John Muir’s Quest to Save the Great Outdoors

HISTORY This Week

The HISTORY® Channel

History, Education, Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

July 19, 1869. Naturalist John Muir watches the sun rise over the Sierra Nevada mountains. He’ll write in his journal of the stirring birds, glowing treetops, and even rocks that “seem to thrill with life.” He’s so taken with this landscape that he’ll decide to stay in the Yosemite Valley and try to protect it with the only weapon he has: the pen. How did Muir collide with the political forces of his day and help bring about National Parks as we know them? And how did he change the way many Americans think about the natural world?

Special thanks to our guest: Dean King, author of Guardians of the Valley: John Muir and the Friendship That Saved Yosemite.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The History Channel, original podcast.
0:05.2	History this week, July 19, 1869.
0:10.8	I'm Sally Helm.
0:14.2	In the Sierra Nevada Mountains,
0:16.3	naturalist John Muir watches the world wake up.
0:22.2	The tree tops begin to glow.
0:25.3	The sun burns the edges of the mountains.
0:29.5	He writes,
0:30.5	everything awakening,
0:32.5	alert and joyful.
0:34.5	The birds begin to stir.
0:36.5	Every pulse beeps high,
0:38.5	every life-cell rejoices.
0:40.5	The very rocks seem to thrill with life.
0:46.5	You can feel something in John Muir waking up too.
0:51.5	He's becoming so taken with this landscape
0:54.5	that he will decide to stay in the Yosemite Valley,
0:58.5	working as a shepherd and living off bread and coffee,
1:01.5	mutton and beans.
1:04.5	And soon, his published descriptions of the valley
1:07.5	will start to change American life by advancing an idea
1:12.5	that is taking shape in a lot of people's minds.
	...

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