John Muir

     A while back I happened upon A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, by John Muir. I enjoyed the book and you will as well if chapter headings like, “Kentucky Forests and Caves”, “Crossing the Cumberland Mountains” and “Through the River Country of Georgia”, are appealing. I quoted from the book in a post back in April about what are now  “Polluted Rivers”. 
    I then went on to quote at length from his equally enjoyable book The Story of My Boyhood and Youth. The more I read by him and about him, the more I realized that there was no need for me to carry on about Muir since there are so many good resources available. But, before leaving him I would like to: 1) offer some suggestions about sources; 2) say something about those who followed in Muir’s footsteps and 3) introduce you to material that relates to the time Muir spent in Canada. 
     Given what is going on politically in the United States, it is useful to read about and remember Muir, who played a major role in developing the parks which are now under attack by an unsympathetic Secretary of the Interior and the POTUS.

Basic Muir Sources:
    Muir was a founder of the Sierra Club and you should begin at their website which presents The John Muir Exhibit. It is a model of what a website should be and has been continually updated since 1994. You can read all of his books there as well as most of what has been written about them and him. If you prefer to hold a book, get the Library of America’s - John Muir: Nature Writings.

Walking the Walk


     If you are not convinced by my meagre remarks about A Thousand-Mile Walk then I will introduce you to some people who were so inspired by the book that they undertook the trip as well. I am sure that some of you have felt like striking out for the territories when a scene such as the one above was briefly spotted along an otherwise industrially blighted I 75. Well, these people decided to re-trace Muir’s footsteps which were, at times, near that route.

     Muir begins his walk with a short train ride in Sept. 1867 from Indianapolis. Reaching Louisville, he 
“steered through the big city by compass without speaking a word to anyone. Beyond the city I found a road running southward, and after passing a scatterment of suburban cabins and cottages I reached the green woods and spread out my pocket map to rough-hew a plan for my journey. My plan was simply to push on in a general southward direction by the wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way I could find, promising the greatest extent of virgin forest.” (p.2)

     He does not go as the crow would and veers east to Savannah and takes a steamship from there to Fernandina and then walks west across Florida to Cedar Key (the one on the northwest coast, not any of the ones heading to Key West.) I don’t think it was quite a 1000 miles, but it was still a long trek through the post-Civil War south. (Readers get their money’s worth, however,  since the concluding chapters take him to Cuba, New York, and back across Panama to California.)
     
      Presented here are some energetic and adventurous people who have followed Muir’s walk, although it should be added, that most didn’t walk and most didn’t make the complete trip. If you are thinking about it I suggest beginning with “John Muir’s Walk Across the Appalachians,” by Dan Styer. Styer closely read Muir and then used historical maps and other sources to chart his route through the Appalachians. His work provides a good example of how one should proceed. The text and pictures from Oberlin are available here. As a bonus, if you type in this phrase on the Internet you can see a portion of the route on google maps: “John Muir’s Walk Across the Appalachians”.

The most recent one was just completed in 2017. With the exception of the first one, these are found on the Sierra Club site.

Retracing John Muir’s: Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf., Chad Gilpin.
“In 1867 the budding naturalist and future father of our national parks, John Muir, embarked on his thousand-mile walk to the Gulf from Jeffersonville, Indiana, to Cedar Key, Florida. Almost 150 years later I undertook the same journey, retracing the wilderness advocate’s footsteps through the South to catalog all that has changed in a century and a half of progress, to try and better understand the inception of his environmental ethics, and to learn to see the world as he did, harmonious, interconnected, rejuvenating and imbued with a pervasive spirituality. The chapters of this thesis retell selected legs of that journey.
Chad Gilpin - work for a Master of Fine Arts and the University of Kentucky.
[The entire work is available through the University of Kentucky.]

Chuck Roe -A Sesquicentennial Account of John Muir's 1,000 Mile Walk 
 “A review of the landscape 150 years after Muir's walk, with a focus on the progress of land conservation and identification of the many publicly-accessible, protected natural areas now located immediately along Muir's route. Roe's intent was to observe and describe the publicly accessible parks, nature preserves, forests and wildlife management areas, and other recreational areas along Muir's walking route through parts of five southern states, in homage and testimony to the success story of land conservation in the southeastern U.S.”
[ This is a very well-done and a useful resource. From the introduction:
“As 2017 is the sesquicentennial year for John Muir’s thousand-mile walk across the southeastern U.S. (1867-68), it is likely that many people will be attempting to trace his path. After largely retiring from a forty-year career as a land and environmental conservation professional in the same region of our country, I've been inspired to retrace the path of Muir’s long walk myself, but with a different focus—that being by telling the story of land conservation along the route of Muir's Southern Trek.”]

