1838
Born John Muir on April 21 in Dunbar, Scotland, to Ann Gilrye Muir (b. 1813) and Daniel Muir (b. 1804). Siblings are Margaret (b. 1834) and Sarah (b. 1836). Father runs a grain and feed store that he inherited from his first wife and has a reputation for honesty and stern religious convictions. Grandparents Margaret Hay Gilrye and David Gilrye, a retired meat merchant originally of Northumberland, both members of the Church of Scotland, live near the Muirs. (Grandfather John Muir, the son of tenant farmers of Lanarkshire, Scotland, joined the British army and married Sarah Higgs, an Englishwoman. After their deaths within a few months of each other around 1804–5, father was raised by relatives in Lanarkshire; he worked on their farms throughout his youth and was converted to an evangelical type of Presbyterianism. He joined the British army at the age of 21 and while serving as a recruiting sergeant in Dunbar met his first wife. Around this time, father left the Church of Scotland and subsequently joined a series of denominations. Some months after the death of his first wife, he began courting Ann Gilrye; they married in 1833.)
1840–48
Brother David is born in 1840. Muir goes on walks and outings with grandfather, who teaches him letters and numbers; throughout childhood often visits grandparents. Begins primary school at age three and quickly moves on to second reader. Enjoys singing ballads and hymns at school and at home. Moves with family into three-story house that father buys for cash in January 1842. Brother Daniel born in 1843. Muir enters grammar school at age seven or eight; studies Latin, French, English, spelling, history, mathematics, and geography. Students learn by rote, and are beaten with a leather strap for failures or misbehavior. Muir is required by father to memorize verses from the Bible daily (by 1849 memorizes all of the New Testament and much of the Old) and is beaten by father for any deviation from his inflexible code of Christian behavior. Is impressed by natural history accounts in school reader, especially of America’s fauna as described by John Audubon and Alexander Wilson, and fascinated with the natural world; spends much time wandering the local shore and countryside, exploring caves and Dunbar Castle, and playing war with friends. Twin sisters Mary and Annie are born in 1846. Father joins Campbellite Disciples of Christ and around the end of 1848 plans to migrate to Canada.
1849
Parents sell their house and property. Muir leaves with father, David, and Sarah for America on February 19 (mother remains in Scotland until new home is established). Father learns of a proposed canal in southern Wisconsin that would link the St. Lawrence Seaway with the Gulf of Mexico, providing wide markets for farmers, and decides to settle there. Buys 80-acre tract of isolated land by a small lake in Marquette County, Wisconsin, near the Fox River; names it Fountain Lake Farm and constructs a shanty as temporary housing. Muir spends much of the summer stalking local wildlife and roaming the nearby forest, meadows, streams, and lake; later writes: “I was set down in the midst of pure wildness where every object excited endless admiration and wonder.” With hired help, father clears the area, plants crops, and by the end of October completes eight-room, two-and-a-half-story house. Mother arrives in November with Margaret, Dan, Mary, and Annie.
1850–54
Sister Joanna is born in 1850. Required by father to work on the farm up to 16 hours a day, Muir labors nearly every day of the year but the Sabbath, and except for brief periods his formal schooling ends. Leaves the farm only rarely, traveling occasionally to Portage, 16 miles away, to help get supplies. Feels increasingly trapped by father’s cruel discipline and constant religious discourse, finding relief only when father is away distributing religious books or delivering sermons as an itinerant preacher. Chosen in autumn of 1854 to help build a corduroy road through the township along with young Scots immigrants David Gray and David Taylor, Muir comes to share their taste for poetry. “I remember as a great and sudden discovery that the poetry of the Bible, Shakespeare, and Milton was a source of inspiring, exhilarating, uplifting pleasure,” he later writes, “and I became anxious to know all the poets, and saved up small sums to buy as many of their books as possible.” Reads voraciously in his spare time, including histories, ancient classics, the works of Scott, Burns, Cowper, and others, borrowing some of the books from neighbors. Father disapproves of most non-religious books, and mother and siblings help Muir to conceal this reading from him.
