DOCSLIB.ORG

Saving the Earth : a Study of Membership in the Sierra Club

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Saving the Earth : a Study of Membership in the Sierra Club University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1976 Saving the earth : a study of membership in the Sierra Club Stan Walthall The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Walthall, Stan, "Saving the earth : a study of membership in the Sierra Club" (1976). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 8388. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/8388 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SAVING THE EARTH: A STUDY OF MEMBERSHIP IN THE SIERRA CLUB by Stan Walthall B.A., Eastern Montana College, 1973 Presented in partial fulfillments of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE University of Montana 1976 Approved by )chalirman. Board of Examiner,s Cochairman, Board ofExaminers D e^r^i^d% ^ School Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: EP39189 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction Is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT Oissartation PliblisWrvg UMI EP39189 Published by ProQuest LLC (2013). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest* ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 -1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Walthall, Stan, M.S., 1976 Environmental Studies Saving the Earth: A Study^^embership in, the Sierra Club (149 pp.) Directors: Jon J. Driessen^nd Lee Drummorw This study was undertaken to id e n tify and describe those views which members of the Sierra Club, a national environmental organi­ zation, use to identify, interpret and take action in their every­ day lives as a matter of routine. The emphasis of this study is on describing those essential characteristics of belonging which members themselves describe and explain. As the purpose of this study was to identify and describe those essential characteristics of membership, an ethnographic approach stressing the use of interviews was used. Data was gathered by participating in both an intimate and meaningful way in the Sierra Club and in the lives of members so as to share in th e ir meanings and come to know the club as they themselves have come to know i t . The res u lt of this study is an account of members' expressed methods for typifying, interpreting, and taking action on their world as defined by their natural view and commitment to act. The natural view or sense of Earth deals with members' assumptions about the relationship of man to nature, the knowledge members share about nature and their methods of typifying and categorizing th e ir world and therefore come to know and act on i t . The second component of th e ir sense of belonging deals with members' commit­ ment to act. Both components of the sense of belonging were ordered concerning the orientation the member has expressed to the natural view and commitment to act. Finally this study takes up members' expressions of belonging as they talk about the application of the sense of belonging to their routine everyday activities and the correlation between those activities and their individual position within the Sierra Club. n Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT........................................................................................................ i i LIST OF FIGURES....................................................................................................... v Chapter I INTRODUCTION............................................................................................. 1 Purpose History of the Study and Procedures I I HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION OF THE SIERRA CLUB.............................. 13 The Transcendentalists Emerson and Thoreau John Muir The Yosemite Valley Hetch Hetchy Dinosaur National Monument Structure and Organization of the Sierra Club I I I MEMBERSHIP.................................................................................................. 35 Membership as a Constitutive Accomplishment Membership as a Practical Accomplishment IV THE NATURAL VIEW........................................................................................ 42 Homo-centric Assumptions About Nature Bio-centric Assumptions About Nature Stock of Knowledge V THE COMMITMENT TO ACT.......................................................................... 67 Getting Involved Being Involved A Paradigm of Membership VI EXPRESSIONS OF MEMBERSHIP................................................................... 89 Kinds of Things Members Do to Save the Earth Organizational Things Private Things i i i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Correlation between Instances of Membership and the Sense of Belonging V II SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION........................................................................HO BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................ 118 Selected References in Socioloogy Selected References on the Environmental Movement and the Sierra Club APPENDIX.....................................................................................................................123 Topical Questions for Interviews Biographies of Key Informants Selected Examples of Narratives from Key Informants Transcripts Aileen Caroline John Richard IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST Of FIGURES Figure Page 1. Typification of Members in the Sierra Club According to Their Sense of Earth and Sense of A c tio n ...................................................................................................81 2. Relative Positions and Direction of Movement of Members in Relation to one Another According to Their Sense of Earth .................................................................. 