James B. Hunt, Restless Fires: Young John Muir's Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf in 1867-68 (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2012). “Provides a detailed rendering of Muir's thousand-mile walk based on both manuscript and published accounts. Hunt particularly examines the development of Muir's environmental thought as a young adult. Includes 14 photographic reproductions of pages from Muir's journal containing Muir's often whimsical drawings; three period photographs; and 1 modern (2011) map of Muir's route. As part of his research for the book, Hunt traveled Muir's route from Louisville, Kentucky, to Cedar Key, Florida beginning on September 1, 2007, discovering major and minor libraries and research institutions all along the route which aided in providing maps, diaries, newspapers, local histories, and other historical material relevant to the social, political, and economic context of Reconstruction of the communities through which Muir passed in 1867. A book jacket summary of this book is available, and an annotation on our Annotated John Muir Bibliography.”[on the Sierra Club website]

Ron "Ramblin" Boone, John Muir's "Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf" "Revisited". 
“This self-published book relates the author's physical re-tracing of Muir's approximate waking route via a mini-camper. Each chapter includes brief excerpts from Muir identifying the various towns he passed through; Boone then elaborates on the history of each geographic area, both before and after Muir's 1867 journey. Includes a line-drawn map, and 14 sketches of various buildings seen along the route. While not really a scholarly work, the endnotes include references to many reference books which elucidate the history of the places Muir visited on his famous walk. (Washington, PA: "Ramblin" Ron Boone, 2006). ISBN No. 0910042969. 87 pp.; Illustrated, Preface, Endnotes, Index. 

Wil and Sarah Reding - Re-Walking Muir's 1,000 Mile Walk (2006) 
“Wil Reding, an interpretive naturalist, has long dreamed of re-walking Muir's 1,000 mile walk. He and his wife Sarah plan to begin re-tracing Muir's steps from Kentucky to Florida in May, 2006.”
[The Redings are a husband/wife team at “Rent a Rambling Naturalist”. They live close by in Kalamazoo and will for a fee share their walking experiences.]

Michael Muir's Horse Journey Re-Tracing Muir's 1,000 Mile Walk (2003) 
“Michael Muir, the great grandson of America's most famous naturalist, John Muir, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 15. He is a passionate believer in what people with disabilities can achieve. He uses Horse Journey to show by example that disability does not mean inability. In 2003, his Horse Journey followed the route taken by John Muir in his first great wilderness adventure, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf.”

Robert Perkins, "Looking for John Muir" - film documentary (1996) 
“The filmmaker here passed up an excellent opportunity to explore what Muir's 1,000 Mile Walk to the Gulf may look like today, but instead provides little more than scenes of driving a sidecar motorcycle down truck-infested highways; visiting motels and hotels; and finding almost nothing of Muir left in the South. Because Perkins travels with a dog, he cannot even visit the one place Muir visited which is now a National Park - Mammoth Cave National Park. The only bright spot in this dismal documentary is the visit to Bonaventure Cemetery, which appears to be as beautiful today as when Muir slept there in October of 1867.”

Dr. D. Bruce Means retraced Muir's 1,000 walk on the same dates as Muir (leaving Louisville Kentucky on September 2), but in 1984 rather than in 1867, using Muir's journals as a guide. He wrote about it on pages 212-214 (chapter 22 - "Okefenokee Alligators") of his book Stalking the Plumed Serpent and Other Adventures in Herpetology (Pineapple Press, Sarasota, Florida, 2008). Means was heartsick to discover that virtually none of Muir's wilderness remained along the route: "The deep, green sea of bossy oaks and virgin hardwood forests described by Muir were gone from Kentucky and Tennessee. 1 couldn't walk up 'the leafy banks of the Hiawassee ... with its surface broken to a thousand sparkling gems' because that 'most impressive mountain river' had long been drowned behind dams. And more than 90 percent of the vast Coastal Plain longleaf pine forest was clearcut and replaced with agriculture and sterile tree farms."
[For an account of this account see: “Retracing Naturalist’s 1867 Trek Across a Very Changed Southeast,” Robert Press, The Christian Science Monitor, Nov.19, 1984.]

John Muir's Longest Walk: John Earl, a Photographer, Traces His Journey to Florida by John Earl, with Excerpts from Muir's A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. (1975)
“Photographs of the route of the thousand-mile walk in March of 1973, starting at Cedar Key and retracing Muir's route backward so as to follow spring north. Earl sought out the few places that remain the way they were when Muir first saw them.”

(Another account is mentioned below. See Good’s, On The Trail of John Muir.)

John Muir in Canada

     I always associated Muir with the West and the Sierras. Prior to taking his 1000 mile walk he spent two years in what is now Ontario. From 1864 to 1866 he walked around southern Ontario and worked in Trout Hollow along the Bighead River near Meaford. He was employed at a mill making rakes and broom handles and clearly was very clever and inventive. Evidence of that is found at the Wisconsin Historical Society - have a look.