1855–59
Finds little time to read before his prescribed bedtime and gains father’s permission to rise early; begins getting up at 1 A.M. to study until dawn. With soil fertility at Fountain Lake Farm rapidly diminishing, father buys a new tract of land nearby that he calls Hickory Hill. Work of clearing the land, plowing, planting crops, and establishing a new home falls primarily upon Muir. Without water nearby, Muir is also assigned to dig a well and spends months chiseling away at a vein of sandstone. When the well reaches 80 feet, he is overcome by carbon dioxide and pulled unconscious from the hole; soon recovers and returns to digging, but the incident leaves him with a permanent throat irritation. In winter, when it is too cold to read in early hours without the use of firewood, Muir tinkers in cellar with father’s tools and some of his own design. Having constructed miniature waterwheels and windmills at Fountain Lake Farm, he turns to more elaborate designs; creates numerous devices including a self-setting sawmill, complex clocks, thermometers, an “early-rising machine” (a bed balanced on a fulcrum and connected to a clock that tilts to a 45-degree angle at a given hour, tipping the sleeper to his feet), and a “field thermometer” large enough to be read from the surrounding hills and able to measure the increase in temperature caused by a person approaching within about five feet of it.
1860
At urging of neighbor William Duncan, Muir decides (against his father’s wishes) to exhibit at the State Agricultural Fair in Madison in September; exhibits clocks and a thermometer fashioned from a washboard whose sensitivity is equal to that of his larger field thermometer, and demonstrates his early-rising machine. Meets Jeanne Smith Carr, a judge of the exhibits, whose husband teaches science at the nearby University of Wisconsin. Receives honorarium of $15 and is commended as “a genius” by the judges. Accepts offer of employment from fellow exhibitor Norman Wiard, who claims to have invented a steam-powered iceboat capable of operating on a frozen river. Travels with Wiard to Prairie du Chien in fall; while caring for the boat, supports himself by tending livestock and doing chores in return for board at a local hotel. Wiard’s boat proves a failure, and Muir receives little of the formal training in mechanical drawing he had been promised.
1861
Returns to Madison in January hoping to enroll at the University of Wisconsin. Finds only small jobs as a coachman and assistant to an insurance agent. Learning that it is possible to attend classes with little money by boarding oneself, Muir quits jobs and gains admission during spring semester. Takes geology and chemistry classes with Ezra Slocum Carr, Jeanne Carr’s husband, and is exposed for the first time to precepts and empirical methods of science. Studies Latin and Greek with James Davie Butler. Invents a study desk that retrieves a book, holds it in place for reading for a period of time, and then automatically replaces it with another. Subsists on a sparse diet, sometimes only graham mush and an occasional potato. Walks the 35 miles home to work on family farm during summer. Returns to classes in fall, but lack of money soon forces him to suspend his education. Takes job during winter as a district school teacher 10 miles south of Madison.
1862
Returns to classes in spring with new confidence, having won local renown as lecturer and science teacher. Introduced by fellow student Milton S. Griswold to botany, in which he becomes keenly interested. During summer vacation works at Fountain Lake Farm, now owned by sister Sarah and husband David Galloway. Uses free time to collect, catalog, and classify specimens of local plant life. With his acceptance of scientific methodology, Muir grows further away from father’s religious beliefs and the two find it increasingly difficult to get along.
1863
Depressed by the Civil War, wants nothing to do with the conflict; makes plans to attend medical school and become a doctor, but by spring the war threatens to disrupt them. “This war seems farther from a close than ever,” he writes. “How strange that a country with so many schools and churches should be desolated by so unsightly a monster.” Takes extended botanical trip in summer, traveling down the Wisconsin River, across the Mississippi, and roaming along the Iowa Bluffs before returning home. Lives with Sarah and David Galloway over fall and winter.
