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Sarah Frey John Muir

**Background Information on the Reformer- context, biases, and motives: ** John Muir was born in Dunbar, Scotland and moved to a Wisconsin farm with his family in 1849. Muir’s father was a Presbyterian minister that was very strict and required Muir to memorize the Bible. At the University of Wisconsin, Muir studied botany and geology and had an interested for inventions. Because of a factory accident, Muir chose to walk from Indiana to Florida and created botanical sketches. Following the first walking journey, he sailed to California and walked from San Francisco to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In 1869, Muir landed a job to build a sawmill in the Yosemite Valley. In his free time, Muir liked to explore Yosemite, which later helped him develop a scientific theory that glaciers were the main reason the valleys existed. A spiritual omen of nature gave Muir the belief that mankind is one of many things that are connected to the natural world, and that God is exposed throughout nature.

The problem John Muir perceived was that certain natural wonders needed federal protection from industrial development. In 1873, Muir moved to Oakland to write articles for prominent magazines that later made him nationally notorious. Muir later travelled to Glacier Bay and Mount Rainier in the fall of 1874 due to an epiphany of protecting the wilderness that needed his presence and returned to San Francisco. These two places would later become national parks because of the writings that Muir wrote. The Sierra Club was founded by Muir and he was the first president to be in charge of a grove of redwoods north of San Francisco that is named in his regard. In 1916, three years after Muir died, American conservation groups urged for the conception of the National Parks Service and for higher levels of protection for all national parks in which Muir would have wanted.
 * Problem to be resolved by the reformer: **

Muir became a statesman of the American conservation movement and promoted a national park system. Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson worked together and created a Yosemite National Park that Congress passed in 1890. The protection of the Petrified Forrest and the Grand Canyon were won over by Muir. Muir was the public representative of the mountainous areas of the country around the Yosemite Valley including General Grant and Sequoia national parks. In 1903, Muir invited President Theodore Roosevelt on a three night camping trip to present Yosemite’s natural beauty. Muir persuaded Roosevelt that Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove should be under federal protection. Muir’s legacy is to be known as the father of the American national parks system, which is now spread to be a worldwide conservation movement.
 * Solution by reformer: **

 "The National Parks: America's Best Idea: People - John Muir | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. Perrottet, Tony. "John Muir's Yosemite | People & Places | Smithsonian Magazine." History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places | Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Magazine, July 2008. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. **" **
 * Bibliography ** "Environmental History Timeline: 1890-1920." Environmental History Timeline. Environmental History Timeline. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.