John Muir Newsletter, May/July 1984

Holt-Atherton Pacific Center \\/ / University of the Pacific for Western Studies \ / Stockton, Calif 95211 VOLUME 4 MAY/JULY 1984 NUMBER 3 EDITORIAL STAFF: RONALD H. UMBAUGH, KIRSTEN E. LEWIS PROJECT UPDATE Remember us? Sorry we have kept you waiting for news, but we have a good excuse: we\u27re swamped! Since May 1 we have: - completed processing all remaining Muir papers scheduled for filming. This means the University of the Pacific collection is completely reorganized and controlled, and the incoming copies in other repositories incorporated into the filming sequence. The preliminary inventory has been replaced by a card system that is indexed by author, title (or recipient if correspondence), date, place of preparation, and subject (if photograph of drawing). Control cards also provide bibliographical information on each document. Users now have a seven-way finding aid to every Muir-generated item located by the Project staff since 1981. The control system will form the basis of the index which will be published by Chadwyck-Healey, Inc. in early 1985 as part of the Guide to the John Muir Papers. - completed filming and publication arrangements. After two years of negotiations with six different firms, we have selected Chadwyck-Healey, Inc. as our micropublisher. This firm, headquarted in London, has an expanding American branch office in Alexandria, Virginia which will coordinate the filming and publish the final product. Two sub-contractors, The Mark Larwood Company of Sacramento, California, and Commercial Microfilms of Bellevue, Washington, will do the actual filming. Larwood has already begun filming Muir journals, and will start on manuscripts by August 1. Commercial Microfilms is scheduled to begin preparing master fiche of all photographs and Muir drawings in August. All work is being done at the subcontractors\u27 labs, with a Muir staff member on hand to assist camera operators with particularly difficult filming sequences. The filming phase of the project, which includes extensive testing to ensure quality control, is expected to take six months. - completed the secondary document search. As expected the elaborate procedures used in effort to locate missing Muir documents had mostly negative results, although we did discover one previously unknown cache of Muir letters in Virginia. Virtually every likely source of documents or information, public or private, has now been contacted at least once. - reached the advanced stages of our legal search. In a previous issue we discussed the question of literary rights and permissions, as well as the impact of the new copyright law. With careful guidance of a copyright attorney, we have taken all reasonable steps to identify and secure permission from heirs or claimants to literary property subject to publication. Much remains to be done, and we are scrambling to wrap up most of the routine clerical work before two of our assistants, Joanne Tashima and Kate MacPherson, leave us in late July. But we are on schedule and looking toward publication early in 1985. Keep your fingers crossed. FROM THE MUIR COLLECTION (Editor\u27s Note: F. Bailey Millard, Hearst journalist and magazine editor for the San Francisco Examiner, prepared this funny sketch -—as Muir himself described it—after interviewing Muir at Millard\u27s Tamalpais home. Probably published about 1905, it was found in an undated envelope in the Muir UOP collection.) Scientist Who Doesn\u27t Come in When It Rains JOHN MUIR is the first free man I ever met, says Morrison Pixley in the Golden Hinde. The rest of us are slaves to our backs and bellies, which is the summing up of all our troubles. Some people live to eat. Some others eat to live. John Muir lives. He can do the Yosemite trip for a dollar. One dollar lawful money of the United States to him in hand paid is sufficient for all his traveling expenses and provisions, including, we will say, a week\u27s stay in the valley. How? Now listen carefully or you will think you have missed something. He takes for the camp outfit, supplies, bedding, blankets, cooking utensils and provisions. One floursack full of bread. With that strapped over his shoulder and his ordinary clothes on he is off for a two weeks \u27 trip. Mind you, now, he has no circular letter of credit, no guns or fishing tackle. He has no overcoat or blankets. He has a tin cup and a package of tea in his pocket. Tea, he admitted, was his worst vice; but he added apologetically that he did not drink it at home—only when on his long trips to glacier\u27s head and mountain peak. When John Muir wants to travel he fills his sack with bread, puts his package of tea and his tin cup in his pocket, puts one foot before the other, then the other before the one, and so on ad infinitum of the trip. Breakfast is always ready when I pull the string, he said, referring to the knot on the mouth of the bread sack. Camp is made by building a fire. The bread is set up in front of the fire to dry the first night. It loses nearly one-third of its weight, he explains, and I save carrying that much water. After that the bread in its sack serves for a pillow, and his staff of life supports him day and night, while he also insures himself that it will not be stolen by the wild animals of the wood. ? Is there no danger to himself unarmed\u27: No, he says, no animal of the woods will touch a sleeping man ; and he knows, for he has lived in the high Sierras for ten years of his life. All the night through he sleeps blanketless on the ground. If he gets cold, he awakens and replenishes the fire. The device for keeping warm is perfectly automatic and is not patented. The way that John Muir got his freedom is a story in itself. As a boy he was a slave ten times more than the rest of us. He had a strict father who thought that leisure was bad for boys, and John was worked good and hard from 4 a.m. until 8 p.m. The other eight hours of the twenty-four he was considerately allowed to sleep. Not ten minutes a year did I have to myself for reading, he said. I wanted more time. I tried to get it by sitting up at night to read and study. That was against the rules, but my father said I could get up as early in the morning as I wished. I took him at his word and got up at 1 o\u27clock. Every morning Muir kept this up. His workshop was under his father\u27s bedroom, and from 1 o\u27clock till breakfast time his busy hammer kept the old gentleman awake. For two weeks the elder man stood it. Then his patience gave out. How long? he asked. John said: You promised that I might get up as early as I wished. That ended it. The honest old Scotchman held to his given word. And young John was a freeman. He was free from the slavery of Morpheus. He soon found that he could shake off all other physical craving. The first thing he did was to make an ingenious clock-work machine which would let the foot of his bed fall and. tip him out on the floor and at the same time strike a light at any time of night. In this hard way, and still keeping up his farm work from 4 a.m. till 8 p.m. he got his education. What terror can life have for such a man? Can he fear the lack of money when a couple of dollars a month will support him? He has no fear of disease, for he goes out and sleeps, sans blanket, by the glacier\u27s side, warmed, only by a fire of pine cones, for weeks at a time to cure a cold. He cannot fear disaster, for his sinewy, elastic legs leap him over the cravasses of the glaciers—blue cracks a thousand feet in depth—and he feels safe as the cricket that leaps on the log. John Muir speaks contemptuously—no, I should not say that, for he is not contemptuous of anything—but I meant that he speaks with humorous deprecation and just a bit of the ever-present pity in his tone of people who have the house habit. \u27 His is the biggest house in the world. He has the sky for a roof, the earth for his floor, a glacier for his refrigerator, a river for the water spigot, the ocean his bathtub, and no rent to pay. He can live like a god on Olympus for a couple of dollars a month. John Muir does not know enough to come in when it rains. He says so himself. Speaking of one day in Alaska when a gale was howling thunder loud, and every foot of the precipitous walls of the valley in which he was camped was a continuous line of torrential Yosemite falls, he said: It was raining too hard for me to want to stay in the camp, so I thought I would go out in the storm. I thought I might learn something. Now go right to the library, join it, if you don\u27t belong, and get John Muir\u27s book, The Mountains of California, and read it. THE JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER The Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies University of the Pacific Stockton, California 95211https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1017/thumbnail.jp