1864
A new draft order is signed by President Lincoln, to become effective in March. Muir takes a train heading north on March 1; walks through part of Michigan and crosses Canadian border, seeking to lose himself in the forests and swamps surrounding Lake Huron. Spends summer tramping along an unplanned, zigzagging route through the islands and inland swamps near Lake Huron and Georgian Bay; collects botanical samples. Lives for a time with a family of Scots immigrants, doing chores in return for board; at other times camps outdoors. In June, deeply moved when he comes upon the rare white orchid Calypso borealis alone next to a stream in deep woods: “I never before saw a plant so full of life; so perfectly spiritual,” he later writes, “it seemed pure enough for the throne of its Creator. I felt as if I were in the presence of superior beings who loved me and beckoned me to come. I sat down beside them and wept for joy.” Travels to Niagara Falls in September to meet brother Dan, who had fled to Canada in 1862. Continues traveling, eventually stopping at Meaford on the southern end of Georgian Bay where he and Dan take jobs at Trout and Jay woodworking factory for winter.
1865
Works as machinist at the factory. In free time continues collecting and naming plant species. When asked to teach a Sunday school class in the community, offers his students instruction in botany instead of the Bible as a means of understanding creation. With few people to talk to about nature, writes to Ezra Carr, his former professor; Carr’s wife, Jeanne, responds and the two begin a correspondence that will last for the next decade. Brother Dan returns to the United States in May after the war ends, and Muir’s loneliness deepens. Without money and uncertain of his future direction, signs contract in September to use his inventing talents to increase Trout and Jay’s productivity; agrees to produce 30,000 broom handles and 12,000 rakes, in return for half the profits. Working 18-hour days, Muir succeeds in increasing output; invents a self-feeding lathe and other automatic devices to improve production of rakes.
1866
Has completed broom handles and 6,000 rakes, but not yet been paid, when the factory is destroyed by a fire in March. Declining offer of a partnership in return for helping to rebuild the plant, accepts a note for $200 and a small amount of cash and returns to the United States. Wanders through New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois before stopping in Indianapolis, where he finds work as a sawyer at Osgood, Smith & Co., a factory making wagon parts. Is quickly promoted to supervisor and spends long hours tinkering with gadgets and machines, but regrets suspending his studies of nature and botany.
1867
Working late at night on the factory’s belt system in early March, Muir loses his grip on a file, which flies up and pierces his right eye, temporarily blinding it; loses sight in left eye from sympathetic nervous shock. Although vision in the left eye returns quickly and vision is restored in the right eye over the next several weeks, the incident causes Muir to reconsider his priorities. While recuperating with family during summer, decides “to make and take one more grand sabbath day three years long,” a trip “sufficient to lighten and brighten my after life in the gloom and hunger of civilization’s defrauding duties.” Intending to go to South America to botanize, takes train from Indianapolis to Louisville in September and from there walks to the Gulf of Mexico; carries with him in a waterproof bag the New Testament, Milton’s Paradise Lost, a collection of Robert Burns’ poems, and a journal he will keep on the trip (posthumously published in 1916 as A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf). Tramps through Kentucky into the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee, then continues into Georgia. Arrives in Savannah and camps for nearly a week in a cemetery in nearby Bonneville, subsisting on crackers and stale water. Travels by boat for Fernandina, Florida, then walks from the Atlantic Coast southwest across the state to the Gulf. In Cedar Keys, while waiting for a boat to Galveston, Texas, takes a job at a local sawmill. Several days later, is stricken with fever and remains bedridden for several weeks, desperately ill, at the home of the mill’s owner.
1868
Atering his plans, takes a schooner to Havana in January and spends nearly a month exploring the harbor and coastline surrounding the city; still too weak to investigate mountains of the interior, decides to return to a more northerly climate. Takes an orange boat to New York in February, but feels overwhelmed by the size of the city and its crowds. Travels to California by steamer in March by way of the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in San Francisco at the end of the month; decides to remain in California for a few months before re-embarking for South America. Spends summer wandering through the Central Valley region; investigates local plant life and works at odd jobs, including breaking horses, shearing sheep, and serving as a farm laborer. In autumn, takes a job as a shepherd for 1,800 sheep.
1869
Returns to the valley in spring and contracts as chief shepherd with Patrick Delaney; follows his flock into the Sierra Nevada mountains in search of good grazing. Continues into the high country and eventually into the Yosemite Valley, where he explores the region thoroughly for the first time. Returns to the low country as fall approaches and works on Delaney’s ranch; goes back to Yosemite in November. Contracts with James Hutchings, one of the valley’s original white settlers, to build and operate a sawmill on condition that no living trees will be cut. Becomes a good friend of Hutchings’ wife, Elvira Sproat Hutchings, who shares an interest in botany.
