Yosemite, Glacier Bay, Mt Rainer, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon. These are but a few of the National Parks that have been made by the congress of the United States government. Specifically, they are all parks visited by the man I am to cover in this article- John Muir. John Muir was a Scottish born, Wisconsin raised naturalist who became a lobbyist for the Yosemite National Park and was a close friend to Teddy Roosevelt, but more than that, he was a visionary.

Born in Dunbar, Scotland and raised in Wisconsin from the age of 6, John was raised by a strict and abusive father who practically beat him over the head with the Bible until he could memorize 3/4 of the Old Testament, and the entire New Testament by heart. He made John work from 4 in the morning until sunset and if John tried to read anything other than his Bible studies, he be beat by his father, but that didn't stop John. He decided that he didn't need sleep and from 1-4, he would read the books he wanted to read. As John grew older, he worked in a factory and it was where his genius started to show, making various inventions to increase productivity, and before long, John seemed to be the next Edison, that is, until an accident caused him temporary blindness. It was then that John's life took a rather different turn, one that would make him one my most favored of all the historic figures.

When Muir opened his eyes again, he did not see a factory or a house with a strict father. He saw grass, flowers, birds, and squirrel. With John's factory accident taking away his eyesight, it also gave him a new lens to look at the world. As soon as John was old enough, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin and it is here where he did something I had never heard of anyone doing- he picked no majors. He received no degree in any field. Rather, he took the classes he was interested in, bought the books that peaked his interest and when he was done, he went on his way, taking all the experiences he had learned from the University. Did I mention that he also made a mechanical desk that would be able to open a book to the exact page at a given time by the way of a candle and wood gears (and this mind you, was in the 1860s)? Oh yes, Muir was a man unlike any other, and he would show that yet again in his walk.

After Muir finished his schooling, he made a decision that would change his life forever. He walked. He didn't walk to the grocery store or to the train station, no. John Muir walked from Wisconsin to Florida, 1000 miles all alone with a satchel of goods with barely any value and the clothes on his back. Tell me, do you know of any famous figure in history who just decided to uproot his home with no one else, not even a carriage or horse to set across the nation to study rain forests? Yep, that is what Muir did. Set on studying the great forests of the Amazon he had read about, Muir tried to get across to South America via Florida taking only the most wild and least trodden paths he could find, however, he contracted Malaria and had to put his plan on hold, and so settled to take a ferry through Panama to California and in 1868 found himself in San Francisco. When the taxi came for him, he asked where Muir wanted to go. Muir replied, "anyplace that is wild"

Soon enough, John found himself in Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa grove of giant Sequoia trees and Muir....was entranced. It was love at first sight and before long, Muir gained a job working in the valley as a sawmill operator. In his spare time, he explored the Sierra, climbing trees and cliffs, going to the very tops of mountains to look at the way the granite shone from the sunlight. For that reason John gave the sierra its famous title, "Range of Light". In the winter time, John once caused an avalanche to slide from the top of Yosemite to the bottom in mere seconds, and during thunderstorms, he climbed trees to feel their power and to experience "what the tree had felt". Muir became an eccentric and even more, he became a pastor, not the kind of pastor that his father was however. Instead of showing the brutal punishing God that his father taught, John saw the beautiful, giving God found in Nature. Yosemite soon became his church and the people who saw Muir soon became his followers.

It was in Yosemite where John Muir found his calling and because of that, it is how the National Parks changed from a haphazard collection of land, to a plan of preservation and education for all. Muir grew in his popularity and was even appointed as the President of the Sierra Club until his death in 1914. He even gained the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903, but his defining moment was when he fought against the City of San Francisco in a battle that was later used to serve as an argument for the creation of National Parks.

Hetch-Hetchy was a valley that lay just north of the famous Yosemite and yet, it was Muir's most favorite spot that was set in the National Park. In fact, Muir purposely made the boundary of Yosemite stretch across the valley to protect it from development when talking with president Roosevelt in 1903. However, the City of San Francisco was looking for a new dam to place for irrigation and for the people of San Francisco to drink from, but Muir protested with all his heart: "Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man."

Muir even wrote to Roosevelt, urging him to spare Hetch-Hetchy. Still, the city pressed on, and renewed their arguments after the famous earthquake and subsequent fires that spurred on in 1906, claiming that the dam would have made it far easier to deal with the fires. The city Mayor, Fanklin K. Lane drove the final nail in the coffin for Hetch-Hetchy when he was appointed the new Interior Secretary and wasted no time at all in pressing the bill to create the dam in Congress. Muir fought with all his heart and dedicated all his effort to stopping the dam as he did any other project to destroy Yosemite, including the chopping down of the sequoia trees and the creation of a ski resort inside the park. The Hetch-Hetchy battle had consumed Muir, causing him to write only 2 of 20 books he planned to write and when he lay on his bed, he went feeling defeated, his life's work torn down in front of him. In 1913, the bill was made and in 1914, construction of the dam started, and to this day, the people of San Francisco drink its water. However, from the creation of the dam rose another argument. Are the Parks safe?

Muir saw the importance in pieces of land that should remain untapped, unharmed in any way and that idea spread like wildfire after the creation of the dam. The Hetch-Hetchy dam was the first dam built inside a National Park and serves as a reminder of what happens when we let development take over in the nation. People started to wonder what could happen to the other parks like Yellowstone or Glacier. Would they suffer the same fate? More than anything, Muir caused a stir in the American people. He did everything he could to teach people the importance of nature and what it can do for not only us physically, but mentally and spiritually. When Hetch-Hetchy was dammed, the people rose up and said no more to this way of thinking and in the years to come, more parks were made and even increased in size. The Great Smokey Mountains, Acadia, Grand Teton, Everglades, Rocky Mountain, and the Grand Canyon. All of these places owe their creation and dedication to Muir, for if he did not stand up for a small valley in California, they would not be protected. The Grand Canyon likely a tourist trap full of casinos and toll roads, the Great Smokey Mountains a vast desert of clear-cut forests, and the Everglades a wasteland with not even one chirp of a plume feathered bird.

We need people like Muir, people who have deep connections for our land, for our homes. John Muir once said, "Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, overcivilized people are finding out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life." Right now, Congress is yet again looking to do what they did in Hetch-Hetchy. They will never stop, not until there is no one to stop them. It is up to the people that go forge connections with their land to show what it means to them, the fathers that take their sons hunting, fishing, and hiking, the climbers who look for another peak to bag, the cavers who search for another entrance that may lead them to another world, and the city-slickers who take a chance by traveling across the nation, exploring their National Parks instead of going on a cruise or a road trip to Vegas. We must remain close to our land, get ourselves and our kids out to a world other than one that is civilized, for the day we stop caring is the day we lose these lands forever, and we will miss them dearly when we are walking through a world without a soul.