John Muir Newsletter, Winter 1992
John Muir Newsletter winter, 1992 university of the pacific volume 2, number 1 "ON JOHN MUIR: LETTERS FROM ALASKA" by Robert Engberg Bruce Merrell and I have reviewed the articles which John Muir wrote for the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin during the years 1879 and 1880. They sugges...
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| Summary: | John Muir Newsletter winter, 1992 university of the pacific volume 2, number 1 "ON JOHN MUIR: LETTERS FROM ALASKA" by Robert Engberg Bruce Merrell and I have reviewed the articles which John Muir wrote for the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin during the years 1879 and 1880. They suggest that it was during his visits to still-wild Alaska that Muir first learned that he could shape public opinion. Only three years before his Alaska travels he had attempted to influence the California legislature to stop clear-cut logging in the higher Sierra Nevada ranges. The politicians ignored him, and Muir's political voice fell silent. We think that it was awakened again by his Alaska experiences. It was not until these Alaska trips of 1879-1880 that Muir sought to protect the wilderness that he loved. His impulse to lead a solitary life, without community service, faded away in the uncultivated Alaskan landscape. His Alaska experiences shaped his life thereafter, pushing him to enter the burdensome business of community leadership, public debate, and advocacy. Muir moved from poetry to politics during these years. Michael Cohen and Frederick Turner, among others, have admirably told of this transition, but we think that the Alaska influence was more than these writers have recognized. Most Muir biographers have always observed his life to be singularly "American," writing that his individuality could not have developed without the fact of the great, natural landscape of the American west. After our reading of the Bulletin letters, we would add the specific importance of the Alaskan west. We think essential developments occurred in Muir's life during these first two trips to Alaska. Primarily, he gained a new awareness and appreciation for Native-. American cultures, and an understanding of his own role as wilderness spokesperson. Earlier, the Miwok "digger" Indians whom he met while in Yosemite disappointed him, and he carried his prejudices north with him in 1879. Within the next few months, the Bulletin letters which he sent south show that he was rethinking his beliefs. Like many observers of his time, Muir usually characterized Indians as poor, lazy, and dirty. But when he visited Old Wrangell village and saw evidence of the Tlingit's complex culture, shown by its totems and ruins, Muir recognized the Native people's rich heritage. In his journal in July, 1879, he noted that in Indian culture there is "more sound sense and natural reason than are found among the so-called enlightened and religious of our own race." Such revised judgments are also found in his contributions to the Bulletin. Among the worse reflections of civilized culture to Muir was the hypocritical missionary. Muir remained at odds with "the divines" with whom he traveled during that summer of 1879; his letters abound with ironic and biting comment on their missionary efforts. Muir's criticism became especially pointed while visiting Old Wrangell. He witnessed relic-seeking whites chopping down a village totem. The Stickene chief Kadachan's eloquent objections to the white's desecration of his family's old totem, as reported by Muir, were brushed aside by the churchmen. "He looked very seriously into the face of the reverend doctor, and pushed home the pertinent question: * How would you like to have an Indian go to a graveyard and break down and carry away a monument belonging to your family?'" The letters abound with Muir's appreciation for the Alaskan wilderness and for its people. He found both to be endangered. In his last letter from these travels, written from Taku Bay in 1880, Muir recounts an incident with one of his Indian guides, Hunter Joe. The Indian had used an old flintlock rifle which he carried in the canoe to shoot and kill a gull. As he never intended to eat the bird, the whimsical slaying bothered Muir who swiftly condemned Joe. Joe's retort, recorded by Muir, Was that he had learned such "carelessness for life from the whites." It is a telling sentence, and in our reading, a primary lesson found in this part of Muir's life. The time arrived for Muir to speak out publicly in defense of wilderness. It was clear that he must profess the value of wildness to these very same "whites" who were civilizing the Indian. These writings, which do not cover some of Muir's most famous Alaskan episodes, give us a good idea of Muir's views of missionary work, gold mining, rogue towns, tourism, glacial science, and his evolving views about his role as wilderness spokesperson. We have compared the Bulletin letters to Muir's accounts found in his book, Travels in Alaska, and find substantial differences. Muir, or possibly others (perhaps Marion Parsons), tempered his candor when editing Travels in Alaska. The latter was a posthumously published work, and the result of some twenty years of revision (and thirty-six versions). We find