1870
Muir continues to operate the sawmill, using Sundays to explore the valley. Maintains correspondence with Jeanne Carr, now living in Oakland where Ezra is teaching at University of California. When she begins directing important persons to the Yosemite with notes to Muir requesting that he guide them through the valley, he becomes known to a wider circle. Finds himself embroiled in scientific controversy over the geologic origins of the Yosemite area when his theory that glaciers were responsible for carving out the area’s landscape is contradicted by California state geologist Josiah D. Whitney, who holds random catastrophic forces responsible; wins many converts to his theory while leading tours of the region.
1871
Ralph Waldo Emerson arrives in Yosemite on vacation in May. Initially too timid to approach him, Muir leaves a note at Emerson’s hotel: “I invite you to join me in a month’s worship with Nature in the high temples of the great Sierra Crown beyond our holy Yosemite.” Emerson declines Muir’s repeated offers to join him on a camping trip but does meet Muir at his cabin near Yosemite Falls and tours parts of the valley with him. In late summer Muir quits his job at the mill in order to devote more time to his search for evidence of glacial activity (he eventually succeeds in finding a small living glacier high in the mountains). Urged to publish the results by Clinton L. Merriam (a New York congressman interested in geology) and John Daniel Runkle (president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology), he adapts several of his letters about glaciers into article form. His first published essay, “Yosemite Glaciers,” appears in the New-York Tribune in December.
1872
Spends winter working on his writing, putting together accounts of life and nature in the Yosemite. The Overland Monthly, a California literary magazine, publishes “Yosemite Valley in Flood” (April), “Twenty Hill Hollow” (July), and “Living Glaciers of California” (December). Despite his accomplishment, Muir confronts a growing loneliness. “In all God’s mountain mansions,” he writes, “I find no human sympathy, and I hunger.” Through Jeanne Carr, in October meets artist William Keith, with whom he forms close friendship. Travels to San Francisco near the end of the year; spends two weeks visiting the Carrs and other friends, and meets a host of celebrated literary figures. Returning to Yosemite, goes into the mountains and embarks on extended exploration of Tenaya Canyon.
1873
By April is working on 15 different articles; becomes a regular contributor to The Overland Monthly, which publishes an article on his Tenaya trip in April, a piece on Hetch Hetchy Valley in July, and another on the Tuolumne Canyon in August. He embarks on another extended exploration, this time intending to investigate the entire length of the Sierra. On returning late in the year, he leaves again for Oakland to pursue his writing during the winter.
1874
Resides at the home of friend J. B. McChesney, Oakland superintendent of schools, whom he met through Jeanne Carr. Grows more accustomed to life in civilization, delighting in old friendships and attending occasional social affairs. At the Carrs’, meets Louie Wanda Strentzel, 27-year-old daughter of Louisiana Irwin Strentzel and Dr. John Theophil Strentzel, a Polish immigrant who owns a prosperous fruit farm near Martinez; she shares Muir’s interest in botany. Also forms close friendship with State Superintendent of Schools John Swett and his wife, Mary Tracy Swett. Muir completes the last of his glacier articles for The Overland Monthly in September and returns briefly to Yosemite. Although pleased to be in the wild again, finds that he no longer feels at home: “No one of the rocks seems to call me now,” he writes to Jeanne Carr, “nor any of the distant mountains. Surely this Merced and Tuolumne chapter of my life is done.”
1875–79
Moves in with the Swetts; enjoys company of the couple and their four children and feels less lonely. In “God’s First Temples: How Shall We Preserve Our Forests?” (published in the Sacramento Record-Union, February 1876), urges that the government take responsibility for the forests. Becomes a popular local lecturer, overcoming stage fright in order to preach the spiritual value of wilderness. Extends his wanderings farther during summer and fall of 1877, traveling to Utah and the mountains surrounding the Great Salt Lake, and later exploring the San Gabriel Mountains in the southern part of the state. Takes a river journey in fall, traveling down the Merced and the San Joaquin to the Sacramento; visits Strentzel household in Martinez. Sees them more frequently in spring of 1878 and considers marrying Louie. Travels to Nevada during summer; spends winter writing in San Francisco. In June 1879, shortly before he leaves on his first voyage to Alaska, Muir and Louie agree to marry upon his return. Spends six months in Alaska.
