大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - The famed Scotsman who persuaded the US president to save and protect America鈥檚 wildest open spaces

The famed Scotsman who persuaded the US president to save and protect America鈥檚 wildest open spaces

26 April 2018

Few Scots have made such a long-lasting impression on America as John Muir.

President Roosevelt with John Muir in Yosemite, 1903

Even now, 180 years after his birth, he is remembered as the ‘Father of the National Parks’.

Young John Muir with his family in 1849. He soon dedicated his life in the US to sharing his passion for nature.

Muir became an evangelist for the great outdoors, preaching his message of conservation through his evocative writing; warning against encroaching development and the impact of farming on wild spaces.

All the while he encouraged people to get outside and lose themselves in the wonder and beauty of the natural world.

Muir’s campaigning played a key role in and he lobbied successfully for the creation of further protected parks.

Among those who listened to the Scot was President Roosevelt.

In 1903 Muir escorted him on a three day trip into the wilds of his beloved Yosemite, using the time to convince the politician of the need to preserve the country’s spectacular wide open spaces.

大象传媒 Radio Scotland’s Out of Doors team travelled to America to discover more about John Muir’s life and work. In the guise of Muir, actor Lee Stetson guided presenter Mark Stephen around Yosemite, and described the time Muir witnessed a terrifying and destructive earthquake.

John Muir experiences an earthquake

Actor Lee Stetson portrays naturalist John Muir in Yosemite National Park.

Celebrating the life of John Muir in Yosemite National Park

Mark Stephen and Euan McIlwraith travel to America to learn about the life of John Muir.

Out of Doors

Featuring lambing season in Dumfriesshire, the woman saving swifts in Huntly, and meeting John Muir in America.

Get out of the city

Neil Oliver explains how John Muir evangelised the great outdoors to his city-living fellow Americans.
John Muir and America鈥榮 Wild Places

Simon Watts tells John Muir鈥榮 story through readings from his work and contributions from Mary Colwell, author of John Muir: The Scotsman who saves America鈥榮 Wild Places.
Climbing in Muir鈥榮 footsteps

In the Yosemite valley, Neil Oliver climbs a pitch that John Muir first made without ropes in his hob-nail boots.
Retrace the path of a legendary naturalist across California, a journey that would alter the landscape of conservation around the world.