John Muir: The Yosemite National Park Project

There have been many influential people over many decades that have devoted their lives to making our ecosystems and land healthier. The purpose of this report is to inform high school students about one of the most well known environmentalists and naturalists, John Muir. His most famous project was helping to make the Yosemite Grant into Yosemite National Park.
John Muir was born in Scotland in 1838 but 11 years later he and his family moved to the United States. He began a job at a factory, but after a nearly blinding accident from a machine he decided he was more interested in a “world unaltered by man or machine” (Yosemite National Park). Years later he enrolled at he University of Wisconsin but he wasn’t satisfied enough so he decided
to enroll in where he called the “University of Wilderness,” better known as anywhere in a forest or outside. In 1868 he visited Yosemite, then it was called the Yosemite Grant and was state administered, for the first time. After only being there for a week, he fell in love with the land and decided to move there and find a job (Yosemite National Park).
He got hired as a sheepherder but had problems with it so he changed work at a local sawmill. This job lasted for many months but he then quit because of differences of opinions, which lead him to become a writer. His work was getting published and he was becoming a well-known naturalist because of the material he was writing. However, he was getting concerned with what was happening to some of the land in Yosemite. Livestock, mainly sheep, were damaging the land and some of the precious ecosystems. Muir decided to take action (National Park Service).
After trying to figure out how he could make changes, he took the editor of Century Magazine, Robert Underwood Johnson, to the areas being affected by livestock and proposed a plan.
He said that the land and ecosystem could only be saved if Yosemite became a national park (National Park Service). Johnson wrote a publication about this and Congress became interested, not even one year later The Yosemite Grant became Yosemite National Park. Muir knew more could be done to preserve Yosemite. In 1906 he took President Theodore Roosevelt on a three-day camping trip to try and persuade him to allow more protection for Yosemite. He accomplished his goal of the trip and now instead of only being protected by the state of California, it is federally protected (Sierra Club). He went on to influence California, among other states, even more with his
ideas. Along with Yosemite National Park, Muir helped many other parks and forests.
He often travelled to the Sequoia National park, as it is located near Yosemite, and got to be very popular there. However, when he went there over 100 years ago it wasn’t a national park quite yet. Similar to Yosemite, Muir advocated the preservation of the Sequoia area and believed it should be a national park. Soon enough, this wish came true and eventually a lodge was named after him, John Muir Lodge (Sequoia and Kings Canyon). Although not physically helping to make The Grand Canyon a national park, his writings also helped to spark the process of making it become official. All of his hard work, determination, and goals earned him many recognitions and
honors.
From all of the contributions Muir made to California, the state recognizes him by having him featured on their state quarter along with a mountain and a bird native to California. Not only is he on this coin but he is also on $5 commemorative coin. This golden coin features Muir, President Theodore Roosevelt, and part of Yosemite’s half dome. It was sold for only one month this year, 2016, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the national parks service. Along with this short amount of time, only 100,000 coins were made and the Director of the National Parks Services is content with this because he says, “The coins will be a fun centennial collectible, and the proceeds will contribute to our second century of service to the American people.” (Sierra Club)
California, along with other states, would not be the same without John Muir. His contributions to the environment are countless which has earned him respect from not only environmentalists and scientists but also anyone who loves to be outdoors. He protected Yosemite National Park when he saw fore coming problems and decided to quickly take actions, which were carried through. Upon asking an environmentalist who some of the most important people who helped forests, one of the first to be listed would surely be John Muir.