John Muir Newsletter, November/December 1982

Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies University of the Pacific Stockton, Calif 95211 VOLUME 2 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1982 NUMBER 4 EDITORIAL STAFF: RONALD H. LIMBAUGH, KIRSTEN E. LEWIS FUNDING UPDATE Christmas came in November for the John Muir Papers Microform Project. On November 16 we received word from Oakland, California, that the Muir Project had been awarded a $10,000 grant from the L.J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation, a private agency which supports many environmental and educational activities. At the end of the month we received a call from N.H.P.R.C. headquarters in Washington, informing us that the Publications and Records Commission has made a tentative award of$42,000 to the Muir Project for the 1983 fiscal year. At the same time we learned that an additional $10,000 had been earmarked for the Muir Project from funds awarded to the N.H.P.R.C. by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation of Palo Alto, California. This latter money will be used to publish the printed guide to the microform edition. The funding provided by these three agencies will enable us to meet our 1983 budget and will keep us on schedule for project completion by 1984. To those of you who assisted us with letters of recommendation and support, we are truly grateful. PROJECT UPDATE Organization and preparation of control cards for the manuscripts series of the John Muir Papers has been the principal objective of the Project staff this fall. To date, some 7,000 pages of holographs and typescripts have been identified, evaluated, arranged, and numbered. Original order has been retained or restored whenever possible and determinable. In January, Photo historian and consultant, Peter Palmquist of Humboldt State will visit Project headquarters to assist us in developing systems of arrangement and control for the 2,500 photographs in the Muir collection. An invaluable research tool, this series includes works by Taber, Watkins, Reilly, Merriam, and other noted 19th century landscape photographers. In anticipation of our goal to begin filming by 1983, we have undertaken a preliminary test of the reproduction capabilities of some of the least legible of the Muir papers scheduled for the microform publication. These include several field journals Muir carried on his Alaska trips, in which he wrote and sketched in soft pencil. Some pages are nearly obliterated by smudging, but careful conservation and restoration techniques may be able to develop sufficient contrast values to make facsimilie reproductions possible. If not, selective transcription may be necessary to provide readible copy. THE MUIR BOX NOW PART OF THE MUIR COLLECTION AT UOP The last issue described this charming writing case, complete with a brass nameplate that reads J. Muir 1870 . Although we still have not been able to authenticate its original ownership, the most recent owners, Dr. and Mrs. Vernon Carstenson, generously donated it to the Holt-Atherton Center, where it now rests in quiet repose next to the papers that we hope were prepared on it. If you have any clues that can help link this case to The John Muir, please let us hear from you. SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH By 1985 scholars of the world will have unlimited access to the John Muir papers on microfilm. What can we expect to come of new research based on this comprehensive collection that has not been available heretofore in its entirety? While it would be folly to attempt to predict the scope of future Muir scholarship, we might briefly hint at some possible patterns of inquiry. At the personal and family level, opening these papers will enable scholars to probe the full dimensions of this remarkably complex personality. One obvious biographical need is to investigate Muir\u27s literary antecedents, a task made easier by the Holt-Atherton Pacific Center\u27s recent acquisition of over 500 books from Muir\u27s personal library, complete with holograph indeces and notes at the back of most volumes. On a broader level, the Muir papers will be of great assistance in studying the origins and growth of the environmental lobby in the United States. Perhaps most significant, Muir\u27s role as a rebellious intellectual during the crucial transitional years from 1890 to World War I is clearly revealed in these papers. He and other dissenters, by attacking traditional material values, helped lay the groundwork for a major cultural transformation in the 20th century. FROM JOHN MUIR\u27S SCRAPEOOK The heavy snowfall this year reminds us once again that California weather patterns are unpredictable. Contrast this season with the winter of 1888-89, as reported on by John Muir in an article published in the CSan Francisco] Daily Evening Bulletin June 22, 1889: THE SNOW Result of John Muir\u27s Investigations in the Sierra. A Liahter Fall than Known Since the Settlement of the State. What May Be Now Seen in a Trip Through the Mountains-Rivers and Streams Full-The Forests in High Altitudes. John Muir has recently been prosecuting some investigations in the Sierra, and writes as follows from Yosemite concerning the snow in the mountains: The snow on the mountains lies comparatively light this year, lighter perhaps, than ever was known since the settlement of the State. Far back on the higher mountain slopes among the peaks of the summit snow still exists in abundance, deep bossy drifts and sheets, and piled up masses shot down in avalanches upon the glaciers which with the innumerable springs issuing from moraines that have been replenished from snow recently melted are now lavishly supplying the rivers. Everywhere throughout the middle region is heard the happy rush and dance of rejoicing water. But the supply will not last through the dry summer in anything like its present fullness. Many of the shorter tributaries will soon begin to fall, and only those draining the glaciers and the cool northern slopes of the summit peaks will continue to flow on with steady currents to the time of fresh snowfalls at the close of the year. During an excursion that I made a few days ago to the head waters of the Merced and Tuolumne I found, even at a height of from 8,000 to 9,500 feet above the sea, only small local patches of snow, of no great deapth, in the cooler shadows of the rocks and woods, and these are vanishing rapidly, where usually one would find a depth of five or six feet. Excursions into the high Sierra, that in seasons of average snouifall could not be made with animals until some time in July, may now be undertaken without difficulty, the few patches of deep snow still lying on the north slopes of forested ridges being easily passed. The robins are already singing on the glaciers meadows, and the grass is green and the early flowers that have escaped the destructive tramping and biting of the sheep are coming into bloom. The young Paton spruces and pines growing at an elevation of 10,000 feet, usually at this time still bent and buried beneath a massive mantle of snow, are erect in the sunshine and stirring with new life, showing signs of new leaves and cones. ••• IN THE WOODS In the deep woods up to a height of eight thousand feet the snow lies mostly where it falls, until it is thawed and set free to sing its way back to the sea. But on the bleak slopes above the timber line, and the long glacier meadows, and through the lighter forests of the two-leaf pine, there is much wild, fierce drifting during storms when the temperature is low and the snow is dry and dusty. Then the The Snow cont. great pines and firs bending in the darkening blast roar like feeding lions, and ever and anon the deep muffled booming of avalanches are heard as the laden mountains shed off huge masses that gather into deep gullies and side canons and. descend beneath whirling clouds of snow dust to the glaciers and meadows and lake basins in the hollows. Then the shaggy chaparral is buried and the young groves and all the streams of the middle region which then have to flow in long, dark tunnels burrowing beneath the snow like marmots. Magnificent over-curling cornices are formed on the high ridges where the winds sweep free, and under certain conditions of the snow and direction of the wind, long waving banners of snow are displayed at the tops of the peaks along the axis of the range, proclaiming the glorious power and gladness of the storm. And when at length, after days and nights of darkness and roar, the sky is clear again and the winds die away, marvellously beautiful is the scene that the sun looks down upon. The bloom of the meadows of the sky covers all the landscape. Every tree in the broad- spreading zones of the forests, round bossy domes, rugged ridges and rock-piles; meadows, bogs and brown, withered gardens, the dead and the living, all are laden and blooming with the borrowed flowers of the storm-clouds. And when the last storm has fallen and the sun with increasing heat withdraws the crystal snow from the landscape, the lost streams are set free to run in the light, the meadows take on their own proper bloom, the bent groves arise, birds and bears and all the other mountain people come back to their summer homes, and over everlyl height and hollow life and joy refreshed and replenished, proclaim the glorious story of the snow on the mountains. JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies University of the Pacific Stockton, California 95211https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1009/thumbnail.jp

