not quite able to reach the imagined cleanliness of the pedestal upon which he places nature. Before going into the Sierra for the first time, Muir had to figure out how to fund his trip. Above all he needed bread. At first he considers .. .trying to believe I might learn to live like the wild animals, gleaning nourishment... from seeds, berries, etc. However, this is never a serious thought. Muir makes it seem a fanciful thing indeed, and turns to sheepherding for larder. Indians, though, lived for several millennia by gleaning from nature what they needed. Perhaps because of his own periodic bouts with hunger while in the mountains, food gathering was a re-current theme in My First Summer. Often he acknowledged the native experience and contrasted their natural bounty with the gastronomic limitations of western culture. The Indian puts us to shame, he wrote, so do the squirrels - starchy roots and seeds and bark in abundance, yet the failure of the meal sack disturbs our bodily balance.... Later he complained: Like the Indians, we ought to know how to get the starch out of fern and saxifrage stalks, lily bulbs, pine bark etc. Our education has been sadly neglected for many generations. Still later he wrote: We should boil lupine leaves, clover, starchy petioles, and saxifrage rootstocks like the Indians. Time after time Muir implied that Indians were closely tied to nature, and not just in regard to foodstuffs. He observed with obvious approval the fact that for uncounted centuries, natives have lived among the hills of the Sierra with little noticeable effect on the land. He noted the similarities between Indian and animal trails, in contrast to what one might expect of western man after thousands of years of habitation. Indians walk softly and they hurt the landscape hardly more than the birds and squirrels, and their brush and bark huts last longer than those of wood rats... Along the main ridges and larger branches of the river Indian trails may be traced, but they are not nearly as distinct as one would expect to find them. These faint marks stood in sharp contrast to the irrevocable damage done by white culture. He condemned roads blasted in solid rock, wild streams dammed and tamed, and turned out of their channels and led along the sides of canyons and valleys to work in the mines like slaves. Even trestles led to the erosion of the mountain face. While Indian traces faded quickly, white structures were built to last. Long will it be ere these marks are effaced.. ., he wrote. Yet Muir recognized that even the finest monuments eventually give way to natural forces. Nature is doing what she can, replanting, gardening, sweeping away old dams and flumes, leveling the gravel and boulder piles, patiently trying to heal every scar. On at least two occasions in My First Summer Muir credits Indians with developing instinctive behavior, an ability he thought was in short supply among civilized humans. Although today we tend to emphasize learned behavior, Muir\u27s appreciation of native instinct is evidence of his belief that Indians were close to nature and its natural virtues. Speaking of their stealthy movements, for example, Muir wrote that the wild Indian power of escaping observation. . .was probably slowly acquired in hard hunting.. .and this experience transmitted through many generations seems at length to have become.. .instinct. Up to this point we have witnessed a certain admiration of Indians by Muir. While never saying so directly, he nevertheless seemed to believe that Indians were indeed living in harmony with Nature and that one would have to conclude that white culture has much to learn from the Indians. But his views changed abruptly in later chapters of My First Summer. Despite his previous favorable observations, he ultimately argued that Indians were not part of nature: .. .most Indians I have known are not a whit more natural in their lives than we civilized whites. The basis for this apparent contradiction in Muir\u27s thinking appears to rest on a western bias against Indian forms of personal hygiene. The worst thing about them is their uncleanli- ness, he wrote. Nothing wild is unclean. Here Muir utterly ignores all objective evidence. His Nature was a clean place, and natives should also be clean to be part of the natural world. Perhaps Muir himself had never seen a dirty animal, or simply couldn\u27t see the dirt through romantic eyes. Yet most people who have spent time in (continued on page 6) (continued from page 1) About a mile and a half later we turned left on the Cuneo Road which took us quickly up the second uplift. Just over the summit the flora changes immediately. Blue and Live Oak are replaced by Black Oak, the Sabine Pine by the Sugar and Ponderosa Pines. The height of the trees is much greater. The Sabine, reaching 80 feet, is surpassed by the Sugar and Ponderosa Pines at 100 to 200 feet. The Black Oak is three to four times more massive than the Blue or White Oaks. The Lifezone here is called transition and the line of demarcation is so sharp from upper Sonoran to Transition that you can step across it on the ridge that separates the two. Turning right on Dexter Road we enter a settled area where retired people come to avoid valley heat. This was the road to Savage\u27s Diggings or later Big Oak Flat in Muir\u27s time. Continuing on for several miles, Dexter Road runs into Fiske Road and that into Greeley Hill Road where we turned right on the latter and went several hundred yards to Holtzel Road. At that point we identified the location of Greeley\u27s Sawmill close by, mentioned by Muir. He spoke of the very pleasant smell of sawdust and lumber of the Sugar Pine that the mill was cutting. Muir also noted that Sugar Pines were getting scarce. I have from other sources confirmed that these meadows from Fiske to McCarthy contained one of the finest stands of Sugar Pine in California. That it was a premium wood is shown by an ad about 1856 indicating that the mill would