John Muir is a well known environmental activist who fought for the conservation of the U.S. Forests. He did a lot of his activism through writing. He was a well known author. He is known as “The Father of National Parks” because of how influential his writing about nature was. His actions led to the opening of multiple national parks. 

John Muir was born on April 21, 1838 in Dunbar, a Scottish city.At age 11, he and his parents emigrated to Wisconsin. Even though he had no formal schooling, he got accepted to University of Wisconsin. He studied Botany and and geology but was never got his degree.  

In his twenties, Muir began to work odd jobs. While working at a factory he had a life changing eye accident where a sharp tool went straight through his eye. This caused him to look at the world differently. He decided to quit his job and explore the wilderness. Muir walked 1000 miles from Indiana to Florida to explore his love for nature. From Florida, Muir took a ship to California where he found Yosemite Park. He fell in love with it and studied its geological and botanical structures. He wrote poetry about it and it got extremely popular. His first Printed Essay ended up in the New York Tribune. He wrote essays that pushed for Yosemite to become a national park which it did in 1890. Other National Parks he helped bring about are the, Grand Canyon, Kings Canyon, Petrified Forest, and Mt. Rainier National Parks. 

Also, in 1892 John Muir started the Sierra Club, an environmentalist organization with over 3.8 million members worldwide today. He had a famous three day camping trip with the President, Theodore Roosevelt and helped change some of his environmental policies. Muir also traveled to the Amazon at 73 years old to study its fauna. 

Muir died on December 24th, 1914 and left behind two children. He also left behind an extensive environmentalist legacy. He wrote over 300 articles and 12 books about his love for nature and how it needs to be preserved for future generations.