John Muir Newsletter, January/February 1981

JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER JL January-February 1981 An irregular publication of the Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California 95211 Editorial Staff: Ronald H. Limbaugh, Janice D. Magdich WANTED: NEWSLETTER ITEMS. This modest publication is designed to provide a clearinghouse for information and news of interest to Muir scholars and friends. You can help by sending newsworthy items to the editorial staff. Our space is very limited, so make it brief and camera ready if possible. The staff reserves the right to review and edit all material submitted. WANTED: COMMENTATORS AND REVIEWERS. If you are interested in preparing brief book notices and reviews for this newsletter please contact the editorial staff and list your specific interests. Commentators and guest editorials are also solicited. Space limitations prohibit publication of lengthy articles, but short statements (maximum of 300 words) are encouraged. NEWSLETTER LOGO. Do you have an idea for a special Muir logo that might identify the masthead of this newsletter? Send us a description or a sketch, or give us an idea to work on. THE JOHN MUIR PAPERS MICROFORM PROJECT. Launched January 5 collection stage- University of the a fulltime editori libraries and inst Great Britian and with some twenty-f and individuals th tutions and collec holdings for study of Muir\u27s writings garding the locati the Project staff th, Phase One of this projec is well underway. Ms. Janic Pacific graduate in history, al assistant. Over fifty in itutions across the United S France have been distributed ive news releases to various at may hold Muir materials, tors are providing xerox res and possible inclusion in t Anyone with information o on of original Muir material in Stockton. t--the search and e D. Magdich, a has been hired as quiry letters to tates, Canada, thus far along historical agencies Cooperating insti- earch copies of their he microform edition r suggestions re- s should contact -1- / BOOK NOTES. JOHN MUIR: TO YOSEMITE AND BEYOND. WRITINGS FROM THE YEARS 1863 to 1875. Edited by Robert Engberg and Donald Westling (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1980). 171 p.; illus.; bibliography; index. Just released, this brief collection of manuscript fragments, articles, and correspondence contains some previously unpublished material. Designed as a posthumous autobiography, the book is organized to illustrate Muir\u27s process of self-contruction by taking Muir through the struggles of his twenties and thirties. MUIR PHOTOGRAPHS. The Muir Collection at the University of the Pacific contains approximately 2,500 photos. Some are individual and family portraits, but most are Far West landscapes and scenic views taken by Fiske, Lukens, Merriam, Reilly, Watkins, Tabor and many other photographers, both amateur and professional. Although Muir evidently took few if any photos himself, he collected these pictures which are in effect the visual extension of his wilderness studies. Because they tell us something about Muir as well as 19th century landscape photography, they should be included in the Muir microform edition. But should other photos be included? That is the question facing project staff members as we gather Muir materials for filming, and we ask your assistance in developing a photo policy. Many repositories and individuals have indicated they have photos of or about Muir and his work. Should efforts be made to include these in the microform edition? If so, should we draw the line at Muir portraits, or should we attempt to gather related photos (family and friends, contemporary organizations, important sites, other landscapes, etc.)? Your advise and comments on these questions will be appreciated. NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS. This issue comes to you compliments of Bill and Maymle Kimes, who underwrote the initial publication costs. Future issues will depend on available funding. If you wish to be included on the mailing list, please send us a check for $6.00 which will cover costs for paper, printing and postage for a one year\u27s subscription. Complete the form below if you have not already sent us your mailing information. Mail this form and your check to: JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER, Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California 95211, Please enroll me as a subcriber to the JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER. En- closed is a check for$6.00 for a one year\u27s subscription, NAME ADDRESS -2-https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1000/thumbnail.jp

John Muir Newsletter, April/May 1982

Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies VOLUME 2 University of the Pacific Stockton, Calif 95211 APRIL/MAY 1982 NUMBER 2 EDITORIAL STAFF: RONALD H. LIMBAUGH, KIRSTEN E. LEWIS PROJECT UPDATE The project staff has made a major push to complete the preparation of control cards for the Muir correspondence, 1858-1914. The now completed series contains approximately 6,000 items, each having an individual, seven-segment control card. The original copy will be used as the target card when microfilming. The six carbon copies have been filed by author, recipient, place, date, repository, and accession number to assist Muir researchers and provide additional finding aids for individual items. During the summer the staff plans to continue to develop the control system for the remaining Muir series, beginning with manuscripts and concluding with photographs and illustrations. A selected number of clippings and related papers will be placed under control because of their research value. However, most of the remainder of the Muir collection, consisting of minor notes, memorabilia, clippings, and related papers will not be included in the microform project. FUNDING UPDATE Considerable time has alternative funding prosp been submitted to private In the meantime, NHPRC an survival in Washington, b encouraging. The fact tha 1983 budget proposal, whi and archive related grant compromise package can be of funding for the Nation been spent lately by the project staff exploring ects and possibilities. Two grant proposals have foundations, and a third is now being drafted, d the National Archives continue to struggle for ut recently prospects have looked somewhat more t Congress has rejected the Administration\u27s ch would have had a disastrous impact on history projects, leaves open the possibility that a reached which will restore a reasonable level al Archives and its agencies. BOOKNOTES Review by Maymie Kimes Mountain Climber, George B. Bayley, 1840-1894. by Evelyn Hyman Chase. (Palo Alto, California: Pacific Books, Publishers, 1981. 