that many of Muir's original Bulletin letters are fresher and more revealing than his Travels, and Muir-authority Frank Buske believes them to be more like his speaking style. Some topics that appear in his Bulletin letters are entirely missing from his Travels book. We have collected, transcribed, and edited the Bulletin letters of 1879-1880, and they are now being readied for publication. UNM PRESS TO PUBLISH JOHN MUIR CONFERENCE PAPERS INTRODUCTION: John Muir's Life and Legacy by R.H. Limbaugh PARTI: Muir the Individual "v Affectionately Yours, John Muir' : The Correspondence between John Muir and his Parents, Brothers and Sisters," by Keith E. Kennedy John Muir and Vertical Sauntering by Arthur W. Ewart PART II: Muir and Religion God and John Muir: A Psychological Interpretation of John Muir's Life and Religion by Mark Stoll John Muir, Christian Mysticism, and the Spiritual Value of Nature by Dennis Williams PART HI: Muir and Wilderness Why Wilderness? John Muir's "Deep Ecology" by James D. Heffernan John Muir and the Wilderness Ideal by Don Weiss PART IV: The Literary Muir John Muir's Transcendental Imagery by Richard F. Fleck On the Tops of Mountains: John Muir and Henry Thoreau by Edgar M. Castellini PART V: Muir and the Physical Sciences Muir and Geology by Dennis R. Dean Botanical Exploration of California from Menzies to Muir (1786-1900) with Special Emphasis on the Sierra Nevada by Nancy M. Slack PART VI: Muir's Places After Yosemite: John Muir and the Southern Sierra by Paul D. Sheats 'Fear Nothing': An Interpretation of John Muir's Writings on Yellowstone by Bruce A. Richardson John Muir's Travels in Australasia, 1903-1904: Their Significance for Conservation and Environmental Thought by C. Michael Hall. The John Muir Center for Regional Studies has completed an agreement with the University of New Mexico Press to publish selected papers presented at the annual California History Institute, held in April, 1990. The UNM Press is a highly respected publisher with a special interest in western Americana and environmental topics, and we at the Center are delighted to have New Mexico as the publisher of the conference papers. While other respected publishers also demonstrated interest in • publishing the papers, this publisher seemed the most appropriate one for the project. The book is expected to be available to purchasers in 1993. This Newsletter will keep readers informed of any change in publication schedule, and will announce actual date of publication, price, and other ordering information as these facts become available. Contents of John Muir: Life and Work, edited by Sally M. Miller: JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER. VOL. II, #1 (NEW SERIES) WINTER, 1992 Published quarterly by the John Muir Center for Regional Studies, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211 Editor Center Director Staff © Sally M. Miller R.H. Limbaugh This Newsletter is printed on recycled paper. INQUIRIES From J. Parker Huber, Brattleboro, Vermont, who recently visited the Muir library collection at the Holt- Atherton Library: "What is your reading of this [see graphic]. I won't hazard a guess, but circle it in four places, from Muir's index of Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1868)." Our reply: The scrawl is "JM," Muir's initials. Sometimes a literary passage would inspire him to jot down an original aphorism or other creative passage or phrase, and he signed his initials to distinguish his own work from quotes or paraphrases from his readings. These pearls of original thought are found scattered on the back pages of his book collection; their presence is one more reason why Muir's personal library is so valuable. Although we haven't traced all these passages, many later appear in another form in Muir's published writings, showing a direct link between the books he read and the literary output of his own fertile imagination. TO OUR READERS Once again we wish to express our thanks to those readers of this Newsletter who have sent to the Center their information of interest, their schedules of events, feature articles, and so forth. Please bear in mind that this Newsletter can be successful only insofar as readers and staff join together on behalf of the legacy of John Muir. So we at the Center welcome any and all appropriate submissions which we will be happy to share with the readership. Please continue to send in information. If you are one reader who has not yet done so, surely you have some information, news, or ideas about Muir, the environment, etc., of which you would like to inform other interested parties. So we hope to hear from you soon. Also, please continue to suggest to others that they not only read but also subscribe to the Newsletter. All of us together can insure that this,Newsletter continues to be published. JOHN MUIR AND WHEELER PEAK by Ron Limbaugh Did John Muir climb Wheeler Peak, at 13,063 ft. Nevada's second highest mountain? The answer is not simple, even though Muir's dispatch to the San Francisco Bulletin , October 20, 1878, makes it clear at least he thought he had. This was his second visit to the Great Basin. During the first a year earlier he explored the Mormon country around Salt Lake as a Bulletin correspondent. In 1878 Muir returned to the Nevada