82 3. Relative Positions and Direction of Movement of Members in Relation to one Another According to Their Sense of Action ......................................................................84 4. Showing the Relative Positions of Members in The Sense of Earth and Sense of Action Typification Scheme .......................................................................... 87 5. Relative Position and Direction of Movement of Members According to Their Expressions of Belonging as Compared to Their Positions in the Sense of Belonging........................................................................108 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day, may be regarded as the official beginning of the "environmental movement," with activities throughout the country concerned with heightening people's awareness of their continuing degradation of the quality of life. This date also marks the expansion o f the much older conservation movement whose major concern was the preservation of natural areas, such as wilderness, for th e ir unique features or scenic beauty. The old organizations of the conservation movement, such as the Audubon Society, the National W ildlife Federation, the Wilderness Society, and the Sierra Club became the back­ bone of the new environmentalism. The Audubon Society and the Sierra Club expanded th e ir areas of concern from a basic orientation towards wildness and w ildlife to include other problems such as pollution, overpopulation, natural resource use, problems of development, energy, and the oceans. New groups were also being formed such as Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Defense Fund whidi were totally environmental in nature and without the traditions of the older conser­ vation movement. Both types o f groups are now fused together to form the Environmental Movement. The movement is composed of both individuals and groups whose aim is to change the relationship between our social systems and the natural environment. If one assumes as does William Bryan that: 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Environmental problems constitute one dimension of social ills that threaten the goals of social and ecological con­ straints of "this spaceship earth," then environmentalists are, therefore, social a c tiv is ts , with varying degrees of commitment toward affecting change consistent with such eco­ logical and social goals.! Groups and individuals working toward this end may then be defined as i part of the environmental movement. Herbert Blumer has stated that; A
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reading 5 Hetch Hetchy1
    Reading 5 Hetch Hetchy1 As to my attitude regarding the proposed use of Hetch Hetchy by the city of San Francisco...I am fully persuaded that...the injury...by substi- tuting a lake for the present swampy floor of the valley...is altogether unimportant compared with the benefits to be derived from its use as a reservoir. —Gifford Pinchot, 1913 These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the Mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar. —John Muir, 1912 Situated on a dry, sandy peninsula, the city of of traditional assumptions about the desirability San Francisco faced a chronic fresh-water short- of putting undeveloped natural resources to use age. In the Sierra, about one hundred and on the other, the battle over Hetch Hetchy was fifty miles distant, the erosive action of glaciers bound to be bitter. Before Congress and President and the Tuolumne River scooped the spectacu- Woodrow Wilson made a final decision in 1913, lar, high-walled Hetch Hetchy Valley. As early the valley became a cause célèbre. The principle as 1882, city engineers pointed out the possibil- of preserving wilderness was put to the test. For ity of damming its narrow, lower end to make a the first time in the American experience the com- reservoir. They also recognized the opportunity peting claims of wilderness and civilization to a of using the fall of the impounded water for the specific area received a thorough hearing before generation of hydroelectric power.
    [Show full text]
  • San Francisco and Hetch Hetchy Valley Gabriel L
    __________________________________________________________________ The Forbidden Water: San Francisco and Hetch Hetchy Valley Gabriel L. Mansfield Gabriel Mansfield is a sophomore history major from Onarga, Illinois. He wrote this paper for Dr. Lynne Curry’s HIS 2500: Historical Writing and Research Methods. After graduation Mr. Mansfield wishes to pursue a career in academic librarianship and double as “Duke Silver” at local jazz clubs. _____________________________________________________________________________ Northwest of the Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, and other iconic landmarks at Yosemite National Park in Northeastern California is a small valley known as Hetch Hetchy. This was a quiet spot that Sierra Club founder, nature lover, and preservationist John Muir described as “a grand landscape garden, [and] one of Nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples.”1 At the beginning of the 20th Century, this beautiful expanse drew the attention of the city of San Francisco, which planned to dam the area to create a reservoir to use as a water source. Unfortunately for San Franciscans, this would not be an easy journey because of the stiff opposition to the city’s plan. This resistance would primarily be spearheaded by Muir, whose actions would ultimately not be enough to quell the city’s desire for this new water source. In late 1913, Congress would grant the city permission to begin building a reservoir in Hetch Hetchy Valley. Some of the few instrumental people in this effort to build the dam included: chief forester and conservationist Gifford Pinchot, and James Phelan, the mayor of San Francisco and a dam supporter from the time when the application was first submitted.