175 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $12.95.) If your interest in John Muir has led you to read Muir\u27s newspaper account of guiding a party of mountaineers through A New Yosemite-The King\u27s River Valley and to the top of Mt. Whitney (1875). You may have been intrigued by the exuberant Mr. Bayley in the party, whose enthusiasm often found expression in explosive war whoops. Your curiosity may have been heightened with Muir\u27s humerous account of Bayley\u27s carrying a small bottle of spirits for healing, sustaining, fortifying uses... a guarding angel in a bottle ever near? Now, you no longer need to be curious about George Bayley, for his grandson\u27s wife, Evelyn Hyman Chase, has written a well-researched, compelling biography of the intrepid mountain climber . Interesting enough, Bayley\u27s first trip to Yosemite was in 1866, two years before Muir\u27s arrival there. The following summer Bayley returned to Yosemite with his bride. During their honeymoon, their mountain-climbing feats must have set an all time record. Thereafter, each summer Bayley returned to climb one more peak, accumulating an impressive list. It is not certain just when Bayley met Muir, but it was inevitable that two such mountain lovers being in Yosemite at the same time would become friends. In the 1875 trip after successfully climbing Mt. Whitney, Muir and his companions went through the pass to Mono Basin and on to Mono Lake. The author gives both Muir\u27s account of thier frightening experience in a windstorm on the Lake, as well as Bayley\u27s later written story. Here then is a rare opportunity to compare Muir\u27s writing of an incident with another well written version of the same experience, and to observe Muir\u27s literary license with details to heighten the drama of the occasion. A fascinating part of this book are the accounts of Bayley\u27s two ascents of Mt. Rainier, both in the company of Pilemon Beecher Van Trump, who was renowned for having been one of the first to reach its summit. When Muir was going to Seattle in 1888 intending to explore the glaciers on this great mountain, it was Bayley who recommended Van Trump as a guide and gave Muir a letter of introduction. After the ascent of Mt. Rainier by Muir\u27s party, Van Trump wrote a detailed, revealing letter to Bayley about the event. Someone has said, To know a man\u27s friends, is to know the man. Mountain Climber does open new vistas of John Muir. SECOND MUIR CONFERENCE The favorable response to our inquiry about a second Muir conference leads us to ask if anyone would be interested in helping on a planning committee and with other arrangements. Please let us hear from you. DID MUIR SAY THIS? We reprint below, in its entirety, the notorious snake interview which first appeared in the San Francisco Examiner July 4, 1889. Muir repudiated this villainous article as soon as it appeared, claiming he had been bamboozled and misquoted by an innocent-looking Examiner reporter . THE SNAKES OF FRESNO John Muir Says They Will Kill Hogs and Eat Rabbits. A RATTLER LIKE A POST Some Queer Experiences of a Geologist in the Rights of the Sierras. John Muir, the noted geologist and. naturalist who discovered the great Muir glacier in Alaska, and traveled for ten years in the Sierras, while pursuing his chosen pursuit, arrived here last night. A reporter found him his room at the Grand, note paper and pencils before him. He said he had just come down from his ranch at Martinez to get a little qui&t, while completing his work on the sixteen volumes of \u27Picturesque California. \u27 THE DEADLY FRESNO RATTLER. \u27The greatest place I know for snakes is in Fresno county, \u27 said he. \u27It\u27s hot there, and that\u27s just what snakes like. They are out in the foothills mainly, and very thick. It is often said that a rattlesnake can\u27t hurt a hog, but this is a mistake. They kill a great many hogs, and sheep and dogs too, in the Fresno hills, and the mountaineers there are very careful how they go about. \u27It makes a good deal of difference how thick a hog\u27s skin is. Probably a little rattlesnake, if it tackled a big swine, wouldn\u27t have much effect on it, but take an averaged sized hog and a medium-sized snake, and the former has no show at all. The hog dies, just the same as a man would. \u27While the rattlesnakes there are probably not as thick as they used to be, they are thick enough yet to make things lively. SMALL GAME BY HUNDREDS. \u27They kill cotton-tail rabbits, squirrels, birds, and such things by the score, and live on them, but the sheep and hogs they simply kill. They don\u27t eat them. They are too big. Some of the rattlesnakes are said to be six and seven feet long, though I never saw any quite so big. \u27An old resident of Fresno tells me he saw a rattlesnake strike a hog in the throat, and the latter died in fifteen or twenty minutes. If the poison gets into them it takes no time at all to kill them. There are many other kinds of snakes there, but not so many as there are rattlers. .. - \u27In the upper end of Yosemite valley there used to be, and there are yet, a great many of the latter. They are usually found in the wild, rocky spots. In the Yosemite, above Mirror lake, they were once very plentiful. LOOKED LIKE A HITCHING-POST. \u27One peculiarity of a rattlesnake is that if he sees you first he will put his head down and quietly steal away. I was once above Mirror lake with a party of ladies and gentlemen, and way off, 150 or 200 yards away, I saw something that looked like a small hitching-post. It stuck some three feet or more up. I said to myself, can this be a hitching- post in the grass? The others throught it was, but I doubted it. As we approached it went down gradually, and finally stole away in the grass. It was a big rattler and had been watching us. THE SNAKE LINE. \u27The snake line is about 8,500 feet. You don\u27t find them in the Sierras above that. The Nevada rattler, as a rule, is a pretty good- natured fellow, unless you attack him. The Nevada snakes look wise and are cunning, and persons are naturally afraid of them. They never try to get away unless they think they are seen. They vary in color from dark to yellow, but are mostly rather dark, with dark mottles or blotches JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies University of the Pacific Stockton, California 95211https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1007/thumbnail.jp