side of the Sierra, this time in the company of Captain A. F. Rogers of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. On horseback they worked their way eastward, climbing, observing, and taking notes on geology, flora and fauna. Occasionally Muir dispatched a letter to the Bulletin, greatly expanded in his best explorer style. The October 20 dispatch, published in the Bulletin November 19 under the title "Nevada's Timber Belt", describes what has been assumed to be Muir's ascent of Wheeler Peak: We made the ascent of the peak just after the first storm had whitened its summit and brightened the atmosphere. The foot-slopes are like those of the Troy range, only more evenly clad with grasses. After tracing a long, rugged ridge of exceedingly hard quartzite, said to be veined here and there with gold, we came to the North Dome—a noble summit rising about a thousand feet above the timber line, its slopes heavily tree-clad all around, but most perfectly on the north. Muir goes on to describe the forest canopy surrounding the peak, and ends this letter with a brief paragraph on Nevada fauna. Muir's Nevada writings prove beyond doubt he climbed mountains in the Snake Range. But which ones? Comparing his published letter with his 1878 field journal is not easy, as I found, both from the standpoint of content and legibility. Most of the penciled entries are faint and sometimes smeared; the microfilm copies are more legible than the original. But the journal content bears little resemblence to his published newspaper articles. Moreover, the journal is a more a series of ruminations on nature than a daily log. Muir was more interested in botannical description than documenting his travels at any given time or place. Journal entries are rambling essays rather than live-action updates, as if Muir was writing days or weeks after the event observed or area visited. Finally, geographic names for most Nevada peaks have changed since Muir's day, so we cannot be sure from his vague nomenclature precisely where he was. I tried to reconstruct one fragment of Muir's Nevada travels last summer while in Nevada upon my return from the Mining History Association annual meeting in Leadville, Colorado. At Ely I met two friends from Stockton who had flown in by private plane. We then drove to Great Basin National Park, a little more than one hour's drive, and camped for four days on Lehman Creek at the base of the Snake Range. I had with me copies of Muir's Nevada journals and published articles, intending if I could to trace his route up Wheeler Peak. The prescribed route today begins at a campground trailhead at about 10,000 ft. elevation, and gradually ascends to a saddle between Wheeler and Bald Mountain before picking up Wheeler's north ridgeline and following it by a well-worn trail to the top. The grade is easy to the saddle and moderate-to-heavy through quartzite scree the last 2,000 ft. As I compared Muir's writings with other information and with my own observations, a nagging question emerged which I cannot yet answer: did John Muir actually climb Wheeler Peak? Despite his claim in the newspapers, I still am slightly dubious. What I found most odd is the fact that his 1878 journal contains on the back two pages a holograph listing of the prominent Nevada sites he visited, along with their elevations. Jeff Davis is indicated at 12,800 feet-the highest elevation recorded by Muir and only 29 feet off the official height fixed on modern maps. But no Wheeler Peak is mentioned, either there or anywhere else in his two Nevada journals, dated from June to October, 1878. Yet he did make note of Wheeler Peak during the 1878 excursion in correspondence to his future father-in- law, John Strentzel. On September 28 he wrote from Ward, Nevada: "Our next object will be Wheeler's Peak, 40 miles east of here." His published description of the ascent, noted above, appeared in the Bulletin less than a month later. In it he described Wheeler as "the dominating summit of the Snake mountains." Could it be Muir climbed Jeff Davis thinking it was Wheeler? Although the highest peak in the Snake Range, Wheeler's early nomenclature had changed at least three times since 1850. In 1869 George M. Wheeler, on an expedition for the Army Engineers, modestly renamed it for himself, and that was the name recorded on government topographical maps. By the time Muir arrived nearly a decade later Wheeler's name was well-known both locally and nationally, as was its slightly-lower neighbor, Jeff Davis Peak. The two peaks are less than a mile apart, connected by a sawtoothed ridgeline. Looking out over Wheeler's summit last summer dispelled any notion in my mind that a climber might become confused as to which peak was the tallest. If Muir had reached the summit of Jeff Davis, he could easily have seen Wheeler's slightly higher summit directly to the west. I also cannot imagine him climbing Wheeler and thinking it was Jeff Davis. Even if one of the peaks had been shrouded in fog the day of Muir's climb, he evidently had a local guide, and his description of the Wheeler climb- however brief—fits the modern route configuration. But that still doesn't explain the lack of a Wheeler entry in his journal notes. Neither does it explain why, if he stood at the top of Wheeler