    [Show full text]
  • Earl Warren Papers, 1924-53
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf4b69n6gc Online items available Inventory of the Earl Warren Papers, 1924-53 Processed by The California State Archives staff; supplementary encoding and revision supplied by Brooke Dykman Dockter. California State Archives 1020 "O" Street Sacramento, California 95814 Phone: (916) 653-2246 Fax: (916) 653-7363 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.sos.ca.gov/archives/ © 2000 California Secretary of State. All rights reserved. Inventory of the Earl Warren F3640 1 Papers, 1924-53 Inventory of the Earl Warren Papers, 1924-53 Inventory: F3640 California State Archives Office of the Secretary of State Sacramento, California Contact Information: California State Archives 1020 "O" Street Sacramento, California 95814 Phone: (916) 653-2246 Fax: (916) 653-7363 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.sos.ca.gov/archives/ Compiled by: David L. Snyder © 2000 California Secretary of State. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Earl Warren Papers, Date (inclusive): 1924-53 Inventory: F3640 Creator: Warren, Earl Extent: See Series List Repository: California State Archives Sacramento, California Language: English. Publication Rights For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the California State Archives. Permission for reproduction or publication is given on behalf of the California State Archives as the owner of the physical items. The researcher assumes all responsibility for possible infringement which may arise from reproduction or publication of materials from the California State Archives collections. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Earl Warren Papers, F3640, California State Archives. Alternative Form of Materials Available Selected audio recordings from this collection were digitized as part of the "California Light and Sound" collection through the California Audiovisual Preservation Project (CAVPP).
    [Show full text]
  • Politics, Media, and Public Opinion in the Hetch Hetchy Controversy
    Eastern Illinois University The Keep Undergraduate Honors Theses Honors College 2019 The Forbidden Water: Politics, Media, and Public Opinion in the Hetch Hetchy Controversy Gabriel Mansfield Follow this and additional works at: https://thekeep.eiu.edu/honors_theses Part of the Environmental Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons The Forbidden Water: Politics, Media, and Public Opinion in the Retch Hetchy Controversy BY Gabriel Mansfield UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement forobtaining UNDERGRADUATE DEPARTMENTAL HONORS Department of History along with the Honors College at EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY Charleston, Illinois 2019 YEAR I hereby recommend this thesis to be accepted as fulfillingthe thesis requirement for obtaining Undergraduate Departmental Honors Date Date ONO RS COOR NA TOR Date EPARTMENT CHAIR 1 Chapter 1: Literature Review In his collection of works about conservation entitled The American Environment, Roderick Nash makes an interesting observation. Nash findsthat there are two common problems that arise in the field of environmental history. Many historians write with a misconception that "conservation is denoted into a single school of thought." This sort of thinking oversimplifiesthe environmental movement, especially because conservation had many different facets and was divided into many sub-categories. The second problem Nash identifies is a, "Manichean orientation," in which some environmental historians paint one side as the "good guys" versus the "bad guys." Nash points out that this is problematic considering the common good that both sides were trying to achieve. He also criticizes historians' disregard for keeping the issues in the context of the past. He describes this problem as the lack of ·'understanding the past in its own terms."1 The field of environmental history is fairly recent.