deliver to Fresno first grade lumber. To move the lumber this distance over then existing narrow dirt roads suggests both need and demand (the round trip distance is 200 miles). One of Muir\u27s sketches on page 14 of the first edition of My First Summer portrays Second bench. The pyramid shape bordering the skyline at the left edge of the picture is Pilot Peak, a third uplift. The sketch shows that Muir was standing a little southwest of the intersection of Holtzel and Greeley Hill Roads, about 200 yards southwest of the Greeley Hill Market. The other sketch on that page is a view of Horseshoe Bend. We found the spot where Muir made the sketch on top of a rise on Peno Blanco lookout. Reversing direction on Greeley Hill Road we followed it for about 3 miles. We had now gone down a grade and come to a meadow on our left. The end of this meadow borders the North Fork of the Merced River. The sheep, shepherds and Muir camped back of the North fork, crossing it in the forenoon of the next day. June 6. Camp 3 The flora continues to change. The Azalea with its beautiful blossoms contributes to the delight of flower lovers, but to the distress of sheep. The Alder becomes dominant as the tree of little rivers and streams, and the flowering dogwood seeks northern exposure if it is lacking the protection of little valleys. The Cedar can exist widely but prefers semi shade and the companionship of pines. Today it is scarce: its wood was prized for mine timber as it resists decay when in damp places. June 7. Camp 4 Bowers Cave is left of the road after crossing the North Fork. After leaving Greely Hill Market, in about 3/4ths of a mile we entered the Stanislaus Complex Fire Burn of August, 1987. To the East the forest was destroyed clear to the Yosmite Park line. To the West the fire had crossed the Tuolumne River and burned to Cottonwood Road fifteen miles away. Much of Muir\u27s country was spared but the area to Brown\u27s flat and beyond to the park line was burned. The Altar Stone area just below Brown\u27s Flat was damaged by the fire and then more so by the beetles and the drought which followed. At the camp the shepherds had the advantage of a corral. (Delaney established his permanent camp down on the North Fork of the Merced where it was cooler and quieter.) The Indian bed rock mortars are still in evidence. The natives camped around the meadow\u27s perimeter, gathering acorns in season. Brown\u27s Flat is now known as McCauley\u27s. John McCauley built the Four Mile Trail and the McCauley Hotel at Glacier Point. He traded Bowers Cave to the Wengers who owned Brown\u27s Flat. Clarence McCauley, John\u27s son, inherited Brown\u27s Flat. I knew Clarence McCauley and asked him if Muir had been to Brown\u27s Flat. He had heard of Muir but practically nothing about him. He did confirm that Brown had squatter\u27s rights which Wenger\u27s procured and which were traded to McCauley\u27s. With this I was able to locate and verify the Altar Stone. June 8. Camp 5 (Includes Altar Stone. Delaney\u27s camp. Brown\u27s Flat and CorraL) Delaney\u27s first permanent camp was situated northwest of Brown\u27s Flat in the North Fork canyon. One of several eastern forks of the North Fork is upstream from Delaney\u27s Camp halfway up to the Altar Stone. Muir\u27s poignant description of the Altar Stone environment is anthropomorphic. It is as if he is shown Nature\u27s treasures in miniature to prepare him for the grand macroscopic view soon to be revealed. His perspective was enhanced by contrasting it with the experience of his recent walk of the past few days from Delaney Bottoms. That had been a hot, dry, dusty, journey where both man and beast suffered, particularly Carlo, Muir\u27s St. Bernard dog, for whose sake his owners had sent him with Muir to find a cooler climate. The treasures of the eastern fork include three falls, cataracts and other rewards. The first fall is a 40 foot vertical drop onto an immense carpet of moss of varying shades of green a study in green and white. The second is a twenty foot drop dispersed across its cliff face in several curtains changing with the breeze. The third is symmetrical in form. Above its brink straight, uniform trunks of alders add to the height of the scene. The falls are alternated with cataracts. The Eastern Fork, like the Altar Stone, is a study in miniature and a promise of greater things to come. Though lacking in power and size of greater displays they are no less in beauty. Hazel Green Camp 6. Tamarack Camp 7 From the Altar Stone we detoured to Crane Flat and picked up the Mono Trail North at Crane Flat. This has been made necessary by closure of the park to all entrances from Hazel Green on the old Coulterville Road. Fire has severely damaged this area, especially camp 13, Hazel Green. Proceeding to Tamarack Flat, the Tioga Road, particularly the old Tioga Road, follows the Mono Trail North accurately. The deviations did not bother us: from Tamarack Flat North we were on the Mono Trail, or more accurately, Mono Trail and Tioga Road combined. Where the trail only marks the path of Muir\u27s progress we could not follow with an automobile. We had to be content to go by auto to Olmsted Point and look at Indian Canyon summit to get an idea of where Delaney\u27s July 17, permanent camp was. Indeed, all of Muir\u27s campsites between July 12 to August 8, 1869, from Tamarack to the west meadows of Lake Tenaya are inaccessible today by auto. All remaining sites of the 1869 trek, including those of August 8, 9, 10, can be reached by automobile and by foot. Olmsted Point From here we were able to look down on the country from Tamarack Flat to Tenaya, encompassing all of the adventures and wanderings of Muir from July 12 to August 8. The view includes the watersheds of Tamarack, Cascade, Yosemite and Indian Canyon Creeks, plus several others. It was at the head of Indian Canyon near the summit that Delaney established his second permanent camp July 17, 1869. Tuolumne Meadows. Camp 15 We a