1880
On return journey, arrives in Portland in early January. Explores the Columbia and delivers several lectures in Portland, then spends two weeks in San Francisco before visiting the Strentzels in mid-February. Muir and Louie Strentzel marry on April 14 (her parents give them their house as a wedding gift and build another for themselves). Muir spends three months working on the farm, and in July departs again for Alaska; Louie, who is one month pregnant, remains at home. On the journey, Muir explores glaciers with missionary S. Hall Young; Young’s dog, Stickeen, accompanies them, displaying intelligence and stubborn will that Muir admires despite his usual disdain for domesticated animals. On August 30, Muir and Stickeen find themselves trapped while exploring Taylor Glacier; they make a narrow escape on a thin band of ice stretching across a 70-foot chasm. Returns to Martinez to await the birth of his child.
1881–88
Daughter Anna Wanda (called Wanda) Muir is born on March 25, 1881. Muir leaves again for Alaska in May. On returning to Martinez in October, takes over responsibility for the farm and settles into a comfortable family life. Sharply curtails wilderness trips for several years, visiting Yosemite only briefly in 1884 and 1885, and does little writing. Father, who has lived apart from mother since 1874, dies in October 1885 with Muir at his bedside. Daughter Helen Muir is born on January 23, 1886; concerned about her fragile health, Muir rarely leaves the ranch for 18 months after her birth. Prodded by wife and friends to take up writing again, accepts offer to edit and contribute to proposed collection of California nature studies (published by the J. Dewing Co. as Picturesque California in 1888). Travels with William Keith to the Cascade Mountains in Washington in summer of 1888 and finds that forest destruction caused by commercial logging has grown more severe. Agrees with Louie to shed some of his responsibilities by selling and leasing portions of their land.
1889
Meets Robert Underwood Johnson, associate editor of the prestigious Century magazine, when he visits California in the spring. Travels with Johnson to Yosemite in early June to explore the valley and the high country along the Tuolumne River; they find substantial damage caused by lumbering, tourists, and grazing sheep. Johnson proposes creation of a national park to incorporate both the Yosemite Valley and the surrounding region. Muir agrees to write two articles for The Century Magazine, while Johnson undertakes to lobby for the park in Washington.
1890–91
Completes “The Treasures of the Yosemite” and “Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park” for The Century Magazine by the early summer and embarks on another trip to Alaska. Aticles (published in August and September 1890) help precipitate debate in Congress over the proposed park. Muir returns from Alaska in September in time to see Congress pass a bill creating a national park even larger than he himself had outlined (law goes into effect October 1). Muir’s role in publicizing the park reinvigorates his literary career, and he continues to write and lobby for government protection of wilderness. Father-in-law John Strentzel dies in October 1890; Muir moves with family into the Strentzel home so mother-in-law will not be alone. Sister Margaret and husband John Reid settle in Martinez in 1891 and Reid takes over supervision of Muir’s land.
1892
Approached by Henry Senger, a professor of philology at Berkeley, with the idea of forming a local club for mountain lovers, Muir agrees to meet with a small group of enthusiasts in late May, and they form the Sierra Club. Muir is elected president, a post he will hold for the rest of his life. With Muir granting newspaper interviews and sending telegrams to Washington, the club helps prevent passage of a bill in the Senate aimed at reducing Yosemite’s boundaries.
1893–94
Plans trip to Europe with William Keith. Goes to New York in May and is introduced by Robert Underwood Johnson to New York society, meeting Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Nicola Tesla, and John Burroughs, among others. During brief trip to Boston, Cambridge, and Concord, lays flowers on Thoreau’s and Emerson’s graves, visits Walden Pond, and meets Sarah Orne Jewett, Francis Parkman, and Josiah Royce. Embarks for Europe in late June; returns to Dunbar, his boyhood home in Scotland, then visits Norway, England, Switzerland, and Italy. After returning in fall goes to Washington, D.C., at his wife’s suggestion to assess the new political situation. Accompanied by Johnson, visits Interior Secretary Hoke Smith and other persons influential in conservation policy. Back home, reworks essays first published 1875–81 for his first book (published in 1894 by Century Company as The Mountains of California). Sends first of what will become annual Christmas donations to cousin in Dunbar for distribution to the poor.