     Muir did not offer a specific account of his time in Canada and he probably lost most of his notes in the fire that destroyed the mill. What is known is found in letters he wrote while in Canada and, later, to friends in Canada and from the few local sources noted below. 

   As an aside, we often impute motives from the present as explanations for actions in the past and in that context the subject of ‘draft dodging” is raised by some who have studied Muir. He and his younger brother may have ‘skedaddled’ to Canada and there was a draft at the time. It is clear that both temperamentally and religiously John Muir would not have been ‘gung ho’ about the war that was raging. It was the case, however, that the numbers of both brothers were never called.

Sources Related to Canada



The Canadian Friends of John Muir
     It is odd that this reference found at the top of a list of resources refers to  a group that no longer exists and to a website which is defunct. The “Friends” are listed first, however, since they were clearly dedicated and produced some very useful information. In 2018 the link to the website created by the group formed in 1998 still works and is found here: http://www.johnmuir.org/canada/.

     It offers “A Bit of Background” and additional information about “The Friends of John Muir”. After accomplishing their mission of making people aware of Muir’s Canadian connection, the group disbanded (exactly when is not clear). Useful material about Trout Hollow, the Trout family and Meaford is provided along with these essays about John Muir.

      1)   “John Muir and His Canadian Friends,” Bruce Cox, Dec. 1998. Mr. Cox was a founding member of the CFJM, who taught history and was a high school principal. The accompanying bibliography is very useful and the essay informative.

     2)  “How John Muir Got to Meaford,” by Scott Cameron. No one knows for sure how exactly Muir got to Canada and where he entered. Mr. Cameron discusses the transportation options and routes available at the time.  He suggests Muir could have come from the “Soo” by boat to Collingwood. He is unlikely to have walked around the east coast of Georgian Bay. Muir could have come by train from Toronto to Collingwood and taken a boat from there to Owen Sound and walked to Meaford.

Meaford Museum
 
     The energy and interest created by “The Friends of John Muir” are maintained by the Museum which promotes a “John Muir Day”. For sale one will find: The John Muir Letters to His Meaford Friends, which consists of five letters from Muir to the Trout family.  In late September, 2017 the Museum was involved in a ceremony when new signage was created for the Trout Hollow Trail. 

    Some articles related to this ceremony are provided below since the contacts mentioned within them will be useful.

“Walk a Trail to the Past With John Muir,” Helen Solmes, The Meaford Independent, Sept. 26, 2017. A portion is provided below:
“More than 20 years have passed since the Canadian Friends of John Muir confirmed the location where the great conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club spent two years as a young man – in Trout Hollow, on the shore of the Bighead River, within the Municipality of Meaford….”
“This year, the Trout Hollow Trail that runs parallel to the Bighead River - from Bakeshop Bridge in Meaford south to the 7th Line and back toward Meaford on the opposite side of the river - has been designated an interpretive trail, with signs that identify points of interest along the way and offer historical information on John Muir’s time living and working in Trout Hollow.
     The trail will be officially opened during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, September 30 at 10 a.m. at the Riverside Hall on the 7th Line. Local historian and Muir enthusiast, Robert Burcher, will then lead a hike into the site of the Muir cabin and Trout Sawmill.
     Burcher was a member of the former Canadian Friends of John Muir and the Bighead River Heritage Association and has led several guided tours to the site over the years. He is keen to share his knowledge of Muir based on his personal research retracing Muir’s travels to Canada that led him to Trout Hollow, the Bighead River, and the short two years living there before he began his long journeys on foot throughout the United States. Burcher, like many historians, views Muir’s time in Trout Hollow as the formative years that helped shape Muir’s conservationist views. In later life, Muir founded the Sierra Club that today is recognized as the leading conservation organization worldwide. He is also credited for his work with President Roosevelt in amalgamating the Yellowstone and Yosemite Parks, and for the formation of the American national park system.”

     The following account is provided by the Owen Sound Field Naturalists:

“Nature Club News,” John Dickson,October, 2017
(“A version of this column appeared in the OS Sun Times on Friday October 6, 2017 and in the Owen Sound Hub on Sunday October 8, 2017.”)
“On September 30,Robert Burcher led a tour to the Trout Hollow area of the Bighead River just outside Meaford. OSFN Club member Joe Buchanan reported “We enjoyed a delightful and informative talk and ribbon cutting ceremony held at the Riverside Community Hall followed by a walk-and-talk into Trout Hollow led by local historian (and archeological sleuth) Robert Burcher, all to celebrate the new info-signs locating and describing the mill workings and footsteps of John Muir during his time here. Robert’s enthusiasm is infectious. Although I had walked the area several times, to hear the details while standing in the actual locations was especially refreshing for me. I would also recommend a visit to the Meaford Museum any day as a further source of information re John Muir’s stay in the area.” The OSFN offers our gratitude to the Meaford Museum, and to Ron Knight whose generosity and welcoming hospitality has been key to the success of this historical recognition. Of special note was the opportunity to meet George Trout of Austin, Texas, a direct descendant of the Trout family.”

