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| | | JOHN OF THE MOUNTAINS听
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Go to the Listen Again page | | | | | Following in the footsteps of John Muir听 | | | |
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Howard Stableford travels to Yosemite National Park in California to follow in the footsteps of John Muir, virtually unknown in his native Scotland but a national hero in the US, who fought to protect the American wilderness.
| | |  | | | Yosemite National Park's spectacular scenery inspired John Muir听 | |  听Listen again听to the programme | |
John of the Mountains
John Muir (1838-1914) spent his life exploring, writing about and fighting for the great wilderness areas of America - even though he was a Scot. He was born in Dunbar into a fanatically Christian home where he was beaten if he made a mistake reciting the Bible from memory. One evening, when he was 11, his father told him he didn鈥檛 have to study that night because 鈥渨e are going to America in the morning鈥. And so began the trail of adventure, drama and exploration of the New World that led to him being hailed as the founding father of the modern environmentalist movement.
John Muir was a man whose life was nothing short of inspirational. His writings are clear, vibrant and full of prophetic wisdom 鈥 he was one of the first to realise that all species are interconnected and 鈥渉itched together鈥. He developed a deep, spiritual connection with the land as he walked thousands of miles, from Alaska to Florida. He hated the blatant waste and foolishness of man and yearned for people to love and respect the wilderness. As his fame and following grew the Presidnet, 听Theodore Roosevelt, wrote to him in 1903 to ask John to take him to the mountains. During this pivotal time John talked to him about the importance of the wilderness to the human spirit and the nation as a whole. As a result, by the time he left office in 1909 he had added 100,000 acres to the forest reserves, created 6 new National parks and 53 new wildlife refuges.
Following in his footsteps, Howard Stableford travels from John Muir鈥檚 childhood home in Dunbar to Yosemite National Park to discover a man whose spirit never faltered, who led Americans to treasure their land and who is regarded as a national hero. But John Muir had one failure - he could not stop the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite听being dammed. Now environmentalists are hoping to have the dam removed and, as Howard discovers, John Muir鈥檚 words are still inspiring听those campaigners听today.
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