Resiliency Inquiry Activity 2 Do Something for Wildness

Resource Card B Background Information on the Photograph on Glacier Point

This photograph was taken at Glacier Point in Yosemite Valley, California, in 1906, after the area was declared a national park. The two men pictured are John Muir, a famous conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club, and Teddy Roosevelt, the U.S. president at the time.

The following excerpt, from a book about John Muir's public service, explains the historical background to the photograph:

"In May 1903, Roosevelt came to Yosemite to have Muir show him the valley and its forests. They camped one night under the big Trees; they rode horses high above the Yosemite floor and camped out two more nights. From Glacier Point Muir pointed out the great peaks and valleys to Roosevelt and told him how important these forests and water resources were to all the people. Muir told Roosevelt about "the timber thieves, and the destructive work of the lumbermen, and other spoilers of the forests." Muir convinced Roosevelt that vigorous action was necessary if these natural resources all over America were to be saved for all the people.

Roosevelt described this trip with Muir in glowing terms: "Lying out at night under those giant sequoias was like lying in a temple built by no hand of man, a temple grander than any human architect could by any possibility build, and I hope for the preservation of the groves of giant trees simply because it would be a shame to our civilization to let them disappear. They are monuments in themselves."

Not all of the Yosemite country was in the national park that had been created in 1890. The State of California still owned Yosemite Valley itself. In 1904 Muir helped a campaign get under way to have California cede back to the United States this important land that Congress had granted California in 1864. After a great struggle, the bill was passed by the California legislature. But the question remained whether Congress would accept the gift. Lumber interests moved into Washington, D.C., saying they wanted the sugar pine trees for cutting. Other private interests wanted part of the land for water reservoirs, grazing, and other purposes. Muir and the Sierra Club worked hard to get the bill through Congress. At last they succeeded, and in 1906 Yosemite Valley became part of the national park."

[Excerpted from Muir of the Mountains, by William O. Douglas. Abridged edition. 1994. Copyrighted by Sierra Club Books, San Francisco. Reprinted by permission of Sierra Club Books.]