    [Show full text]
  • Answers to the SCOCA Trivia Challenge
    Answers to the SCOCA trivia challenge And now the answers to the SCOCA justices trivia quiz. Thanks again to the friendly law librarians, who were good sports and kindly donated their time and expertise to checking these facts. 1. The only justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Stephen Johnson Field served on the California Supreme Court for about five and half years (as the court’s fifth chief justice for part of that time) before serving nearly 35 years on the U.S. Supreme Court. 2. The only justice born in the 1700s. Alexander Outlaw Anderson was born November 10, 1794 at Soldier’s Rest in Tennessee. Presumably his mother, Only Patience Outlaw, gave him that swaggering middle name. 3. The first justice born in the 1900s. Roger John Traynor, born February 12, 1900. The court’s 23rd chief justice and one of only three members to serve 30+ years; Mosk and Shenk are the others. 4. The longest serving justice. Morey Stanley Mosk served 37 years from 1964 to 2001. One of the greats, he is missed. 5. The youngest justice when appointed. Hugh Campbell Murray, age 26 when appointed. He was the court’s third chief justice. There’s a story that in 1849 he took a ship from Panama to California, but it made such slow progress that he disembarked at Cabo San Lucas and walked the rest of the way to San Francisco. 6. The shortest tenure as chief justice. Royal Tyler Sprague died in office after serving about eight weeks as the 11th chief justice from January to February 1872.
    [Show full text]
  • Sierra Club Oral History Project SIERRA CLUB REMINISCENCES
    Sierra Club Oral History Project SIERRA CLUB REMINISCENCES 11 Harold C. Bradley Furthering the Sierra: Cl ub Tradition C. Nelson Hackett Lasting Impressions of the Early Sierra Club Philip S. Bernays Founding the Southern California Chapter Harold E. Crowe Sierra Club Physician, Baron, and President Glen Dawson Pioneer Rock Climber and Ski Mountaineer Interviews Conducted By Judy Snyder Jo Harding Richard Sear1 e Sierra Club His tory Commi ttee SERIES PREFACE -- SIERRA CLUB REMINISCENCES Sierra Club Reminiscences is a series of Sierra Club oral history interviews with club leaders and longtime members whose activities in the club span the past eighty years. It includes the interviews with seven men who served the club as president during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. It preserves the recollections of mountaineers and rock climbers in the Sierra Nevada and beyond, and it records the tales of early mountain outings as far back as 1909. All of these interviews make apparent the roots of the Sierra Club in first-hand, often pioneering, experiences in the mountains of California. In addition, they demonstrate how an abiding love for these mountains led many of these individuals to engage in national campaigns to preserve park and wilderness areas. Thus, they validate the Sierra Club motto, "to explore, enjoy, and preserve." At the same time, this series sets the stage for interviews of the following generations of Club leaders who rose to prominence in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Ann Lage, Cochair Sierra Club History Committee Harold C. Bradley FURTHERING THE SIERRA CLUB TRADITION An Interview Conducted by Judy Snyder Sierra Club History Committee San Francisco ,' California Sierra Club San Francisco, California Copyright@197 5 by Sierra Club All rights reserved PREFACE When I first met Harold C.
    [Show full text]
  • Published Occasionally by the Friends of the Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley, California 94720
    PUBLISHED OCCASIONALLY BY THE FRIENDS OF THE BANCROFT LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 94720 No. 48 January lgyi Sierra Club Records We feel that it is eminently right that these materials are coming "home" to the Berkeley THE BANCROFT LIBRARY is greatly honored to campus, for it was here, in 1890, that Professor have been designated as the official repository Joachim Henry Senger of the University's De­ for the historical records of one of the world's partment of German first proposed the forma­ leading conservation organizations, the Sierra tion of an association of those interested in Club, and we are pleased to publicize the ar­ mountain travel, to be known as a "Sierra rival in the library of a large quantity of pic­ Club." Founded in 1892 by Senger, Warren torial materials, from among which we have Olney and John Muir, who became its first selected the dramatic and pluvial illustration, president, a position he was to hold until his reproduced below. That the Club's records death in 1914, the organization from the outset will prove an invaluable research collection is drew much of its strength from the faculties without doubt, for this is an archive rich in and students of the neighboring universities, source material for the history of our national California and Stanford. The Club's first secre­ parks and forests, in particular, and of the con­ tary was William Dallam Armes, Professor of servation of our natural resources, in general. English at Berkeley, and among the initial di- L 0 o k a .1 r /- ( c/ w i'es.
