Talk:John Muir

Draft Dodger...

Muir certainly accomplished many great things, which are duely mentioned in this article. I think also worth mentioning iss the fact that he fled to Canada during the US Civil War in order to avoid being drafted. --74.195.63.121 (talk) 05:36, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Can you add a source for that? --Wikiwatcher1 (talk) 07:41, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Here's a cite for the opposite: Muir stayed and nursed and ministered to troops billeted in Madison whilst at University and after waited out the draft calls in his home township before finally leaving on 1 Mar 1864. Quotes from “The Heart of John Muir’s World”, Millie Stanley, Wisconsin, 1995. Referring to 1863, Muir wrote: “A draft was being made just when I should have been starting for Ann Arbor, which kept me at home”. And later in Stanley’s words refering to the Spring of '64: ‘Still not drafted into the union army by the Town of Buffalo’ Muir left. 86.167.67.203 (talk) 14:19, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

I don't think the words 'fled' or 'draft dodger' are quite appropriate. Muir was a brave man, but was also a pacifist Christian. As a relatively recent immigrant into the US, he may also have felt that he had no personal stake in the matter. His brother Daniel had gone to Canada in 1863 (to avoid the draft), and in any case John Muir may have planned to go there long before the Civil war started. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:34F0:C300:21C:B3FF:FEC6:12F7 (talk) 23:37, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

According to p. 136 of the "Bruce Beckons", he went to Canada only after he learned his number had not come up. SabaBPC (talk) 18:15, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

Link 68 (about Muir's grandson) is defunct

Not sure how one deals with this in Wiki, just noting it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mssgill (talk • contribs) 23:06, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

@Mssgill: thanks for pointing that out, I fixed it. Luckily the reference had enough detail to find the source. --Animalparty! (talk) 02:22, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Inventor

The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, Chapter VIII The World and The University, "MORE INVENTIONS" Muir invented clocks, barometers, time triggered firestarters, etc. I'm surprised that isn't mentioned in the Wiki page. --Darius07 (talk) 01:26, 22 May 2019 (UTC)Darius07

References

Yes in The Bruce Beckons, at p. 141, there's a description of his many inventions, including an alarm clock, which dumped him out of bed when it was time to wake up. SabaBPC (talk) 18:45, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 25 September 2019

In "External Links" John Muir Papers. Provides an overview of the John Muir Papers and related collections held at the University of the Pacific. The link is broken and redirects to the main page of the Library website. It should go to this URL: https://www.pacific.edu/university-libraries/find/holt-atherton-special-collections/john-muir-papers.html Cheermio (talk) 21:05, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

 Done Thanks! NiciVampireHeart 21:43, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 24 January 2020

I live on John Muir Highway Barren County KY Request that info about his travel to Mammoth Cave and along this road be cited.

https://muirsouthtrek150.weebly.com/ky-part-iv.html 64.130.186.98 (talk) 00:34, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

 Not done. It's not clear what changes you want to make. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 04:38, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 22 June 2020

Change Cedar Keys to Cedar Key. The name is not plural. 216.243.52.49 (talk) 19:31, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

 Done, Cedar Key indeed looks to be the city where Muir arrived (Cedar Keys the island cluster near the mainland). -- S.Hinakawa (talk) 19:45, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 August 2020

Hello,

Please, under the "Occupation" section of the John Muir Wikipedia page, consider adding all of "millworker" "racist" and "eugenicist" to the commma-separated list. Based on my research, Muir did not receive money or in-kind contributions for all of the things that are currently listed in this section (Farmer, inventor, naturalist, philosopher, writer, botanist, zoologist, geologist). In fact, during some of his most "productive" years in Yosemite, Muir was "unmarried, often unemployed, with no prospects for a career, and had "periods of anguish,"" (see WIkipedia page, "John Muir: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir). Please, consider adding these three things I have listed or consider doing the appropriate research to inform and edit what is included under John Muir's "occupation" and therefore how his legacy is defined.

I love John Muir. I have quoted him all of my life. However, I take time to read about all of the things he supported and did in addition so conservation, and it seems most appropriate for his Wikipedia to reflect these things.

