"Nothing Dollarable Is Safe"
-
This wisdom and warning courtesy of John Muir (via my sister Sally).
Below: El Capitan in Yosemite, which businessmen wanted to to blast for its granite until it was put under the protection of the National Park Service.
This wisdom and warning courtesy of John Muir (via my sister Sally).
Below: El Capitan in Yosemite, which businessmen wanted to to blast for its granite until it was put under the protection of the National Park Service.
posted by Anonymous at
12:17 PM
4 Comments:
yars. g and i began watching the second part last night (we missed the first and will have to catch it on reruns), and i was specifically struck by that same quotation.
pax and yay for greenery,
dj
Great series so far! Here is my summation of Part I for you ladies:
-- John Muir was the original lonely nature freak. He met a stranger once in Yosemite who asked what he was doing there. When JM replied, "I came from the north to look at the trees," the stranger replied, "Oh, then you must be John Muir." He seems to have spent a handful of years exploring the California wilderness, followed by a handful of years writing articles urging people to preserve said wilderness, followed by more years of recording his explorations, etc.
-- Best of all, the U.S. government made Yellowstone the first national park only because Wyoming was not yet a state; otherwise it would've been a state park.
-- Even though they made Yellowstone a park, Congress allocated no funds for its preservation or protection. In the late 1800s, a bunch of folks from Montana decided to do some camping in Yellowstone. There's a great quote from one of the women campers about seeing the geysers and feeling as if they were in a wonderland. I try to remember those pioneers' sense of exhilaration when I'm say, leaning over the handrail during the guided tour at Luray Caverns :^)
That's a great story about "you must be John Muir." Kind of a Chris McCandless character (or I guess Chris was a kind of John Muir character).
most excellent summary. danke.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home