SC-L25 Protector of the Wilderness

Protector of the Wilderness by Mia Lewis

Even as a small boy, John Muir loved being out in nature. He worked hard on his father’s farm. He had very little free time, but he spent as much of it as he could exploring the natural world.

John Muir didn’t have much formal education. Most of what he knew he taught himself. He woke up very early every day to read on his own before work began. Muir was also an inventor. One of his inventions was an alarm clock that tipped him out of bed!

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Later, Muir went to a university for a few years. Soon he left it, saying he preferred the “University of the Wilderness.” He hiked to Canada, where he worked in a broom factory. He returned to the United States after the factory burned down.

Muir was working in Indiana when he injured his eye. For one scary month, he could not see, but his injury changed his life. He decided to travel and spend as much time outside as possible. He set out on a 1,000-mile trek to the Gulf of Mexico.

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Muir spent much of the next forty years hiking around. In one expedition after another, he explored wild places. He found some mountains that he loved out West. In this mountain range was Muir's favorite place of all, Yosemite Valley.

Muir spent a lot of time at Yosemite. He got to know all about the valley's geology and ecology. He soon became a guide there. People came from all across the country for tours.

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Muir was more than just a tour guide for Yosemite. He also worked to protect the area. He wanted it to stay wild. He was happy when Congress created Yosemite National Park. No one would be allowed to develop the land.

Yosemite wasn't Muir's only concern. He founded the Sierra Club to save all wild places. The club worked to protect natural areas. It is still going strong!

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After he married, Muir moved to a farm and had two children. He was not happy staying in one place. He soon **resumed** his travels and his writing.

In all, Muir wrote ten books and three hundred magazine articles. The articles came out in all the major magazines of the day. This meant that his words reached a large group of people. They paid attention to what he had to say.

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Some people value land for the ways they can make money from it. Muir said that untouched land was valuable. He thought that unspoiled wilderness is the greatest treasure of all.

Muir’s ideas changed the way people thought. They even changed how the President of the United States thought. President Theodore Roosevelt spent three days camping with Muir. He listened to Muir’s ideas, and later he set aside land for national parks, forests, and monuments.

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John Muir changed our country. He worked to save Yosemite and many other wild areas. The goals he fought for were **fulfilled** when Congress created the National Park Service. That was just two years after Muir died. Today, everyone can visit the National Parks.

Muir fought his whole life to protect the environment. What if John Muir were alive today? He would be a very busy man!

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Early American Explorers

In the early 1800s, explorers traveled long distances on foot. Back then, a **trek** could go on for hundreds of miles. The explorers walked and walked.

An **expedition** could last for months or even years. The goal might be to explore a new area or to find better routes between places.

Crossing a mountain **range** was a challenge. The explorers could not walk around a group of mountains. Often they relied on local people to show them the best ways across the mountains.

Many trips stopped during the winter. It was difficult to travel in the snow. The trips **resumed** in spring, when the weather improved.

Often the explorers **fulfilled** their goals and found what they expected. Even if they didn’t, their efforts weren’t wasted. Every new piece of information about the land was useful.

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