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Muir, Roosevelt, and Yosemite National Park As an Emergent Sacred Symbol: an Interaction Ritual Analysis of a Camping Trip

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Muir, Roosevelt, and Yosemite National Park As an Emergent Sacred Symbol: an Interaction Ritual Analysis of a Camping Trip University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Kinesiology Scholarship Kinesiology 2017 Muir, Roosevelt, and Yosemite National Park as an Emergent Sacred Symbol: An Interaction Ritual Analysis of a Camping Trip Kiernan O. Gordon [email protected] Timothy J. Curry Ohio State University - Main Campus, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/kinesiology_facpub Part of the Environmental Policy Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Leisure Studies Commons, Place and Environment Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration Commons, and the Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons Recommended Citation Curry, T.J. & Gordon, K.O. (2017) Muir, Roosevelt, and Yosemite National Park as an emergent sacred symbol: An interaction ritual analysis of a camping trip. Symbolic Interaction, 40 (2), 247-262. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Kinesiology at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Kinesiology Scholarship by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Muir, Roosevelt, and Yosemite National Park as an Emergent Sacred Symbol: An Interaction Ritual Analysis of a Camping Trip Timothy J. Curry Ohio State University Kiernan O. Gordon University of New Hampshire We argue that interaction ritual (IR) theory provides a temporal and interactional point of origin from which to trace an influential IR chain that became a deciding factor in the unification of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove under federal control within present-day Yosemite National Park. The emotions generated by the rituals of Roosevelt’s and Muir’s camping trip in May, 1903 in the short term, however, failed to result in a lasting consensus on ideology. This is a point that Roo- sevelt’s lack of support for Muir in the subsequent controversy over the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley clearly documents. A video abstract is available at http://tinyurl.com/myv74yd Keywords: Yosemite, preservation, camping, interaction ritual, symbol INTRODUCTION The famous encounter between John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt that took place in Yosemite Valley, May 15 to 17,1903, provides an opportunity for micro-sociologists to examine ritual outcomes. From an interactionist perspective, the meeting of Muir and Roosevelt has particular interest in that both men have become important symbols of their era, and an interaction ritual (IR) analysis of the rituals surrounding their camping trip would help explain a puzzling outcome of the trip—why did Muir believe that Roosevelt was converted to a preservationist view of the wilderness, only later to be disappointed when Roosevelt failed to save Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley from damming? Direct all correspondence to Kiernan O. Gordon, University of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Hall, 124 Main Street, Durham, NH 03824; e-mail:[email protected]. Both authors contributed equally to this work. [Correction added on 17 April 2017, after first online publication: the link of the video abstract has been updated to http://tinyurl.com/myv74yd] Symbolic Interaction,Vol.40,Issue2,pp.247–262,ISSN:0195-6086print/1533-8665online. ©2017SocietyfortheStudyofSymbolicInteraction.Allrightsreserved. DOI: 10.1002/SYMB.279 248 Symbolic Interaction Volume 40, Number 2, 2017 This essay’s reexamination of the historical record centers on the ritual elements of the Muir-Roosevelt camping trip. Our argument unfolds in three parts. First, to provide context for Muir’s preservationist stance, we discuss the rhetorical tech- niques used by Muir in his written work prior to the camping trip. We include Robert Underwood Johnson’s long description of his camping trip with Muir, which took place before the Muir-Roosevelt trip. Johnson’s description gives weight to the assertion that Muir approached these excursions as rituals, with practiced routine designed to elicit a favorable outcome. Second, we describe the historical records used in this research to reconstruct the interaction in the three-day camping trip that Muir spent with Roosevelt. Third, we analyze the emotions generated by the camping trip by introducing Collins (2004) framework of ritual ingredients and show how corresponding ritual outcomes of group solidarity led to subsequent chains of interaction committed to the protection of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove as sacred wild spaces, but failed to result in a consensus for preservationist ideology. ABRIEFINTRODUCTIONTOYOSEMITE,CAMPING,AND