The John Muir Newsletter, Winter 2000/2001

NEWS TER Was John Muir A Woodsman? by Jason Meijia, California (Editor\u27s Note: The former director of the John Muir ■Center, R. H. Limbaugh, has submitted the following paper as an example of outstanding undergraduate ■research on John Muir.) hat is a woodsman? Several definitions are available. First, Webster\u27s College Dictionary defines the term as a person accustomed to life in the woods and skilled in the arts of the woods, as hunting or trapping. Secondly, a special operations organization, spECOps, with the United States Special Forces Veterans, provides global survival training and according to it, a modern woodsman should have an arsenal of survival skills, including experience in wil- Berness first aid, jungle survival techniques, intense map reading expertise, and land navigation skills.1 Thirdly, the Boy Scouts of America say that the skills fieeded to survive in the wild are having a general knowledge of the area in question and the species in Hie vicinity, knowing how to manage on the land and {laving a method of tackling emergencies.2 If one were to intertwine the definitions of these present day Sources, a skilled woodsman must have knowledge Hf the woods and the species within, know first aid, possess the ability to read maps and navigate through the land, and know how to live off the land as hunters ;|nd trappers once did in this country. All this might seem unattainable, but many individuals have become skilled woodsmen. A century ago Ernest Thompson ;§eton and Daniel Carter Bear were two highly skilled outdoorsmen who wanted to start an organization to help other young men learn outdoor skills which led to the founding of the Boy Scouts of America.3 As a naturalist, John Muir studied wild plants and animals and knew them intimately. He was capable of surviving in the wilderness, for he spent weeks, even months, alone in the Sierra Nevada. But was he a skilled woodsman? Did he know what to do when his food supply ran out? Could he live off the land in comfort? Did he possess the knowledge needed to survive unaided outdoors regardless of time or season? A mountain climber as well as a naturalist, Muir scaled the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and traversed the formidable glaciers of Alaska. He preferred to climb alone, fearing that he would pressure other less experienced climbers to exceed their limits. S. Hall Young\u27s near-fatal accident in 1880 taught Muir a valuable lesson. Eager to accompany Muir on a climbing expedition in the coastal range near Fort Wrangell, Alaska, Young proved he was a better missionary than a climber. On a treacherous slope he fell, dislocating both of his shoulders. After rescuing Young, Muir never forgave himself for this mis-fortune.4 In comparison with today\u27s mountaineers, Muir was as gutsy as they get, never using carabiners or ropes. Muir recognized the physical demands of climbing and believed in a stoical attitude as an understood precedent for future mountain climbing. He was a free climber, a purist with an intuitive gift for finding a purchase. John Muir, today, is deified by the American climbing community. . .and is regarded in the (continued on page 3 ) re S I T Y O F R A C I R I C page 1 News & Notes The ongoing work of John Muir has suffered a great loss with the death of David Brower on November 5, 2000. He was a Sierra Club legend as the newspapers headlined many of his obituaries, and a steward of the planet. Brower, 88, was the first executive director of the Sierra Club, and the founder of the Friends of the Earth and also of Earth Island Institute. Like his hero, John Muir, he was a mountaineer (having 70 first ascents of peaks to his credit including the east face of Glacier Point, Yosemite) as well as a writer, and a collector of rocks and minerals. He joined the Sierra Club in 1935, sponsored by Ansel Adams. Taking time off for World War II service, where he trained troops in the Alps in climbing techniques, his postwar return to the Sierra Club saw him revive its Muir activism on behalf of Nature. He led the battle which prevented federal dams being built in Dinosaur National Monument and in the Grand Canyon. He was instrumental in the creation of Point Reyes and Cape Cod National Seashores, Redwood National Park and North Cascades National Park, and the passage of the National Wilderness Preservation System. For a time alienated over issues from his fellow Sierra Club members, at the end he was honored by the U.S. Interior Department for his overwhelming influence on the conservation of the environment. Brower commented on the current Yosemite Valley Plan just before his death. . . remember what the national park idea is all about. It was probably not just to let people who can afford the Ahwahnee or Yosemite lodges to luxuriate there, but to be a place to celebrate a bit of equity in a magical place meant to be shared with the current brief tenants of the Earth, but most importantly, one held in trust for the \u27uncounted millions\u27 not yet born. The greatest luxury in Yosemite comes from what the Valley has to say, not just from its structures. . .1 saw trouble begin with an earlier development policy, Mission 66, when then National Park Service Director Connie Wirth went to the American Automobile Association, not to conservationists, for advice. What he let happen to Yosemite in the controversy over rerouting the Tioga Road was a