John Muir Newsletter, May/June 1983

Holt-Atherton Pacific Center V-/ / University of the Pacific for Western Studies X Stockton, Calif 95211 VOLUME 3 MAY/JUNE 1983 NUMBER 3 EDITORIAL STAFF: RONALD H. LIMBAUGH, KIRSTEN E. LEWIS FINANCIAL UPDATE Pardon our delay, but this is one case where no news is good news! Congress has approved favorable budget legislation for both NHPRC and NARS, and also has given the green light to a bill separating NARS from the General Services Administration. It remains to be seen what the ultimate outcome of the current budget battle with the White House will be, but unlike earlier Congresses, this Congress seems capable of defending the high road against an Administration backlash. Keep your fingers crossed. Our own budget prognostications hinge not only on the news from Capitol Hill but also from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which recently delayed final action on our $20,000 matching grant proposal until we clarified a few legal and procedural points raised by NEH National Council at their May session. Those questions have been answered—we hope to the Council\u27s satisfaction—and we expect a decision late August. If approved, the new funding should carry the Project through to completion in 1985. PROJECT UPDATE Meanwhile our copyright attorney, after coming to Stockton from Washington, D. C. to get a firsthand impression of the papers, has concluded that the bulk of the incoming correspondence can be published under the fair use doctrine of the new copyright law. This will expedite matters considerably by avoiding an expensive and time-consuming search for literary heirs to some 7,500 letters from nearly 1,500 individuals who wrote to Muir. Most of the photographs in the Muir collection apparently are also open to publication. We are now working to complete the clearance and editing prodedures in order to begin filming by early 1984. SEARCH CONTINUES FOR A PUBLISHER Earlier this year we learned that our prime candidate for micropublisher had sold the business and would take no new contracts. While we explore new publishing possibilities, we have altered our filming plans in order to provide patrons with media options not previously considered. Our revised plan is to generate a master negative on 35mm. microfilm, and from this prepare microfiche as an option to purchasers who may order either film or fiche. State-of-the-art microtechnology allows fiche to be produced from film without any significant loss of resolution, although the cost may be higher and the standard sleeved fiche card is a 48 frame format, rather than the regular 98 frame format generated by a step-and-repeat camera. Despite the higher price, the advantages are both user convenience and higher resolution microfilm for hard-to-read originals such as light contrast journals or badly smudged pencil corrections on draft manuscripts. We think patrons will appreciate having the option of purchasing either film or fiche. What do you think? RECENT MUIR RESEARCH In our last newsletter we published by request a list of individuals who are or have been engaged in research involving the John Muir Papers at the University of the Pacific. Since that list was prepared several other scholars have consulted the Papers. Name Arlen Hansen Wilbur Jacobs Douglas Tedards Institution University of the Pacific University of Calif., Santa Barbara University of the Pacific JM and R. W. Emerson JM and the highlights of environmental history JM and R. W. Emerson JOHN MUIR LIVE ON STAGE Lee Stetson, professional actor and director who has performed over 40 stage, screen and television roles, is now appearing in a new one-man show at Yosemite Valley. Entitled John Muir Live on Stage, the show is a theatrical tour de force by Stetson, who spent two years preparing for the role by following Muir\u27s Yosemite trails and by immersing himself in Muir literature. By popular demand, the show has been extended into early fall, and may be seen every Friday and Saturday night at 8:00 P. M. in the Valley Visitor Center Auditorium. Tickets may be purchased in advance. FROM THE MUIR COLLECTION AT UOP Editor\u27s note: the following article, clipped from the Pasadena Daily Evening Star, August 18, 1894, contains Hiram Alvin Reid\u27s little-known description of Muir\u27s first expedition into the San Gabriel Mountains. Reid\u27s letter apparently was addressed to George Wharton James, who released it for publication. Although we have not seen a copy, the book referred to is presumably H. A. Reid, History of Pasadena... (1895). MUIR\u27S PEAK John Muir\u27s Mountain Climb in Pasadenaland Mount Lowe Echo We have received, the following from Dr. H. A. Reid, Pasadena\u27s painstaking and conscientious historian and gladly give it a place in our columns: DEAR PROFESSOR JAMES: There is acertain peak in the Mount Lowe series of peaks, canyons, etc., which I dubbed Summer-sunrise peak last year, because it bore that relation to the Echo Mountain house. But since studying up the history of Pasadena and her adjunct territory, I find that the famous John Muir climbed to the top of that peak in August or September, 1875, and was, so far as known, the first white man or at least the first American who had ever stood upon its summit. Hence, in my forthcoming history I wish to designate it as Muir\u27s Peak —and I respectfully submit the matter to the Mount Lowe Echo, and ask its concurrence in this name. To show my historic reasons therefore, I send you herewith an extract from MSS. of my history volume now in course of preparation. „ , „ Yours very. truly, H. A. Reid, A. M., M. D. Well, who is John Muir? Why, he is the man who has climbed more mountains, walked more miles,, lain out more nights, and discovered more glaciers than any other man known to history. Glaciers was his hobby. In Harper\u27s Monthly for November, 1875, he gives an account of the \u27Living Glaciers of California, \u27 and says he had discovered no less than sixty-five of them in the Sierra Nevada mountains between latitudes 36 degrees 30 minutes and 39 degrees, his first discovery being in October, 1871. These living glaciers form the head fountains of the San Joaquin, the Tuolumne and the Owens rivers. He was also the first explorer of the great Muir glacier in Alaska, which rightly bears his name. He was the editor of a notable art-work published in 1888, entitled \u27Picturesque California, and the Region West of the Rocky Mountains from Mexico to Alaska. \u27 John Muir was a classmate with Dr. 0. H. Conger in the State University at Madison, Wisconsin, when Dr. Ezra S. Carr of Pasadena held the chair of Natural Sciences in that noble institution, dr. Conger settled in Pasadena in 1874; and in the summer (August) of 1875 John Muir came to visit him and renew old acquaintanceship.\u27 At that time no man had ever gone from Pasadena directly to the top of the mountains, and Muir made the venture alone. Mrs. Conger baked three loaves of bread for him, and gave him half a pound of tea, which he usually steeped by putting a little into a bottle of cold water and laying the bottle on a rock in the warm sunshine. He carried no firearms, as he had conscientious scruples against taking animal life, and hence used no meat food. With provisions and blankets on his shoulder he started, and was gone three days. When he got back he was extremely hungry, and Mrs. Conger writes: \u27He said that in all his mountaineering he had never found any trip so laborious as that, on account of the very thick growth of underbrush; and he had never found a view so fine as that from the top of these mountains. \u27 In another note Mrs. Conger adds this interesting item: \u27He brought me some tiger lily bulbs from the mountains, and I planted them in my yard, where they have blossomed every year since (nineteen years) and I have always called them my John Muir Lilies. He made his trip to the mountains by way of Eaton canyon; and in an article on The Bee Pastures of California, \u27 published in the Century Magazine of July, 1882, he gives some account of this mountain climb. It is the first report on record of any trip or exploration from Pasadena to our immediate mountain summits, and hence I quote a few paragraphs. He took one day in getting from Pasadena to the mouth of Eaton canyon— camped there over night with a native Mexican woodchopper, and in the morning walked up to the falls—then hard climbing commenced. Of this Mr. Muir wn\u27.tes: From the base of the fall I followed the ridge that forms the western rim of the Eaton basin to the summit of one of the principal peaks, which is about five thousand feet above sea level.* Then turning eastward, I crossed the middle of the basin,** forcing a way over its many subordinate ridges and across its eastern rim, having to contend almost everywhere with the floweryest and most impenetrable growth of honey bushes I had ever encountered since first my mountaineering began, etc., etc. H. A. REID. *This is the peak which ascends to a culminating summit from Pine canyon, Rubio canyon and Castle canyon—and forms part of the west wall of Eaton canyon and part of the south wall of Grand Basin. **This is the Grand Basin of the Mount Lowe literature. JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies University of the Pacific Stockton, CA 95211https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1012/thumbnail.jp