and saw that it was the "dominating summit," he recorded its height at 12,800 feet. That was exactly the same figure his journal lists for Jeff Davis peak, which is actually more than 200 feet lower than Wheeler. t One other discrepancy bothers me. NPS guidebooks indicate a live glacier in a cirque about 2,000 ft directly below the summit of Wheeler Peak. I climbed to the area the day before my ascent of the peak, finding a patch of old snow of apparently shallow depth covering perhaps 20 acres of surface area. In my amateur opinion it hardly rates the glacier classification, but since the drought it may be in deep recession. Yet Muir's 1878 journal never mentioned a glacier at the base of Wheeler Peak. Surely if he saw a "living glacier," no matter how puny, he would have mentioned it. Just a few years before he was ecstatic after finding a "living glacier" in the Sierra. The obvious question: why didn't Muir, the most fervent glaciolo- gist in the West in 1878, mention Wheeler Peak's glacier if he was there? His Bulletin article, "Glacial Phenomena in Nevada," (December 5, 1878) makes no mention of it. Muir scholars need to read his raw journals and to walk the ground he walked if they are to grasp the nature and significance of his explorations. But for places like Wheeler's Peak, they may also raise more questions than answers. CENTER FOR CALIFORNIA STUDIES Our readers will be interested to learn of the existence of the Center for California Studies. It is located at California State University, Sacramento, and for four or five years, it has been sponsoring programs and conferences. These events often highlight the types of issues which were so significant to John Muir. Because of the interest the Center for California Studies holds for our own Newsletter, for the information of readers we list some session topics from the Center's recently concluded fourth annual conference which was held on February 6-8, 1992. The section of the program entitled "Land and Peoples" included talks on California's bioregions and biodiversity; expanding the canon of California literature; California immigrant cultures; and a report from Native California. Major addresses were presented by James Houston, which he titled "California: Earth, Air, Fire, Water" and by the poet Gary Snyder, which he titled "The Practice of the Wild, and the Commons." For further information, contact Jeff Lustig, Director, Center for California Studies, California State University, Sacramento, 6000 J Street, Sacrament, California 95819- 6081. DISCOVERING MUIRS'S TWENTY HILL HOLLOW:TWO VII Twenty Hill Hollow by Bob Manley Linnie Marsh Wolfe, in her introduction to John of the Mountains did not exaggerate when she said that ". place names used by Muir are not always found on maps. He frequently gave his own names to features of the landscape that he described.", This statement is surely true of Twenty Hill Hollow, so named by Muir in his July, 1872, essay of that name which was first published in Overland Monthly, but which is now generally incorporated as the final chapter in his Thousand Mile Walk. It follows that names such as Castle Creek, Hollow Creek, Cascade Creek, and Lily Hollow are not to be found on any topographical map of the Snelling/La Grange area, for these place names existed in Muir's mind only. Where specifically is Twenty Hill Hollow? Karl Merrill, in his article in the May, 1991, Yosemite Highway Herald, poses this question and gives his views of possibilities. Muir himself in his writings provides us with excellent clues when he states that the hollow lies out in the plains; it is about five miles west from the foothills, lies about halfway between the Merced and Tuolumne Rivers, and is about six miles from Snelling. Our party's initial reconnaissance was made on May, 3, 1991, in a light plane. Starting over the foothills just west of Lake McClure near Exchequer Dam, and working back and forth while gradually moving northwestward, we saw nothing suggestive until, finding ourselves a little east of present day Route J-59 and three or four miles from Snelling, suddenly about two miles directly north of us a small green bowl jumped into view. As the grass for miles around was already assuming its summer shades of brown, this oval vernal depression surrounded by low hills stood out as the dominant landscape feature. Could this be the hollow? Based on what Muir tells us, all indicators were favorable: the terrain is below the level of the surrounding ground, the exit watercourse is to the southwest and the area is encircled by a series of low hills. We placed over a 7 1/2 minute topographic map of the Snelling quadrangle the Muir distance parameters, and the area thus bracketed coincided exactly with what had been observed from the plane. We believe that the hollow lies about in the center of Sec. 9, Twp 4S, R 14 E. On May 11, 1991, having received prior permission from the property owner, our party of four walked into the area and were satisfied that Twenty Hill Hollow has been rediscovered. Regarding the verdure of this spot, Muir's diary entry of February 13, 1869, quotes a line or two from an old Scottish folksong: 'There simmer first unfaulds her robes, And there they longest tarry.' Those wishing to acquaint themselves further with the