disaster, which the Sierra Club let happen by not opposing it strongly enough. Park service people should have been jailed for what they destroyed atTenayaLake.. .what photographer Ansel Adams described as National Park Service vandalism at Tioga Pass.. .It\u27stime to wake up, and for God\u27s sake, no more construction on the river between the Highway 120 junction and Yosemite Valley! (San Francisco Chronicle, November 7, 2000, ibid., November 20, 2000). Final Yosemite Plan Announced. The thirty-years-in-the- making Yosemite National Park plan has now been put in place. In announcing it at the park in November, 2000, then- Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt said I can\u27t escape John Muir when I\u27m up here. Everyone is quoting him like he has just gone for a beer and will be right back. Babbitt thanked various public policy and conservation groups, as well as the public, for their input and criticism over the years, resulting in a stronger plan. He was very pleased to have the support for the final plan of the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club. The plan will reshape the Valley by reducing development, concessions, structures and the presence of cars. Overnight guest housing will be reduced by a fourth, with the number of campsites increased by about 10 percent, parking will be essentially moved to outlying sites with cleaner busses transporting most visitors, with employee housing also removed from the Valley. Additionally, an environmentally-damaging bridge on the Merced River will be removed. It will take 10 to 15 years to take effect. Lee Stetson, whose performances as John Muir, this newsletter has publicized in the past, continues to offer his rousing portrayal as John Muir. The stirring production of Conversation with a Tramp: An Evening with John Muir has been presented every summer in Yosemite National Park - and throughout the country and around the world as well - since 1983. It depicts Muir\u27s last dramatic battle to preserve the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley, part of our National Park, but threatened by San Francisco\u27s desire to construct a dam there. Audience members are his guests as they await final word of the Hetch Hetchy\u27s fate from Washington decisionmakers. While waiting, Muir\u27s righteous anger at the \u27temple ( c o n I i n u e d o n p a g e 5 ) Volume 11, Number 1 Winter 2000/01 Published quarterly by The John Muir Center for Regional Studies University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211 ♦ Staff ♦ Editor Sally M. Miller Production Assistants . . . Marilyn Norton, Pearl Piper All photographic reproductions are courtesy of the John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Libraries. Copyright 1984 Muir-Hanna Trust. This Newsletter is printed on recycled paper. page 2 Was John Muir A Woodsman? by Jason Meijia highest esteem. 5 The rock climbing greats of today turn to Muir and bow in recognition of his climbing skills. Though Muir is widely recognized as a preservationist, some scholars have labeled him a primitivist, inferring that he preferred wilderness to civilization. Muir did see the purpose for all living creatures, and disagreed strongly with the slaying of wildlife, even refusing to do so for his own survival. When asked about the purpose of rattlesnakes, he responded by saying that snakes are \u27good for themselves, and we need not begrudge them their share of life.\u27 6 Gifford Pinchot even noticed that he never carried a fishhook with him on his solitary expeditions because he believed fishing wasted too much time. 7 Even Muir\u27s diet and equipment indicated returning to wilderness, bringing with him only dry bread and tea for sustenance and a clean shirt, a change of underclothing, and some extra socks 8 for his equipment. Yet the question rises, how did he survive in the wild if he refused to bunt? The answer is simple: he never took long trips beyond the reach of commercial supplies. He carried his daily bread and tea with him in a knapsack, and came down from the mountains periodically to replenish himself. Though Muir was no primitivist in the classical sense of living wholly off the land, he was still able to live in the depths of the wilderness for weeks on end, and risk his life for the sake of what he cherished. C. Hart Merriam, a friend and fellow scientist, who camped with Muir on occasion, was astonished by his lack of woodsmanship. In spite of having spent a large part of his life in the wilderness, wrote Merriam, Muir knew less about camping than almost any man I have ever camped with. Muir could survive, that was without question, but of the art and conveniences of camping as ordinarily understood he was as innocent as a child. 9 Was Muir a true woodsman? If we are to believe Merriam, he clearly was not. Muir was a preservationist, and Muir spoke in 1899 to Oregonians about the importance of preserving the natural forests. It is unreasonable to suppose that (the northwest forest reserves) should be destroyed or imperiled for any local convenience. . .they are the property of the nation and for its greatest good. 10 This strong devotion towards the environment was shown through what Muir took for food on his journeys. During his walks, Muir had only tea and bread, and often he relied on other people\u27s kindness, and sometimes pity, to keep his body going. Ross Wakefield points out that in My First Summer in the Sierra, because of [Muir\u27s] periodic bouts with hunger in the mountains, food gathering [is] a recurrent theme. At one point during the journey, Muir confronts an Indian wanting to trade veal for goods.12 Apparently this is where Muir obtained the food sources he required. Clearly, Muir would not destroy nature for sustenance. Merriam notes another such occurrence with Muir demonstrating his dedication to preserving nature. Another peculiarity for a woodsman was that he never carried a gun or killed game either for sport or meat, preferring to eat dry bread. 