John Muir Newsletter, August/October 1984

Holt-Atherton Pacific Center \\/ / University of the Pacific for Western Studies X^ / Stockton, Calif 95211 VOLUME 4 AUGUST/OCTOBER 1984 NUMBER 4 EDITORIAL STAFF: RONALD H. LIMBAUGH, KIRSTEN E. LEWIS PROJECT UPDATE Muir scholars take note: the microform project is rounding third and heading for home. Since the last newsletter we have completed the filming of Series II (journals) and Series IV (illustrative works), and have begun filming Series III (manuscripts). The last series to be filmed, Series I (correspondence), is fully controlled but not yet camera-ready. By November we expect to have all the filming completed and processed. That will leave only the indexing and guide preparation as the last major tasks prior to publication which is scheduled for April 1, 1985. Look for announcements from our micropublisher, Chadwyck-Healey, Inc. of Arlington, Virginia. FUNDING UPDATE Since our last newsletter we have received more good news from one of our major funding agencies, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, which has approved a request for $6996. to carry the project to completion. This brings the amount of direct outside support raised since 1981 to over$120,000. MUIR PAPERS TEMPORARILY CLOSED Because of the microform project most of the original Muir papers at the University of the Pacific are temporarily closed to public access. They will be opened on a series-by-series basis as soon as filming and indexing for each series are completed. In the meantime, scholars needing access to journals or correspondence can obtain partial microfilm copies via interlibrary loan. This restriction does not apply to those portions of the Muir collection not scheduled for filming. Accessable now are published works, scraps, and manuscript materials dated after 1914. All original papers should be reopened for scholarly use by the spring of 1985. A SECOND MUIR CONFERENCE Plans are well advanced for the second Muir Conference at the University of the Pacific, to be held April 12-13, 1985 in conjunction with the 38th Annual California History Institute. The tentative program includes presentations and papers by more than a dozen Muir scholars, including Millie Stanley (Muir in Wisconsin), Bart O\u27Brien (The Muir-Whitney Controversy), Paul Sheats (Muir\u27s Gospel of Glaciers), Peter Palmquist (Muir\u27s Wilderness Photo Collection), Richard Fleck (Muir\u27s Homage to Thoreau), Ron Limbaugh (The Nature of Muir\u27s Religion), Kathleen Wadden (Muir and the Community of Nature), Lisa Mighetto (Muir and Animal Rights), Frank Buske (Muir in Alaska), P. J. Ryan (Muir in the South Pacific), Abe Hoffman (Muir and Mono Lake), Linda Moon Stumpff (The Quotable John Muir), Michael Cohen (The Impact of Muir\u27s Philosophy on the Modern Sierra Club), and Fredrick Turner (The Book I Didn\u27t Write: Prospects for Further Muir Biographies). This will be a banner event, so make sure you have early reservations! CLIPPING FROM THE MUIR COLLECTION Editor\u27s note: Muir disembarked at New York in the spring of 1912, having just returned from a ten-month journey, his last great nature excursion. This interview, published in the New York World March 31 and prompted by an unnamed reporter with a thirst for adventure, reflects the restless state of Muir\u27s psyche both during and after the trip. He hurried from place to place like a man driven by deadlines and desparation. More worrisome still was the bookmaking agony that awaited him back home and that prompted the remarks quoted in the last paragraph below. JOHN MUIR AT 74 BACK FROM QUEST FOR QUEER TREES Veteran California Naturalist Climbed Mountains of South America and Africa. FOUND WHAT HE SOUGHT IN THE TWO CONTINENTS. He Is More Wonderful than Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson Once Said of Him. A man, who is seventy-four years old, took a fancy to a strange tree that exists in the wild mountains of Brazil and went all the way to see it. Then he went to Africa, by way of Europe, to have a look at another tree that he wanted to see. He is John Muir, the California naturalist, who spent the most of his life travelling in strange and remote mountains and forests studying the mysteries of nature. He knows every valley, mountain, rock, stream and tree of California, as a New Yorker knows the places of interest along Broadway. Although he has travelled far and wide, his name can never be dissociated from the Yosemite Valley, over which he is the overseer and guardian. Last May he left California to make a trip to South America and Africa to look at the araucaria and adansonia trees, and he has just reached New York after locating the mountains where those trees exist. You wish me to tell all about my trip? But I can not tell you all. There are so many things and it would take me one year to go through my notebooks, he said, smoothing down his long white whiskers. But you can tell me something particularly interesting and wonderful? asked the reporter. Well, everything was interesting and wonderful. I once saw a picture of the araucaria, and I wanted to see it. All I could learn from books was that it exists somewhere in Brazil. Is is the most wonderful species of tree in existence. It has survived many geological periods. We found its leaves on rock formation. I left New York on Aug. 12, last summer, and went directly to the Amazon River. And. I sailed up the river 1,000 miles to Manoas. The Amazon is the mightiest flood of running water in the world. It is not so long as the Mississippi, but it carries more than twice the quanity of water. And the forest along the Amazon—it is the heaviest and most inpenetrable in the world, the largest piece of wild forest in existence. But the soil in the basin is very fertile, and some time it will be cleared for the benefit of the human race. I made a general observation along the Amazon, and then came down to Rio de Janeiro. I entered the beautiful harbor and saw the beautiful city, but I don\u27t care for cities, and passed through it to the mountains. I travelled almost four hundred miles in the mountains. I found the araucaria in great abundance. Its leaves are about one inch at the base, but the point is so sharp that no animal can climb the tree without injuring itself, and that\u27s why it is called \u27monkey puzzle\u27 by the natives. Then I went to Buenos Ay res, and from there I crossed the Andes by train and went to Chili. At Santiago I made inquiries of botanists as to where I would find the araucaria. I learned that in the southern part of Chili the species exists, but nobody could enlighten me, and I started out with only the information that it is somewhere in southern Chili. I travelled over 500 miles south from Santiago, and I found a forest of the araucaria imblicato. And I saw enough of the araucaria, and I sailed to Europe to take a boat to South Africa. From Cape Town I went through the mountain district of Rhodesia. The general foliage and mountain formations there greatly resemble those of the Yosemite Valley. At Victoria Fall I found adansonia, which is called baobab\u27 and also \u27digitata\u27 because its leaf looks like fingers stretched out. This tree grows sometimes to over thirty feet in diameter and the leaves are like those of a horse chestnut tree. I wanted to see this tree for a long time. Then I went to the East Coast of Africa and to Victoria Nyanza, which feeds the Nile River. The lake is almost three thousand feet above sea level; and although it is right under the equator I saw snow on top of the mountain peaks that surround the lake. And then I came back. As soon as I look over my new book, The Yosemite, \u27 which will be published next month, I go back to California. I have material to write almost a hundred books, but I feel I am wasting my time when I write books. If I keep on writing books I will have no time to climb mountains. This is only my sixth book. I lived five years in the Yosemite Valley— that is, including five winters—but I did note write any book about it before this. THE JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies University of the Pacific Stockton, California 95211https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1018/thumbnail.jp