Thank you, Luke <email removed> CorbiesVT272 (talk) 04:34, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Please also read WP:OR. I've also removed your email address from your message. @CorbiesVT272. Seagull123 Φ 09:37, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

Connection to Canada and Ontario

I was hoping to connect this page to a page about the Niagara Escarpment and Muir's connection to the Trout's Hollow lands, which are now conserved in his name - all the roads surrounding the property bear his name. I suspect Muir was the very first geologist to suggest the Canadian Shield was once covered in glaciers. Here are some paragraphs I was working on - all but the last paragraph is summarized from The Bruce Beckons by William Sherwood Fox (first publish 1952, re-published 1962, University of Toronto Press):

In his 20s, John Muir travelled to Ontario to collect botanical specimens - or as he described it - to "go away on a glorious botanical and geological excursion", which was to last over 50 years. Muir was typically reticent about this period of his life, possibly to avoid the imputation that he fled to Canada to avoid service in the American Civil War. In fact, Muir only left for Canada after he received word that his name had not been drawn for service.

During his time in Ontario, he experienced one of the two "supreme moments" of his life. One was meeting Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1871. The first was finding a Calypso orchid, blooming alone in a Canadian swamp. That swamp was on the Bruce Peninsula, near Meaford, Ontario, where Muir lived and worked between 1864 and 1866. William Trout employed Muir at his rake factory, where Muir became lifelong friends with William Trout's son, Peter Trout.

Muir worked tirelessly at the Trout Hollow Mill, to improve its manufacturing equipment. He impressed the family greatly by innovating a great many mechanical devices. When he was not working, he felt the pull of the wild and often ventured south to hunt plants and study rocks in the summer months. In the winter months, he compiled his research on botany and geology, and became one of the first naturalists to posit that the Niagara Escarpment had previously been covered in glaciers.

Towards the end of his time in Canada, Muir became a co-venturer with the Trout family, working "with a furious energy" to double factory output, manufacturing 30,000 broom handles by February 1866. Sadly, on March 1, 1866, a fire at the mill destroyed everything but a wagon and some horses. Except for some drawings and specimens he sent home, Muir's collection of plants was lost. Though the loss was to both parties, Muir's friends paid him a sum to begin a new chapter in Indianapolis.

Muir's stomping ground around Trout's Hollow remains a nature reserve today. Surrounded by streets that bear his name, the land has now been acquired by Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy, a charitable land trust, preserving the land as wilderness in perpetuity, forever.

[this transaction to EBC is yet to close in February] — Preceding unsigned comment added by SabaBPC (talk • contribs) 19:01, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

John Muir Trail in Yosemite Valley

John Muir Trail in Yosemite Valley, California

John Muir Trail in Yosemite Valley should be mentioned and illustrated in the article.

Indeed, John Muir Trail is essential part of Muir's legacy.

Added own HD image of John Muir Trail to illustrate Muir's legacy and his love of wild nature.

Enjoy the beauty of John Muir Trail in Yosemite Valley.

With respect to all wikipedia users,

Steveshelokhonov 21:02, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

I removed this image. A picture of some rocks and water does not improve the article. MrOllie (talk) 21:24, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

The landscape "shaped by Native Americans"...how?

Under the heading "Philosophical beliefs: Native Americans", the second sentence of the first paragraph asserts that Muir "...did not recognize that the landscapes he loved had been shaped by Native Americans for millennia." To most readers, "shaping the landscape" would suggest direct human intervention as we know it today (such as through logging or earthmoving). Of course Native peoples did not have the technology to do such things, which raises more questions than it answers. Three sources are cited for this assertion but of the two that are accessible on-line, only one mentions the Native peoples' means of "shaping" "the landscape": by the use of deliberately fires set to remove the growth of understory. This information is likely to shape the opinion of the reader which is, I suspect, the reason it is not explicitly stated, since fires in forests do not seem benign (especially to laypersons who are not familiar with its controlled use). Eliding that fact seems to me to be giving a false impression of benignity and control to the Native peoples' "shaping" of the landscape. But it ought to be explicitly stated, rather than elided. Consequently, I am adding that information to the paragraph.
Bricology (talk) 18:30, 15 December 2024 (UTC)