13 Ironically, Merriam uses the term woodsman. John Muir spent eleven years studying the Sierra Nevada, took expeditions to Alaska and Australia, and kept hundreds of pages of entries. Muir\u27s journals exhibit a wealth of knowledge about the wilderness in which he traveled; he continually rattles off scientific names for species after species of wildlife. There is, however, a difference of being \u27book\u27 smart and being \u27street\u27 smart. Undoubtedly, Muir possessed \u27book\u27 smarts, but was he \u27street\u27 smart? Muir\u27s hesitancy to use the surrounding land to aid him in his travels does not show that he lacked \u27street\u27 smarts, but if Muir knew how to live off the land and chose not to, which demonstrates a conscious act, perhaps a rejection of conventional knowledge, a lack of desire, or a lack of need. Comfort is to some degree a necessity. Woodsmen made sure they were comfortable where they homed, just as a cowboy makes sure he is comfortable on his steed. Was Muir comfortable living in the wilderness? Surely he was at ease with the surroundings, and secure as he ventured out into the wilds. But what about ordinary creature comforts? Merriam, again, provides disquieting evidence as he refers to a late fall trip to the High Sierra. He had carried no bed or blanket, and in the way of food only bread and tea, so that his main concern was in finding a protected place, usually a hollow beside a log, where he could spend the night with a minimum of discomfort from the cold. 14 Most people would call this an act of stubbornness; no one would say it was an act of a true woodsman. When Muir was confronted by the harsh elements of nature, he often benefitted from contact with Native Americans. During his Alaskan travels, he sought the help of indigenous people for food, shelter, and direction. As shown in his journals, Travels in Alaska, Muir relied on the survival skills of the Indians, particularly for their woodcraft, seamanship, and hunting capabilities. Numerous times throughout his journal record, Muir refers to the Indians as the hunters. 15 Muir was a great man who helped inaugurate the environmental movement in the United States, but the essence of Muir, it may be argued, lives on in his literature. Henry Fairfield Osborn, who knew Muir in his last years, offered this tribute: I do not believe anyone else has ever lived with just the same sentiment toward page 3 Was John Muir A Woodsman? by Jason Meijia trees and flowers and the works of nature in general as that which John Muir manifested in his life, his conversations and his writings. 16 John Muir had a gift, and the people of his time remembered him mostly for his ability to touch the hearts of thousands and spark in them a desire to preserve the environment. Enos Mills describes Muir as the greatest character in national park history and nature literature. 17 Theodore Roosevelt and Robert Underwood Johnson, two of Muir\u27s closest friends, said he wrote with a marked excellence, combining accurate and carefully coordinated scientific observation with poetic sensibility and expression. 18 Never, though, was he ever remembered for being a skilled woodsman. ENDNOTES 1. Special Forces Veterans: S.P.E.C.O.P.S. http://www. specops.com/\u27_ (03-01-2000). 2. Boy Scouts of America, The Boy Scout Handbook (Indiana Press, 1994), 334-347. 3. Ibid., p. 617. 4. Erica Goldman, Why Climb Mountains? John Midland Clarence King at a Historical Crossroads of American Mountain Climbing, (Yale American Studies Seminar, Fall 1995), http://www.sierraclub.org/john_ muir_exhibit/ (03-02-2000); John Muir, Travels in Alaska (Houghton Mifflin, 1915), pp. 35-37. 5. Goldman; Muir, pp. 35-37. 6. Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind (New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1982), p. 128. 7. Gifford Pinchot, Breaking New Ground (New York, 1947), p. 100. 8. C. Hart Merriam, To the Memory of John Muir, Sierra Club Bulletin 10 (January, 1917). 9. Ibid. 10. John Muir, John Muir Talks About Maintaining Forest Reserves, The Oregonian, (May 31, 1899). 11. Ross Wakefield, Muir\u27s Early Indian Views: Another Look at My First Summer in the Sierra, The John Muir Newsletter 5 (Winter 1994-95):3. 12. John Muir, The Mono Trail, My First Summer in the Sierra (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1911), p. 119. 13. Merriam. 14. Ibid. 15. John Muir, A Canoe Voyage to Northward, Travels in Alaska, pp. 84, 85, 86. 16. Henry Fairfield Osborn, John Muir Memorial Issue, Sierra Club Bulletin 10 (January, 1916). 