John Muir Newsletter, May/June 1981

Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies University of the Pacific Stockton, Calif 95211 VOLUME 1 MAY/JUNE 1981 NUMBER 3 EDITORIAL STAFF: RONALD H LIMBAUGH. JANICE D MAGDICH STATUS OF MUIR PROJECT FUNDING After a long, drawn-out struggle to reauthorize funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the latest news from Capitol Hill is encouraging. Although the House version of the reauthorization bill was defeated early in May, on June 2 the Senate version (S. 1050) was approved on the consent calendar and now comes before the House with the backing of the Senate Republican leadership S. 1050 provides for a two-year reauthorization of NHPRC\u27s grant program at an annual level of $3 million. Although this will reduce the Commission budget by 25% from current levels, the reauthorization measure, if approved, should provide sufficient funding to sustain at least most of the on-going grant projects, including the John Muir Papers Microform Project. But the primary objective now is to save NHPRC by securing passage of S. 1050, and by writing the White House to let the Reagan Administration know how important NHPRC is to scholars and students of John Muir and other prominent Americans. The larger the constituent mail the less likelihood for a Congressional or Presidencial defeat, so PLEASE HELP NOW. PROJECT UPDATE In the past two months the project processing of Muir correspondence, changes in series organization and work progressed. All corresponden in chronological order. Daily jou arated from the notebooks and sket has been completely reorganized an lished and precursor works; unpubl and unpublished works; and notes, manuscripts, the staff used the en as the arrangement key for all pub remanining categories were arrange key subject. staff has completed journals and manusc arrangement were ne ce has been integrat rnals have been iden chbooks. The manusc d divided into four ished works; fragmen Because of the diff try number in the Ki lished and precursor d either chronologic the initial ripts. Major cessary as this ed and arranged tified and sep- ripts series subseries: pub- ts of published iculty in dating mes\u27 bibliograph} works. The ally or by MICROFORM PROJECT PLANS; PHASE TWO. On June 1 the Project Staff submitted a grant application to NHPRC for the 1982 fiscal year, which begins October 1. Phase II of the project calls for preparation and publication of the Muir documents on microfiche cards. Microfiche has been selected as the filming medium because of its versatility and growing popularity among libraries and scholarly institutions, because the relative uniformity and content of the Muir Papers make it a feasible means of publication, and because of the advanges it has over microfilm in conducting research and preparing indexes and other finding aids. The Muir Journals will be filmed first, followed by Correspondence, Illustrations, and Manuscripts. Filming should be completed by the end of 1982, with a Guide to the microfiche scheduled to be finished by mid-1983. THE ELUSIVE CALYPSO BOREAL!S COMES TO LIGHT: By Maymie Kimes John Muir, in his List of Published Writings...placed Calypso Borealis, Boston Recorder, 1865, as his first published writing. The fact that no day or month of publication was given has frustrated, and at the same time challenged numerous scholars and Muir fans to devote countless hours to research. Mrs. Jeanne Carr in a letter to Muir dated December 16, 1866, responded with enthusiasm to Muir\u27s writing of his finding Calypso. In later correspondence to Muir, she related that Professor J. D. Butler (University of Wisconsin) during a visit took the Calypso letter without her knowledge and sent it with a letter of his own to the Boston Recorder . Dr. Federic Bade in his research refers to Muir\u27s elusive first newspaper articles as being In a red scrap book with a binder title of \u27Newspaper scrap book.\u27 For years scholars have wondered and repeatedly asked, Where is the newspaper scrapbook? Does it exist? Has it been lost? Rejoice, we need ask no more! Accolades to JMr. John Hanna, who upon the occassion of the John Muir National Conference, November 13-15, 1980, deposited the mysterious newspaper scrap- book, which is in fact two volumes, in the archives of the Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies\u27 Stuart Library. Unfortunately, when the newspaper articles were pasted into the scrap- books, the date of publication of many of the articles including Caylpso were deleted. More good news! Recently, after many long and persistent hours in the Boston Public Library, Muir scholar and author Stephen Fox of Somerville, Maine, wrote: I found that fugitive first article in the Boston Recorder in the issue of December 21, 1866, page 1. Congratulations and scholarly appreciation to Stephen Fox! For The Boston Recorder THE CALYPSO BOREALIS Botanical Enthusiasm From Prof. J. D. Butler A young Wisconsin gatherer of simples seems not a whit behind Thoreau as a scruti- nizer and votary of nature. During the last season but one, he explored the flora CAYLPSO BOREALIS of Canada,—playing the pedestrian from Lake Superior to Niagara, setting out with primroses which come before the sallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty, nor tiring till black frosts hid the last of the flowers. Having thus exhaused his ill-filled purse, he betook himself to the first mechanical toil that fell in his way. All naturalists will love to read what he wrote a friend who had inquired of him concerning that rarest as well as most fantastic and fairy-like of the orchid family—the Calypso borealis, which is, being interpreted, the hider of the north —a name strangely descriptive of its nature. Who of us outsiders can fail to envy him his esoteric raptures in his close communion with virgin nature? as well as to wish with all the heart that ours were such a vision and faculty divine and that for us also culture or genius had added a precious seeing to the eye, transfo-rming every weed to a flower, and transfiguring every flower with seven-fold beauty? But hear the inspired pilgrim. He writes: I did find Calypso—but only once, far in the depths of the very wildest of Canadian dark woods, near those high, cold, moss-covered swamps where most of the peninsular streams of Canada West take their rise. For several days in June I had been forcing my way through woods that seemed to become more and more dense, and among bogs more and more difficult to cross, when, one warm afternoon, after descending a hillside covered with huge half-dead hemlocks, I crossed an ice cold stream, and espied two specimens of Calypso. There, upon an open plat of yellow moss, near an immense rotten log, were these little plants so pure. They were alone. Not a vine was near, nor a blade of grass, nor a bush. Nor were there any birds or insects, for the great blocks of ice lay screened from the summer\u27s sun by deep beds of moss, and chilled the water. They were indeed alone, for the dull ignoble hemlocks were not companions, nor was the nearer abor-vitae, with its root-like pendulous branches decaying confusedly on the wet, cold ground. I never before saw a plant so full of life; so perfectly spiritual, it seemed pure enough for the throne of its Creator. I felt as if I were in the presence of superior beings who loved me and beckoned me to come. I sat down beside them and wept for joy. Could angels in their better land show us a more beautiful plant? How good is our Heavenly Father in granting us such friends as these plant-creatures, filling us wherever we go with pleasure so deep, so pure, so endless. I cannot understand the nature of the curse, Thorns and thistles shall bring forth thee. Is our world indeed the worse for this thisly curse? Are not all plants beautiful? or in some way useful? Would not the world suffer by the banishment of a single weed? The curse must be within ourselves. Give me this keen relish for simple pleasures, and he that will.may monopolize the lust, of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life,—yea, all pomps and marvels of the world. BOOKNOTES Our National Parks. John Muir, with a forward by Richard F. Fleck (Madison: University of Wisconson Press, 1981). 370 p.; illus.; index. Just relesed, this book is a reprint of the original published in 1901 and is a collection of ten essays all of which first appeared as articles in the Atlantic Monthly. Muir\u27s purpose for this book was to entice readers to visit and enjoy their national parks. FOOTNOTES Mr. Michael Link, Director of the Northwoods Audubon Center in Minnesota, is currently at work on a book that will trace the environmental ethics in the Great Lakes from the Indians to the present. Since Muir will play a significant role in this saga he has requested assistance from Newsletter readers who could provide him with some insight into Muir\u27s influence within Wisconsin and his walk to Niagara Falls. Anyone with information which would be of use to Mr. Link should contact him at the following address: Northwoods Audubon Center, Route 1, Sandstone, Minnesota 55072. If you missed the last Newsletter, we would like to remind you that the Summer issue of the Holt-Atherton Pacific Center\u27s quarterly journal, The Pacific Historian, will be devoted almost exclusively to John Muir. Due out in the middle of July, this issue will feature a wealth of material contributed by scholars from around the country at last Fall\u27s conference on the naturalist held here at UOP. JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies University of the Pacific Stockton, California 95211 209-946-2404https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1002/thumbnail.jp

John Muir Newsletter, March 1982 Special Edition

Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies University of the Pacific Stockton, Calif 95211 VOLUME 2 MARCH 1982 NUMBER 2 EDITORIAL STAFF: RONALD H. UMBAUGH, K1RSTEN E. LEWIS SPECIAL EDITION We have just received an urgent request from the Coalition to Save our Documentary Heritage. They need help in their effort to \u27 prevent a devastating budgetary cutback of the National Archives and to prevent termination of the seventeen year old National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the funding agency for the John Muir Microform Project. When the Office of Management and Budget submitted its 19 83 budget, zero funding was allocated for the NHPRC. If this proposal is left unchallenged, the end of many records preservation programs, including the John Muir Project, appears imminent. However, there is a glimmer of hope despite the seemingly dark future: should the Senate not act on appropriations bill H. R. 4121— which at this time it appears likely it will not— then the appropriations committee will make adjustments prior to passing another continuing resolution. This step allows concerned citizens, such as yourself, to influence the new continuing resolution. If change in the continuing resolution is impossible, several Congressmen have expressed interest in a supplemental NARS/NHPRC appropriation. In order to keep these possibilities alive we urge you to write your Congressmen and other members of the Committee supporting the reauthorization of the NHPRC grants program for another five years, starting at $4 million in fiscal year 1983, with possible increments each year. An unified effort to awaken Congress to these needs may spell the difference between success and failure. Below is a list of Congressmen who are in a position to influence the Conference Committee. CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE NHPRC: House of Representatives—Appropriations: Edward R. Roybal (D-CA), Chairman; Clarence E. Miller (R-OH), ranking; Joseph p. Addabo (D-NY); Daniel k. Akaka (D-HI); Sidney R. Yates (D-IL); David r. Obey (D-WI); Eldon Rudd (R-AZ); Carroll A. Campbell (R-SC); full committee: Jamie Whitten (D-MS), Chairman; Silvio Conte (R-MA), ranking. House of Representatives--Subcommittee on Gov\u27t Information and Individual Rights: Glenn English (D-OK), Chairman; Thomas Kindness (R-OH), ranking; Ted Weiss (D-NY); John L. Burton (D-CA); John N.https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1006/thumbnail.jp

