Muir in Tahoe

Francis Espiritu

ENGL 48B

Muir Tahoe Journal

Author Quote: "Then in 1888, Muir's wife, Louie, deeply concerned for her husband's health, finally forced him out of the house for a long-overdue mountain vacation. Soon he found himself traveling in the company of a handful of other naturalists, painters, and literary men, camping and tramping along the shores of Lake Tahoe. More than two decades had elapsed since his first arrival in California, back in 1867. What a difference two decades make." (Lankford 147)

Internet Quote: "Muir threw himself into the preservationist role with great vigor. He envisioned the Yosemite area and the Sierra as pristine lands.^[28] He saw the greatest threat to the Yosemite area and the Sierra to be livestock, especially domestic sheep, calling them "hoofed locusts." In June 1889, the influential associate editor of Century magazine, Robert Underwood Johnson, camped with Muir in Tuolumne Meadows and saw firsthand the damage a large flock of sheep had done to the grassland. Johnson agreed to publish any article Muir wrote on the subject of excluding livestock from the Sierra high country. He also agreed to use his influence to introduce a bill to Congress to make the Yosemite area into a national park, modeled after Yellowstone National Park." (Wikipedia; John Muir)

Summary: Muir began to get sick and tired of living out the same routines day by day. This is why his wife told him to go and take a break from his work and home life, and pursue his dreams out in the wilderness. Had this not happened, then his influences to have national parks created might not have been possible.

Personal Opinion: What I find ironic is that Muir's wife told him to go out into the world in order to get better. Yet isn't it that in order to get better, one must stay inside; since disease, natural disasters, and dangerous individuals lurk out in the free world? Yet despite the irony, I do believe that had Muir not gone outside into the world, not only would he have gotten sick, but the future would have become sick; and the world we live in today might have been drastically different. For one, the national parks we have today such as Yosemite probably would not seem as majestic as it is. Yet even if Muir had not come along, is it possible that there could have been another person just like him who could have influenced Congress into passing legislation to ensure the beauty of national parks for the future? I mean, Theodore Roosevelt lived his life out in the wilderness, and the group of men he took up San Juan Hill in Cuba were called the "Rough Riders" which could seem to be a comparison of his love of roughing it in the wilderness. Yet even with Roosevelt's love of the wilderness, isn't it that Muir's passion influenced him? In the end, I think that even with the irony in Muir getting better by going out and exploring the world, it is truth. It is possible that if we go out and explore not only the world, we will be able to explore ourselves and live outside of the norm and ignore the routines of our quotidian lives. We may not become the next John Muir, but there is inspiration out in the world; and I think that Muir's greatest gift and lasting legacy was not the National parks left behind, but the message of being able to find one's self in the wild. If we can live a little like Muir, the things we could possibly accomplish could be phenomenal.