Hollow should read the following references: Thousand Mile Walk, chapter 9; W. F. Bade, Life and Letters of John Muir, vol. I, from p. 188 through to the end of that chapter; and L.M. Wolfe, John of the Mountains, the first several pages until the text is no longer applicable to the topic. Twenty Hill Hollow by Karl Merrill, So. Tuolumne Historical Society (reprinted with permission from Yosemite Highway Herald, May, 1991, p. 22). John Muir said Twenty Hill Hollow was the scene of his own baptism into the "Plant Gold" and "Sun Gold" of California and where he was initiated into Yosemite tourism. It was a little valley lying in the plain of the Central Valley, between the Merced and the Tuolumne Rivers, five miles from the Sierra Foothills. "Charming Fairy-Land of Hills, with small, grassy valleys between." A pastoral landscape and . . . "the very definition of "pastoral,' a middle ground between the wilds and the city." It was a place. ." where one might drift away confidingly into the broad gulf-streams of nature, helmed only by instinct, a moderate landscape. One might also witness there the annual genesis of plant and insect lore. It was the type of place a tourist was likely to miss, a subtle type place. The Central Valley was a "Garden Wild" an appropriate part of the gradual ascent to the high mountains. A January Spring in the Hollow was a wealth of flowers, a land of flowers. The land itself was Edenic, a Botanist's Paradise, a summer desert. Here was a place wild and yet moderate. "Here are no Washington columns, no angular captains—" When John Muir began to herd Smokey Jack's sheep, at Twenty Hill Hollow he suspected correctly that he was writing an Elegy: as he wrote to Jeanne Carr, "Plant Gold is fading from California faster than did her placer gold, and I wanted to save the memory of that which was laid upon Twenty Hill Hollow." "By the end of February, 1869, his early romantic illusions were passing . . . . " Jeanne Carr, wife of John Muir's Geology Professor, Ezra S. Carr, at the University of Wisconsin, received some of Muir's most engaging letters and she continued to provide him with . . . encouragement, (from The Pathless Way by Michael Cohen) In checking maps today of the Central Valley and the Sierra Foothills, or Mother Lode areas, you will find no mention of "Twenty Hill Hollow." It may be near La Grange, Stanislaus County, near the four corners of the four counties: Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Merced and Mariposa; between the Merced and Tuolumne rivers, near Lake Don Pedro and Lake McClure, and near, or on, California State Highway 132. TROUT-MUIR CORRESPONDENCE IN HOLT- ATHERTON LIBRARY In 1984 the staff of the John Muir Microform contacted Mrs. Jennie S. Renner, eldest granddaughter of William H. Trout, and learned of the existence of several long forgotten letters between Trout and Muir dating from the mid-1870s to 1913. At that time she was 87, and wrote that she "would love to write about how my grandfather and John Muir first met and of Muirs Canadian sojourn, which is so often omitted entirely from the later books about him." But that was not to be. Now in an Ohio nursing home, she was unable to pursue her writing ambition, but she did locate nine letters out of 17 which the staff knew about. We published copies of two letters from her personal collection, JM to WHT27 Mar 1913 and JM to WHT10 May 1912, but not until 1989 did Holt- Atherton Library receive seven original letters from her, including five not part of the Microform publication. The seven letters not included in the Muir Microform Collection have been roughly transcribed by the staff of the Holt-Atherton Library. They are indicative of the depth and intensity of discourse that must have characterized conversation in the Trout household during the years Muir lived with this Campbellite family in Meaford. Some excerpts: ALSJM to "Dearfriend William" Yosemite Valley, 28 May 1870. 4 p on 11. "I am sorry for the dead religion so prevalent in your town but in striving to make people see religious truth as you see it remember that all have equal accountability and may well enjoy their own opinions however much they may differ from your own. I have to confess that I am more liberal than ever and less likely to agree than when with you." AL, [WHT J to JM, Peterboro, 11 Jul 1875. 4 p on 2 ■ I. [fragment] ". .when I think of writing you so many topics come up before my mind that I would need a winter's seclusion in the old Hollow with you to do them justice. I would like to ask a good number of questions on science and scientific theories and have a mutual interchange of ideas on the varying attitude of these to the religion of the Bible." AL (draft), [WHT] to JM, [ca. 1875]. 2 p on 11. "You made in your last letter the remark that in religious subjects particularly we used to sharply differ and if we were to compare notes again we would differ still more as far as I am concerned we would not for I think I have gone slightly in your direction so that we could not differ, more unless the change is with you." AL, [WHT] to JM, Peterboro, 28 Octoberl876. 