The Trout Hollow Trail
     See the “Ontario Bluewater Visitor Guide” which includes information about the Trout Hollow Trail & Bighead River Conservation Area.
    The Bighead River Heritage Association offers a map and pictures of the Trout Hollow Trail.
     Another good source is found at the Municipality of Meaford’s website under “Trails”.

The Upper Credit Field Naturalists Club For Nature
     In the newsletter produced by this Club one finds in the August, 2016 issue an unsigned article: “John Muir in our Headwaters Area!” It deals largely (as most Canadian-related accounts do), with Muir’s discovery of the orchid, Calypso borealis (the Hider of the North) in the Holland Marsh. If, like me, you do not usually associate orchids with Ontario, you can learn more (much more) here- Ontario Wildflowers.

Selected Books:
     Most standard biographies contain material about Muir’s travels to Canada. Here are three that specifically discuss the Canadian experience.

     Fox, W. Sherwood. The Bruce Beckons: The Story of Lake Huron’s Great Peninsula.
      Fox was a classicist and former President of the University of Western Ontario (now Western University). Chapter 12 of the book above bears the title “John Muir Was Here”. Here is how it begins:
     “That John Muir, the famous American apostle of conservation, early in his career drew from a prolonged sojourn on the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron a measure of the inspiration that made him what he was, is a bit of history known only to a few. Among the parts of this region in which he fared was the Bruce Peninsula. That fact is enough to entitle him to space in our pages, though he was more familiar with the territory east of Owen Sound. It is an honour to the whole region to have a valid though small claim to a great name, a name that will live as long as the Muir Glacier of Alaska flows and the Yosemite Valley retains unimpaired its imposing nobility and beauty. Of this claim our knowledge has been scant until a friend recently opened the pages of an unpublished manuscript. This, written by one in whose home Muir lived near the Georgian Bay shoreline, tells of a formative stage in Muir’s life about which he himself was strangely silent.” (p. 135.)
      He is using and cites on p.138: William H. Trout, History of the Trout Family. 1910 and  Peter Trout’s handwritten story “What I Know of John Muir”.( p.138)
Fox thinks Muir crossed “form the Michigan “Soo” to the Canadian “Soo” over the St. Mary’s River.” (p.137.) He then says that Muir “crossed the fifteen-mile strait from Manitoulin to the northern tip of the Bruce Peninsula”.... “ It is absurd to think that at time of the year [April] they [he was with his brother, Daniel]  tramped all the way around the east side of the Georgian Bay - a formidable journey of over three hundred miles - to enter the Peninsula from the south”.
     Fox is correct that Muir was “more familiar with the area east of Owen Sound” and he did wander about much of southern Ontario, but not much is known about where he might have been on the Bruce. (Fox’s account is discussed in: “Calypso Trails: Botanizing on the Bruce Peninsula,” Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands.
The Dalhousie Review, Vol. 90, No.1, Spring 2010.)

Gisel, Bonnie G., Nature’s Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir’s Botanical Legacy.
     In this beautiful book see Chapter 2: “Canada and Indianapolis”. Gisel thinks that Muir entered Ontario this way: “Leaving Portage, Wisconsin, Muir traveled by train from Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Detroit and then to Windsor, Ontario. In all probability at Windsor, he boarded the Great Western Railway and traveled east into southern Ontario. By April 1864, he was already wading in swamps, and on May 18 he started out on a “three weeks’ ramble through Simcoe and Grey Counties, walking an estimated distance of about three hundred miles.” (p.44) ( For Londoners, a copy is available in the Taylor Library at Western).

Good, Cherry, On the Trail of John Muir.
     Chapter 3 covers “Canada”. Good thinks that Muir crossed into Canada at Sault Ste. Marie. This is from the publisher:
“In this book, each stage of Muir's life and development is set within the context of the places that were special, magical to him - the Canadian forests, the glaciers of Alaska, Arizona's Grand Canyon, and most important of all, the High Sierra of California, where the John Muir Trail now runs for over two hundred miles from Yosemite Valley to the summit of Mount Whitney. By following the directions and maps included in On the Trail, readers are able to participate in Muir's adventures on both sides of the Atlantic, to feel a part of Muir's world as they too experience the beauty of the wilderness and the need to preserve it.” (For locals, there is a copy in the Brescia University Library).