17. Enos Mills, Ibid. 18. Robert Underwood Johnson, Ibid. John Muir: Family & Friends The 53rd California History Institute, John Muir: Family & Friends, is scheduled for May 4-6, 2001, at the Feather River Inn. The presentations and responses by thirty-three Muir scholars and enthusiasts include: Maymie Kimes and Jill Harcke, John Muir: His Long and Very Close Friendship with the Henry Fairfield Osborn Family at Cas- tlerock ; Ron Limbaugh, Pride, Prejudice and Patrimony: The Dispute Be-tween George Wharton James and The Family and Friends of John Muir ; Cherry Good, On the Trail of John Muir ; Ron Good, Hetch Hetchy Valley: Yosemite\u27s Lost Twin ; Michael Branch, John Muir\u27s Last Journey: South to the Amazon and East to Africa ; Dennis Williams, The Content of Faith: Muir\u27s Vision of Nature in the Midst of the Nineteenth Century Religious Ferment ; Daryl Morrison, John Muir and the Bairns ; David Blackburn, Muir and Family: The History of Interpretation at John Muir National Historic Site ; Harold Wood, John Muir on the Internet ; Jill Carlino, John Muir and the Influence of Significant Women in His Life ; Nicholas C. Polos, John Muir: A Stranger in the Southland ; and Nancy Woodbury, Preservation of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Region: A Contemporary View of John Muir\u27s Efforts. In addition, Lee Stetson will present his portrait of John Muir on Saturday evening following an afternoon of hiking and botanizing with nine naturalists, geologists, and conservationists in the Plumas National Forest near Feather River Inn. On Monday, May 7, the Holt-Atherton Special Collection, University of the Pacific, and the John Muir National Historic Site will be open by appointment. Contact Daryl Morrison, Director of the Holt-Atherton Special Collection, (209) 946- 2945, e-mail: dmorrison@uop.edu and David Blackburn, Chief of Interpretation, JMNHS, (925) 228-8860, e-mail: jomu__interpretation@nps.gov. A field trip in Yosemite Valley has been scheduled for May 7-9, and is limited to fifteeen individuals who attended the John Muir: Family & Friends Conference. Campsites and Curry Village tents have been reserved. Particpants must supply food, a tent, and a sleeping bag. Contact Marilyn Norton at UOP (209) 945-2145 or e-mail: mnorton@uop.edu for further information. Registration forms and program material are available through the John Muir Center for Regional Studies at (209) 946-2527 or e-mail: johnmuir® uop.edu. page 4 News & Notes (continued...) destroyers\u27 is tempered by his hearty good humor, and his relating of a number of his most extraordinary wilderness adventures, including his remarkable \u27tree ride\u27 in a Sierra windstorm. It can be seen on March 30 and 31 at the Ojai Land Conservancy in Ojai, CA; on April 19 at the Miner\u27s Foundry in Nevada City, CA; on April 20 at Sierra College in Rocklin, CA; and July 30-Aug. 6 at Camp Denali in Denali National Park, Alaska. Also of interest, Stetson\u27s The Tramp and the Roughrider is his newest production. In May of 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt, planning a (our of the western forests, invited John Muir to a four-day ; camping trip in the Yosemite wilderness. The Tramp and the Roughrider illuminates this extraordinary encounter, with the action unfolding at sunset on Glacier Point, overlooking Yosemite Valley. Both of these characters were feisty and opinionated, and had sharp disagreements on issues like hunting, animal rights, and forest management. Muir\u27s goetic and evangelistic temperament, clashing with Roosevelt\u27s political (and boyish) enthusiasms, naturally spawned both tension and humor. Both skillful storytellers, is seems natural that both would seek to top one another by n laling some of their many adventures in the American wilderness - Roosevelt bringing a frontier ruffian to justice, for example, or Muir telling of his hair-raising \u27interview\u27 with a Yosemite bear. At the time of this historic meeting, many millions of acres of our western forest, with little or no governmental supervision, were being exploited and abused by hunting, lumber, stock and mining interests. But around the campfire, in sifting through their histories and their hopes, these very different men slowly discover how the other had been shaped by the wilderness they loved, opening up some rich possibilities of doing some forest good. And by the end of Roosevelt\u27s presidency, America could boast of an additional 200 million acres of forest wilderness, five ■more national parks, and 65 wildlife preserves. Readers will want to see this performance by Lee Stetson as John Muir and Doug Brennan as Theodore Roosevelt. College courses reflective of environmental themes are not scarce these days. For example, Religion and Ecology was a course taught last fall at Emory University. Students were to consider how the natural world can deepen our sense Of: spirituality, and how different religions relate to the natural world. The class took monthly hikes, a camping trip, meditated outdoors, wrote phenomenological studies on one-square-foot plots of land, and tended a communal garden. Their readings included ninth-century Buddhist writings on forest meditation and fourth-century monastic texts on the Egyptian desert, and Gary Snyder\u27s A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds, and also Wendell Berry\u27s Standing By Words. Among the assignments, the students had to draft a field report, keep a portfolio and undertake an oral history of a spiritual environmentalist. New Books John Muir Would Want to Read: The Promise of Green Politics: Environmentalism and the Public Sphere, by Douglas Torgerson (Duke University Press; 218 pages; $49.95 hardcover, $17.95 paperback). Analyzes the political implications of various schools of ecological th