8 p. on 2 I. William's description of his visit to the "Great Centennial" in Philadelphia. ALSJM to William Trout, San Francisco 22 Apr 1877, 5 p on 3 I. In reply to Trout's October letter, Muir confessed he "often though of advising you to come here where so much new machinery is being made for this rapidly developing country," but thought better of it because of the high cost of living. "Contentment in California is the very rarest of the virtues and as wealth increases, the capacity for the enjoyment of God's best gifts diminishes." 7X5, JM to WH Trout, San Francisco, 13 Jun 1913. 1 p. on 1 I. "I am always delighted to hear from you for as we grow older we cling all the more fondly to lifelong friends." ALS, JM to William Trout, Martinez, 2 Jul 1913. 1 p. on 1 I. "I still hope to see you at least once more notwithstanding the swift flying years." SAGE FRIENDS SEEK HELP The San Bernardino Sage Friends are seeking assistance in protecting one of the last undeveloped white sage habitats at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in San Bernardino County near Etiwanda. Native Americans use the leaves of the white sage in sacred ceremonies. It grows more abundantly in north Etiwanda than anywhere else. The area supports other endemic plant species that are fast disappearing in Southern California. On several trips in the 1890s John Muir explored the San Gabriels and frequently visited the area. A coalition of environmentalists has organized to halt developers from building on portions of a 7,000 acre open tract, now covered with shrubs and grass. More than 1,000 homes are planned for the first project now before the County planning agencies. A 15-acre natural marsh, now a riparian habitat, would be threatened by the development. For more information on the development plans and the environmental concerns raised, contact the SB Sage Friends at 1382 Wesley Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104, or call Leeona Klippstein at (818) 398-4962. NEWS FROM MUIR SCHOLARS Professor Lawrence Buell of the Department of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard recently wrote describing a project of interest to Muir readers: My book project is tentatively entitled "The Environmental Imagination: Thoreauvian Writing in America." It is partly a selective history of nonfictional prose about the environment, partly a theoretical argument for the need to take the environmental dimension of all literature more seriously than most contemporary literary theory and criticism do. I consulted the Muir papers most specifically in order to get a better grasp of the relationships among the major writers of environmental literature as a community and as a succession. I concentrated especially, therefore, on Muir's markings and comments on works by Thoreau in his personal library. I have not yet sifted these systematically, but I believe that the record will triangulate Muir very interestingly with his leading contemporary and competitor as literary naturalist: John Burroughs. Whereas Burroughs was an anxious, jealous, and hypercritical reader of Thoreau, Muir was a much more generous and capacious reader, who certainly didn't think of himself as Thoreau's competitor in any sense. Any number of interesting inferences follow from this that I intend to tease out. DON'T FORGET TO MARK YOUR CALENDAR California Immigrants: People, Plants and Animals is the theme of the California History Institute at the University of the Pacific, Stockton April 23-25, 1992 The 500th anniversary of the Columbian encounter presents an opportunity for deeper reflection and analysis of the interaction between humans and the land. The environmental consequences of the human influx, past or present, positive or negative, will be discussed in two days of academic sessions, followed by a regional field trip. Two dozen speakers from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences will make presentations during the conference. On Saturday, a field trip through parts of the Northern San Joaquin Valley and the Mother Lode will provide opportunities to reinforce the academic sessions by experiencing immigrant communities and the impact of human habitation on native flora and fauna. Look for a registration packet and more details in the mail. For more information or general inquiries, contact R.H. Limbaugh, History Department, University of the Pacific, Stockton CA 95211, or call Pearl Piper at the John Muir Center for Regional Studies, (209) 946- 2145. BE A MEMBER OF THE JOHN MUIR CENTER FOR REGIONAL STUDIES Costs are a problem everywhere, especially in academia today. We can only continue publishing and distributing this modest newsletter through support from our readers. By becoming a member of the John Muir Center, you will be assured of receiving the Newsletter for a full year. You will also be kept on our mailing list to receive information on the annual California History Institute and other events and opportunities sponsored by the John Muir Center. Please join us by completing the following form and returning it, along with a $15. check made payable to The John Muir Center for Regional Studies, University of the Pacific, 3601 Pacific Ave., Stockton, CA 95211. Yes, I want to join the John Muir Center and continue to receive the John Muir Newsletter. Enclosed is $15 for a one-year membership . (Use this form to renew your current membership). 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