East Lothian Outdoor Guide

7 East Lothian Outdoor Guide His passion for wild places led to a life- long quest to protect them. Muir’s writings have been read by millions and help people understand the importance of wildness. His activism helped to preserve Yosemite Valley in California, create the world’s first national park system and found the environmental organisation the Sierra Club which currently has more than 750,000 members. Today Muir is regarded as “one of the greatest thinkers of America” and “one of Keep close to Nature’s heart... and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. John Muir quoted by Samuel Hall Young in Alaska Days with John Muir (1915) John Muir (1838-1914) was an explorer, mountaineer, conservationist, botanist, geologist and writer of distinction. He developed a passion for wild places growing up in the coastal town of Dunbar, before emigrating to the United States with his family at the age of ten. the patron saints of 20th-century American environmental activity”. Muir understood his mission to be “saving the American soul from total surrender to materialism”. His name is honored by John Muir’s Birthplace Museum, the John Muir Way, John Muir Country Park, the John Muir Trust and public buildings in Scotland as well as countless schools and colleges. In America his name has inspired a number of well known and prominent places of interest including Muir Woods and the John Muir Trail.