Celebrating John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt

Have you been seduced by urban myths, or in this case, mythical urban quotes?

As part of our celebration of John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt this summer season (because we are headed into the John Muir Wilderness soon), we wanted to share with you our new Muir/Roosevelt display at our retreat center (see photo below). We also thought we’d engage in one of our favorite pastimes – shinning light on misconceptions about Nature. As you know, chaparral suffers an especially heavy dose of urban mythology whenever we endeavor to educate the public about our favorite ecosystem.

You may have heard this quote attributed to Muir in context of celebrating the outdoors:

“The mountains are calling and I must go.”

We were going to use this as the title of our note to you, but we first visited our favorite fact-checking site on Muir, maintained by some of the few folks who still respect Muir at the Sierra Club.

Well, as with much about Muir, this line is taken out of context by those who (unintentionally or not) use Muir to accent their own beliefs. In this case, making us think that Muir was just expressing his love for dashing off to the Sierra for a recreational adventure. Think not.

Here is the full quote:

“The mountains are calling and I must go, and I will work on while I can, studying incessantly.”

As the Muir custodians write,

But reading the full quote, Muir actually insisted that going to the mountains was only a first step. As Michael Wurtz points out in “What Muir Really Meant by ‘the Mountains Are Calling‘ in Adventure Journal, August 13, 2018,” the shortened quote doesn’t fully capture John Muir or his desire to understand and protect California’s Yosemite.” The reason to go was to study nature, and just as important, work to protect our wilderness areas. Elsewhere in the letter, Muir revealed that he was spending “the season in prosecuting my researches,” and hoped to make a scientific contribution from his mountain studies, in winter to “work with my pen.” Wurtz points out, “These words reveal a man who saw responsibility and purpose as well as pleasure in the mountains.” This essay by Michael Wurtz was first published as How John Muir’s Incessant Study Saved Yosemite in The Conversation in 2016.

This is yet another reminder to stay curious, value skepticism, and check your sources, even though such behavior can be risky these days. Speaking of which, we will leave you with the full quote of Roosevelt’s on the subject, the quote that’s in our display.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

― Theodore Roosevelt, April 30, 1910

The Muir/Roosevelt Commemorative Display

• photo of Muir’s and Roosevelt’s 1903 visit to Yosemite
• John Muir photo
• 2010 Yosemite America the Beautiful coin
• the California State quarter with Muir and Yosemite on the reverse
• two Roosevelt medals
• the 1964 five cent Muir stamp
• the 2016 Muir/Roosevelt National Parks commemorative coin
• a couple iconic quotes
• photo of the Range of Light – the eastern Sierra Nevada from across Owen’s Lake

Please visit our other post on John Muir: Inspired by John Muir: The Eternal Conflict Between Right and Wrong