1896
Johnson, botanist Charles Sprague Sargent, and forester Gifford Pinchot persuade Hoke Smith to help create a public forest commission through the National Academy of Sciences, thus bypassing Congressional opposition. The six-man commission, including both Sargent and Pinchot, plans a tour of the nation’s forest reserves during summer and asks Muir to join them as adviser. Muir visits mother in Portage in June, then goes to Cambridge to accept honorary degree from Harvard (will also receive honorary degrees from University of Wisconsin in 1897, Yale, 1911, and University of California, 1913). Mother dies on June 23. Joining the forest commission in Chicago, Muir travels with them through South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Oregon, and California, and to the Grand Canyon in Arizona and the forest reserves of Colorado. Having observed the poor condition of many forests, commission members agree that more formal protection is necessary, but differ on the means to use. Muir follows Sargent in arguing that forest reserves should be inviolate, and that their protection should be under the control of the Army, and thus outside the corrupting influence of politics; Pinchot favors less severe restrictions, arguing for regulated use along guidelines established by a professional forest service.
1897
The forestry commission releases a preliminary version of its report to President Grover Cleveland in February, calling for the creation of 13 new reserves. Just prior to leaving office, Cleveland approves these reserves and places more than 21 million acres under federal protection. Outraged western politicians attempt to reverse the action in Congress, but their effort stalls and the debate continues. Muir campaigns for wilderness protection; sends letters to politicians and helps organize the Sierra Club to lobby for the reserves. Writes story about Stickeen for The Century Magazine (published in September as “An Adventure With a Dog and a Glacier”). Annoyed that Robert Johnson has abridged the piece, Muir agrees to write articles for The Atlantic Monthly; the first, “The American Forests” (August), is an impassioned plea for the protection of America’s wilderness. Congress suspends all but two of the new reserves in June. With Sargent and botanist William Canby, Muir takes brief trip to Alaska in August. Later that summer, on Pinchot’s recommendation, the new Secretary of the Interior, Cornelius Bliss, allows the grazing of sheep in the Oregon and Washington reserves; Muir and Sargent, who had helped to launch Pinchot’s career, feel betrayed. Mother-in-law Louisiana Strentzel dies.
1898
Second Atlantic Monthly article, “Wild Parks and Forest Reservations of the West” (January), helps to ignite public sympathy for the forest reserves; a renewed effort to abolish President Cleveland’s reserves in March fails in Congress. Muir travels with Sargent through North Carolina and Tennessee, revisiting part of the route he had traveled on his 1867 walk to the Gulf of Mexico. Spends late fall roaming about New England and parts of Canada. Tours Washington, D.C., and travels to Florida, where he visits several friends.
1899
Participates in summer expedition to Alaska organized by New York financier and railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman. At first mistrustful of Harriman, Muir comes to admire him during the voyage and the two become friends. The expedition, which includes more than 20 scientists, travels along the Alaska coastline, stopping occasionally to explore glaciers and conduct experiments.
1900–2
Enjoys visits from friends made on Alaska expedition, including biologist C. Hart Merriam and geographer Henry Gannett. Finishes last of ten articles for Atlantic Monthly and prepares them for book version (published 1901 by Houghton Mifflin as Our National Parks). Leads first of annual trips to the mountains sponsored by the Sierra Club, guiding nearly 100 club members around Yosemite for a month.
1903–4
Agrees to guide President Theodore Roosevelt on a trip through the Sierra high country; joins Roosevelt in May in San Francisco and travels with him to Yosemite. Spurning a banquet organized by local politicians and park officials, Roosevelt instead spends three nights camping alone with Muir; they explore Glacier Point, the head of Nevada Falls, and other points. Roosevelt departs Yosemite persuaded that the federal government should assume full control of the park. Muir accompanies Sargent in summer 1903 on a trip to Europe and Asia; they travel through Paris and on to Finland and Russia. After exploring Siberia and then sailing to Shanghai, Muir parts company with Sargent in order to visit India; from there, takes a steamship to Egypt where he sees the pyramids and journeys up the Nile. Takes a southerly route home through the Far East, stopping along the way to visit Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, China, Japan, and Hawaii. Arrives in San Francisco near the end of May 1904.