    [Show full text]
  • A Test of Adversity and Strength: Wildland Fire in the National Park System
    National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Wildland Fire Program A Test of Adversity and Strength Wildland Fire in the National Park System By Hal K. Rothman NPS/J HENRY A Test of Adversity and Strength: Wildland Fire in the National Park System By Hal K. Rothman, Principal Investigator National Park Service Cooperative Agreement Order #CA 8034-2-9003 Special Consultant: Stephen J. Pyne Research Associates: Lincoln Bramwell, Brenna Lissoway, and Lesley Argo Project Managers David Sproul, Michael Childers, and Daniel Holder i Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men. Seneca, Epistles ii Executive Summary The National Park Service’s mission, unique among federal agencies, has made its history of fire policy diverge from that of its peers. Federal fire protection began in the national parks in 1886, when the U.S. Army assumed administration of Yellowstone National Park. After the trauma of the 1910 fire season and creation of a civilian National Park Service in 1916, the new Service embraced the U.S. Forest Service’s policy of aggressive fire suppression. For almost fifty years, suppression was policy, a reality that only began to change in the 1950s. The Leopold Report, published in 1963, further articulated differences in the National Park Service’s mission with its call for parks to be managed as “vignettes of primitive America.” Following passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964, federal agencies – including the NPS – were compelled to reassess their management plans in the context of the new law. Steadily, each federal agency found its mission redefined and its goals recast; this translated into a more diverse spectrum of fire practices, at once splintering the former unity of purpose that surrounded suppression while demanding new ideas and devices to reintegrate those fragmented parts.
    [Show full text]
  • The National Parks and Forest Reservations
    University of the Pacific Scholarly Commons John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes John Muir Papers 1-1-1896 The aN tional Parks and Forest Reservations. John Muir Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb Recommended Citation Muir, John, "The aN tional Parks and Forest Reservations." (1896). John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes. 227. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/227 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the John Muir Papers at Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 268 ' Publications ofthe Sierra Club. PROCEEDINGS OF THE fv'1E ETING OF THE SIERRA CLUB Held November 23, 1895· The annual public meeting of the Sierra Club was held in the haJI of the Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, on the evening of Saturday, November 23, 1895· The topic announced, "The National Parks and Forest Reserva­ tions," had brought together a large audience of members and friends of the Club. Mr. Warren Olney, Vice-Presi­ dent, called the meeting to order, and introduced the Presi­ dent of the evening in the following words: ''LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:-lt is the good fortune of the Sierra Club to have enrolled in its membership some of the most distinguished men in California. I think we are peculiarly happy in that respect; and at every meeting of the Club we have selected some member who does honor to the Club and to ourselves by presiding.
    [Show full text]
  • Sierra Club Records, 1891
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf4x0nb0qs No online items Guide to the Sierra Club Records, 1891- Processed by Lauren Lassleben, Xiuzhi Zhou, Karen Gracy and Dennis Scott Additions processed by Lisa Monhoff with support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The Bancroft Library © 1997, © 2019 The Bancroft Library University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-6000 [email protected] URL: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/libraries/bancroft-library Note History --History, CaliforniaGeographical (By Place) --CaliforniaSocial Sciences --Urban Planning and EnvironmentBiological and Medical Sciences --Agriculture --ForestryBiological and Medical Sciences --Agriculture --Wildlife ManagementSocial Sciences --Sports and Recreation Guide to the Sierra Club Records, BANC MSS 71/103 c 1 1891- Language of Material: English Contributing Institution: The Bancroft Library Title: Sierra Club records, creator: Sierra Club Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 71/103 c Physical Description: 490 linear feet (395 cartons, 1 box, 22 volumes, 1 oversize folder) Date (inclusive): 1891- Abstract: The records form one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of environmental records in the United States. The Club designated The Bancroft Library as its official archives in 1958, and the organization began transferring records from the San Francisco office to the Library on a regular basis in 1970. A very wide range of record types are included in the collection, including correspondence, minutes, agendas, reports, by-laws, financial records, scrapbooks, sample ballots, notes, rosters, action alerts, statements and testimony, press releases, clippings, and policy statements. Documentation for the early years is scarce, since the Club's office in San Francisco was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire.