PRESERVATION Most historians describe the Muir-Roosevelt camping trip as simply recreational, but the trip has a more complex ideological context than hitherto acknowledged. First as a guide, then later in tandem with other members of the Sierra Club, which Muir cofounded in 1892, Muir used such camping trips to Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada Mountains as opportunities to introduce people frst-hand to the wilderness experience (Gifford 1996). In fact, a camping trip to Yosemite in 1889 with Robert Underwood Johnson, then Associate Editor of Century magazine, gave Muir the idea for his writing campaign of 1890 to promote the area surrounding the state-owned Yosemite Valley as a national park. Johnson provides a description of his experiences with Muir, including the camp- fre at Soda Springs where they planned out two articles that Muir would write for Century.Whileweobviouslydonothaveaword-for-wordtranscriptionofwhatMuir spoke of during this camping trip, Johnson provided detailed recollections of his meeting with Muir and the camping trip (Johnson 1923:279–289). Christine Oravec (1981) has analyzed the rhetorical strategies that Muir deployed in those articles and other essays published prior to them. Oravec argues that we should look at the events that Johnson describes in his reminiscences of the camping trip in a broader context as a partly spontaneous, partly orchestrated ritual designed to “elicit public action for scenic preservation” (Oravec 1981:247). To illustrate, Oravec notes that while Muir began his career as a natural history essayist, he moved beyond focusing on pure description to create a “sensation of mountain grandeur.” In other words, Muir abandoned a strictly rational, descriptive approach and instead decided to evoke a “sublime response” to nature, one that featured a sense of “over-whelming personal insignifcance, akin to awe, and ultimately a kind of spiritual exaltation” (Oravec 1981:248). Johnson affrms Muir’s emphasis on the sublimity of nature when Muir, Roosevelt, and Yosemite 249 he remarks that in observing the beauty of the valley with Muir: “One fnds himself continually in a state between awe and rapture, overwhelmed by impressions which I, at least, have never been able to express, even in verse” (Johnson 1923:280). Oravec notes that Muir appealed to the reader’s sense of ethical responsibility by arguing that humanity, left to its own greedy nature, would destroy the wilderness in search of profts. He urged his readers to actively support legislative measures that promoted the preservationist cause.1 By doing so, they would become members of a select group who not only are able to appreciate sublime wilderness, but also fght for its survival. Similarly, Johnson discusses Muir’s disdain for sheep as “hooved locusts,” and the importance of shielding Yosemite’s meadows from sheepherders grazing their herds (Johnson 1923:288). Muir developed in his writings a literary persona—the“truemountaineer.”Based on his own experiences as a guide and explorer of the mountains in California, Muir involved his readers in dramatic physical exertions in nature, some involving very close brushes with death through misadventure. The mountaineer persona thus pro- vided his readers with a vicarious experience of encountering the wilderness as an unspoiled terrain, in all its glory and possible terrors. Muir occasionally used the same approach in guiding visitors to Yosemite. Johnson described both the strenuous hike Muir led him on high above the valley foor and Muir’s desire to fnd adventurous companions to take on such trips (Johnson 1923:285). METHODS This research depends on primary and secondary sources supplemented by feld research and examined through IR theory (Collins 2004). While there is no single authoritative version of the camping trip, the trip was documented in a contempo- rary typewritten account by Charles Leidig, a ranger who accompanied Roosevelt and Muir. Leidig’s account has been supplemented with photographs taken on the trip (e.g., see Anderson 1951; Hartesveldt 1955; Johnston 1994, 2008; Koller 1959; Leidig 1903). Other sources include contemporary newspaper articles, journals and letters written by Muir, Roosevelt, and others knowledgeable about the history of Yosemite. Chief amongst these sources are William Frederic Badè (1924), who was appointed Muir’s “literary executor” by the family after Muir’s death and who interviewed Roosevelt about his experiences on the camping trip, and Linnie Marsh Wolfe (1945), who was given access to Muir’s papers and encouraged by Muir’s daughters to write an authorized biography of Muir (Turner 1985:355). The political campaign over Yosemite Valley has also been well-documented. Brinkley (2009) has written a lengthy account of Roosevelt’s life, political successes, and his “Great Loop” western political campaign
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