1905–6
At Muir’s request, William Colby, a lawyer belonging to the Sierra Club, drafts a bill to cede the Yosemite Valley back to federal control. Introduced in the state legislature in January 1905, the bill unleashes another round of debate. Muir makes several trips to Sacramento campaigning for the bill; appeals to Edward H. Harriman for help. With the aid of Harriman’s railroad lobby, the bill passes in February. The struggle then moves to Congress, where its passage is delayed for another year. Muir again appeals to Harriman, who plays a critical role in ensuring the measure’s success (Yosemite Valley is added officially to the national park in June 1906). Daughter Helen is stricken with pneumonia and on doctor’s advice in May 1905 Muir takes her to Arizona to aid her recovery. Learns in late June that Louie is seriously ill and returns home; she dies on August 6, 1905, from a lung tumor. Grief-stricken, Muir is unable to write for the next year. Daughter Wanda marries Thomas Rae Hanna, a civil engineer who studied with her at Berkeley, in June 1906. Helen returns home in August.
1907–9
Learns that the city of San Francisco (with assistance from Gifford Pinchot and the new Secretary of the Interior, James Garfield) may succeed in an application to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley (which lies within Yosemite National Park) in order to obtain water for the city. Muir and the Sierra Club launch a campaign to arouse public opinion against the dam, but fail to rally enough support. In May 1908, Garfield grants permission to dam the valley, subject to Congressional approval. Hetch Hetchy dam approval stalls in Congress due to adverse public opinion; new president William Howard Taft and Secretary of the Interior Richard A. Ballinger also help to delay the project. Taft and Ballinger visit Yosemite in October 1909; Muir, serving as presidential guide, takes the opportunity to argue that San Francisco could find alternative water supplies without violating the park’s boundaries. Stickeen, published by Houghton Mifflin in March, becomes Muir’s most popular book.
1910–12
Daughter Helen is married to Buell A. Funk, son of a cattle rancher. Muir stays for long visits with friends Katharine and John D. Hooker of Los Angeles and Henry F. Osborne and his family at Garrison’s-on-the-Hudson. Revises his early Sierra journals (published by Houghton Mifflin in 1911 as My First Summer in the Sierra); completes the manuscripts for The Yosemite (published by Century Company in 1912) and The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (Houghton Mifflin, 1913). Saddened by death of close friend Wiliam Keith in April 1911. Decides to fulfill a lifelong dream by exploring the Amazon River. Ignoring protests of family and friends, he departs in August. Sails up the Amazon and investigates the surrounding forests, exploring lagoon at Rio Negro before returning to the mouth of the river. Sails down coast to Buenos Ares and takes train across continent to Santiago, Chile. Treks to Montevideo and boards ship bound for Africa, intent on locating and examining a baobab tree. Finds the trees near Victoria Falls (“one of the greatest of the great tree days of my lucky life”); journeys on to explore the Nile valley. Arives back in New York in late March 1912.
1913
Muir once again campaigns to save Hetch Hetchy after President Woodrow Wilson appoints dam supporter Franklin K. Lane as Secretary of the Interior. Writes letters and newspaper articles and rallies Sierra Club to defeat the proposal; the effort begins to take a toll on Muir, and he falls ill several times. With the new administration backing the proposal, a bill granting San Francisco permission to dam Hetch Hetchy passes Congress in December (Muir later writes to a friend: “it is a monumental mistake, but it is more, it is a monumental crime”).
1914
Hampered by failing health, attempts to finish account of his Alaska journeys (published posthumously by Houghton Mifflin as Travels in Alaska in 1915). Visits daughter Helen in Daggett in December; develops pneumonia and on December 23 is admitted to California Hospital in Los Angeles. Dies December 24. Buried in family plot on the Martinez ranch.