Authentic Wisconsin.  John Muir


John Muir was born on April 21, 1838 in Scotland but family emigrated to the United States in 1849, starting a farm near Portage, Wisconsin.

John Muir - Naturalist, preservationist, author, founder of The Sierra Club; born April 21, 1838 in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland, Muir's family emigrated to the United States in 1849, starting a farm near Portage, Wisconsin called Fountain Lake Farm. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Muir enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when he was 22 where he took his first botany lesson.

In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. As part of the campaign to make Yosemite a national park, Muir published two landmark articles on wilderness preservation in The Century Magazine, "The Treasures of the Yosemite" and "Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park"; this helped support the push for U.S. Congress to pass a bill in 1890 establishing Yosemite National Park.

In 1892, Muir was one of 182 charter members that founded the Sierra Club and became it's first president.


For more information on John Muir, visit Wikipedia.


You can also visit the Sierra Club's John Muir's Wisconsin Days.


Buy John Muir books at Amazon. (Click on image below to browse.)

           

           

           



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Famous Wisconsinites


John Muir.

John Muir
"John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks." Muir was an early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books describing his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada, have been read by millions.


Muir with Teddy Roosevelt on Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park.

Above: Muir with Teddy Roosevelt on Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. In the background: Upper and lower Yosemite Falls.


Above: Biography of John Muir (part 1 of 2). A short bio produced by the National Parks Service.


Above: Biography of John Muir (part 2 of 2). A short bio produced by the National Parks Service.



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