“Watching the daybreak and sunrise. The pale rose and purple sky changing softly to daffodil yellow and white… Everything awakening alert and joyful.” —John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
On July 19, 1869, naturalist John Muir captured the breathtaking dawn in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. His words from My First Summer in the Sierra, drawn from journals and sketches, reveal why Muir became one of America’s most influential voices for wilderness preservation.
Muir’s vivid writing helped ignite a nationwide conservation movement. President Theodore Roosevelt’s groundbreaking environmental policies were shaped by Muir’s vision and passionate advocacy. Born in Scotland and raised in Wisconsin, Muir initially trained as a mechanical inventor. However, after an industrial accident nearly blinded him in 1867, he turned wholeheartedly to studying and protecting the natural world.
Muir’s articles and books inspired public support for creating Yosemite National Park in 1890 and expanding it in 1906. As a scientist, he contributed significantly to botany and geology, and Alaska’s Muir Glacier honors his name. In 1892, he co-founded the Sierra Club, becoming its first president and setting the organization on a path of steadfast environmental advocacy that continues today.
Muir’s writing remains a source of wonder and inspiration for nature lovers and conservationists alike. Want to explore his works—or learn more about other naturalists? Your library is the perfect place to start! Check out books or digital resources through the Wisconsin Digital Collection.
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“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” —John Muir
Image: Albert Bierstadt, Sunrise in the Sierras, ca. 1872, oil on paper mounted on paperboard, 13 1/2 x 18 7/8 in. (34.3 x 47.9 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orrin Wickersham June, 1967.136.8