Letter from John Muir to Sarah [Muir Galloway] Anna [Annie L. Muir], 1899 May.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1899
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; correspondence; letters; Kodiak; Yakutat; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/2406; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/muir-correspondence/article/3405/viewcontent/muir10_0817_let.pdf

[Rough draft of letter][May. '99 ]Dear Sarah & Anna:Goodbye. I'm off tomorrow for Alaska with a large scientific party. I was in the thick of my writing and would not have gone, however tempting the company and auspices had [it] not been that we are to visit the very part of the Coast I have not yet seen, least easy of access, that I have long been wanting to visit - namely from Yakutat to Cook Inlet and Kodiak. I had to go some time anyhow.We go on a special steamer. All expenses are paid by a wealthy New York business man - Mr. Harriman. Only part of the company I know -John Burroughs, Miss Kuhn, Cap. Dale, and Prof. Brewer. We leave Seattle May 30, and return in about 2 mos. I have just sent an article to the Atlantic on Yo[semite] Park. I'm tired writing and need a rest anyhow. I'm glad to hear you are well through Maggie's letter [which] I've just read.[John Muir]02588 To Walter Hives Page[Walter H. Page][Martinez, California,May, 1899]My dear Page;I send The article on Yosemite Park to-day by registered mail. It is short, but perhaps long enough for this sort of stuff. I have(3}other articles on camping in the park, and on the trees and shrubs, gardens, etc., and on Sequoia park blocked out and more than half written. I wanted to complete these and get the book out together and off my hands this summer, and now that I have all the material well in hand and on the move I hate to leave it.I start tomorrow on a two months' trip with Harriman's Alaska Expedition. John Burroughs and Prof[W.H.] Brewer and a whole lot of good naturalists are going. But I would not have gone, however tempting, were it not to visit the only part of the coast I have not seen and one of the scenes that I would have to visit some time anyhow. This has been a barren year, and I am all the less willing to go, though the auspices are so good. I lost half the winter in a confounded fight with sheep and cattlemen and politicians on behalf of the forests. During the other half I was benumbed and interrupted by sickness in the family, ...