John Muir Newsletter, January/March 1985

Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies VOLUME 5 University of the Pacific Stockton, Calif 95211 JANUARY/MARCH 1985 NUMBER 1 EDITORIAL STAFF: RONALD H. LIMBAUGH, KIRSTEN E. LEWIS WINDING DOWN THE PROJECT Shortly you will receive a flyer from Chadwyck-Healey, Inc. announcing the availability of the John Muir Papers on microfilm. We had hoped to have the microfilm edition ready by the time of the special John Muir Conference at the University of the Pacific on April 12 and 13. Instead, the flyer will have to serve until the final snags are worked out in filming and indexing. To date, all except the correspondence has been filmed. Two computer typists are working on the data input for the filmed series, but keying the control cards and frame numbers is a slow and laborious process. Our targeted publication date is now July 1. UOP MUIR PAPERS REOPENED FOR SCHOLARLY USE Muir scholars once again have access to all original papers in the Muir collection at the University of the Pacific except for the correspondence series which is still tied up due to the delayed filming schedule. However, a preliminary microfilm copy of most correspondence is available now and can be borrowed on interlibrary loan. To assist in research, the control cards for all Muir papers is also available as an index and guide to the 12,000-item collection. THE FUTURE OF THE JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER This modest publication began in 1980 as a means of keeping Muir scholars abreast of progress in gathering, editing and publishing the Muir papers and correspondence. With that project coming to an end, the fate of the newsletter hangs in the balance. We propose to merge the Muir newsletter with the revived Holt-Atherton Center newsletter which will begin this fall. It will have an expanded audience and will highlight news and information on activities of the Center. Because the Muir papers are a major component of the Holt-Atherton collections, naturally John Muir will continue to have his day in future Holt-Atherton newsletters. We would appreciate any comments or suggestions on this proposed merger. The alternative would be to continue a special Muir newsletter, but the current editorial staff will no longer be available once the microform project concludes. Do we have any volunteers? A LETTER FROM CANADA TO CALIFORNIA MUIR FANS It is now 116 years since John Muir spent his First Summer in the Sierra. The year 1984 was the 70th Anniversary of his death, and 1988 will be the 150th Anniversary of his birth. Is it not proper then, to consider commemorating these landmarks to remind ourselves of his accomplishments and continuing influence on our lives and times? Should we not perhaps reconsider our stewardship of some of the places he especially loved and which so influenced his life and writing as well as his later conservation accomplishments? I propose a plan to stimulate interest in the history of present land use of natural sites along the route he described so vividly in his treck with Don Delaney\u27s sheep and Carlo, his St. Bernard companion in 1869. Would it not be interesting to trace his wanderings from the San Joaquin Valley and Twenty Hill Hollow, up past the oak-woodland and chaparral of the Coulterville region, through the pine and oak forests of the North Fork of the Merced River, with its saxifrage borders and alders, to Brown\u27s Flat in the ponderosa pine belt, and on through the great sugar pine, white fir and giant Sequoia woods to the sub-alpine forests, and the shining granite domes and crags above Tuolumne Meadows? In re-reading Muir\u27s My First Summer in the Sierra, as well as the condensed version in The Gentle Wilderness, with its beautiful photographs by Richard Kaufmann, I became interested in trying to locate Brown\u27s Flat on present day maps of the region. Inquires I made in other quarters having failed to locate the elusive Brown\u27s Flat officially, I corresponded with Muir\u27s bibliographer, William Kimes of Mariposa, California, and he kindly referred me to Marilyn Borges of Turlock, California. She was able to confirm that the McCauley Ranch is the place known as Brown\u27s Flat in Muir\u27s time. The site is located on Stanislaus National Forest maps at Section 221, Township 2 South, Range 18 East, Mt. Diablo Meridian. For various reasons, some people may not want attention drawn to this area, but it seems to me that the Sierra Club, the Yosemite Natural History Association, or some other group might well initiate a project to delineate on a map and perhaps on the ground by historical markers, or even ultimately by a trail or bicycle parkway at least some of the route Muir took in 1869 into his Range of Light. With the recent resurgence of interest in Muir\u27s life and his lasting influence on the development of conservation ideas and the so-called environmental movement of recent times, it would seem timely to consider such a project. From this distance, I am not in a position to promote such a concept, but perhaps the thought may appeal to Muir fans of central California who are more in a position to take appropriate action. If Muir truly is the greatest figure in California history his 1869 trek surely deserves commemoration. Philip G. Haddock 4620 West 2nd Avenue Vancouver, B.C. V6R—1L1 CLIPPING FROM THE MUIR COLLECTION (Editor\u27s note: Muir\u27s ability to mesmerize a mixed audience is underscored in this undated and unmarked clipping found in the UOP Muir family collection. It probably appeared in a Pasadena paper about 1895.) AN EVENING WITH MUIR The Great Geologist Receives at The Home of His Friend Never has writer gone to a happier task than that of reporting the reception Wednesday evening to the great geologist, Professor John Muir, at the home of his friend, our good citizen, ex-Mayor T.P. Lukens. Messrs. Muir and Lukens are warm personal friends, owing, probably, primarily to the common sentiment of a love of nature and secondarily to long association in the mountains where Mayor Lukens spends about one quarter of his time and Mr. Muir all of his. So Mr. Muir being down here, content to rest his pinions for a brief period at an altitude of something less than ten thousand feet above the sea, and camp on ground that is neither glacier nor moraine - so far as we know, he was of course Mr. Lukens \u27 guest and nothing more natural to the generous nature of the latter than that he should divide with his friends the pleasure of meeting him. So to the beautiful home of the ex-mayor, corner Marengo and Walnut, trooped Wednesday night, not all of his friends, for no house is big enough for that, but such number as his modest home would shelter, and there they found an eve- nings\u27s pleasure never surpassed and rarely equalled in the lives of any. For there was the man most famous in the world of all in his line of thought and action, whose intimacy with nature has made him a household word wherever she is loved, and so intimately identified with her grandest expressions that his name belongs inseparably to them. He is a plain pleasant man of over average height, full beard and kindly face, of Scotch birth and look, and withal that modest, almost bashful manner that characterizes him who is so thoroughly a scholar as to be indifferent to everything else. To him then was presented each in turn in the hospitable parlors of Mr. and Mrs. Lukens, and when all had been comfortably seated Mr .---Lukens announced fault for the best expression did their charming entertainer go on with his story of his mispress \u27 charms, with whom he was thoroughly in love, and in a few minutes the party were surprised to hear the clock strike ten. Then they realized that they had been in the presence of a magician, and that he had lulled them to sleep while he told them the story of the world. The birth of glaciers and the erosion of continents, the chimes of icebergs and the artillery of the sea - all flowed so beautifully from the master\u27s lips that the bashful man became an orator and the awkward pedant the most charming poet. To attempt to brief Mr. Muir\u27s remarks would be to do them an injustice, for nothing short of his own beaufiful style and charming manner should be known With the lesson, and besides the effort would be too great for any space that could be devoted to it. He has written many magazine articles, at the urgent solicitation of publishers - for, as he himself explains, he is too busy to write, and to these the reader is referred for whatever he may have found time to put in print on the subject. At the conclusion of his remarks refreshments were served, and then Mr. Lukens invited upstairs all who had not already seen them to view his collection of curiosities, and many were suprised to find there one of the finest private museums they had ever seen. Indian baskets and other articles in lavish profusion, skins, rugs, geological specimans, etc,-, all are there in a plenty and variety that is the result of years of patient collection, world wide travel and the most unstinted expense. To Mr. Lukens\u27 thought fulness his friends are indebted for one of the richest treats of their lives, and to the kindly hospitality of Mrs. Lukens and her daughter, Mrs. E.E. Jones, are due a charming evening\u27s sociability that will never be forgotten. JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER Holt-Atherton Center for Western Studies University of the Pacific Stockton, CA 95211https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1020/thumbnail.jp