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Maurice) O'shaughnessy Papers
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/hb5d5nb6sr Online items available Finding Aid to the M.M. (Michael Maurice) O'Shaughnessy papers Finding Aid written by Mary L. Morganti, in memory of Archivist, Linda Jordan, 1952-2001. Funding for processing this collection was provided by George A. Miller. The Bancroft Library © 2005 The Bancroft Library University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-6000 [email protected] URL: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/libraries/bancroft-library Finding Aid to the M.M. (Michael BANC MSS 92/808 c 1 Maurice) O'Shaughnessy papers Language of Material: Italian Contributing Institution: The Bancroft Library Title: M.M. (Michael Maurice) O'Shaughnessy papers creator: O'Shaughnessy, M. M. (Michael Maurice), 1864-1934 Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 92/808 c Physical Description: 125 linear feet20 boxes, 54 cartons, 42 volumes, 5 oversize boxes, 154 oversize folders, 52 tubes Date (inclusive): 1882-1937 Abstract: The M. M. (Michael Maurice) O'Shaughnessy papers, 1882-1937, consist of materials relating to his career as a civil engineer, working first as a consultant in private practice, and later as City Engineer of San Francisco. The collection contains primary and secondary source materials both created and collected by O'Shaughnessy in the course of planning, conducting, and overseeing a large range of engineering projects, and later kept as part of his own private files. His writings include typescripts and published versions of many speeches, articles, and books by O'Shaughnessy—both in his role as City Engineer, and as a consulting engineer who was active at the national and local level in professional organizations and societies.
    [Show full text]
  • Wilderness and the American Mind John Muir: Publicizer 125 Plemented Rather Than Conflicted with Worship
    John Muir: Publicizer 123 CHAPTER 8 not do so, however, without overcoming several formidable ob- stacles. One was a father whose Calvinistic conception of Christian- ity brooked no religion of nature. Scripture, postulated Daniel John Muir: Publicizer Muir, was the only source of God's truth, and young John was obliged to commit the entire New Testament and most of the Old to memory. The Muir children were also schooled in the ethics of hard work. Only slackers or sinners approached nature without You know that I have not lagged behind in the work of exploring axe or plough.' our grand wildernesses, and in calling everybody to come and en- In 1849, during John's eleventh year, his family left Scotland for joy the thousand blessings they have to offer. a homestead on the central Wisconsin frontier. Indians lingered in John Muir, 1895 the region, and the conquest of the forest was an economic neces- sity. As the eldest son, John bore many of the burdens of pioneer- ALTHOUGHthe creation of Yellowstone National Park and the ing. Back-breaking days of toil gave him ample reason to hate the Adirondack Forest Preserve marked a weakening of traditional wilderness, but Muir was not the typical frontiersman. The thrill American assumptions about uninhabited land, in each case wil- of being in what he later called "that glorious Wisconsin wilder- derness preservation was almost accidental and certainly not the nessW5never abated. And instead of lauding civilization, Muir result of a national movement. Wild country needed a champion, expressed displeasure at its cruel, repressive, and utilitarian ten- and in a self-styled "poetico-trampo-geologist-bot.
    [Show full text]