John Muir Newsletter, Fall 1992
John Muir Newsletter university of the pacific fall, 1992 NATURE AND THE HUMAN SPIM volume 2, number 4 '» TOTIfi TRANSFORMATION OF HENRY LOOMIS by Ron Limbaugh A few years ago, while working on a research project at Yale's Sterling Memorial Library, I ran across a 90-page handwritten journ...
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Scholarly Commons
1992
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| Online Access: | https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/31 https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmn/article/1030/viewcontent/fall92.pdf |
| Summary: | John Muir Newsletter university of the pacific fall, 1992 NATURE AND THE HUMAN SPIM volume 2, number 4 '» TOTIfi TRANSFORMATION OF HENRY LOOMIS by Ron Limbaugh A few years ago, while working on a research project at Yale's Sterling Memorial Library, I ran across a 90-page handwritten journal written by Henry Bradford Loomis, son of a prominent Yale mathematician and astronomer, an irresolute companion of John Muir during a three-month trip to Alaska in 1890. In labored but legible longhand, Loomis chronicled the expedition.' It is a fascinating record. Not only does it provide a starkly contrasting view to Muir's glowing nature prose in Travels in Alaska,7 it also documents a transformation in the mind of its author. It is a demonstrable example of what environmental advocates have often described as the "healing power of nature."3 Loomis was a young Seattle attorney whom Muir had met during the California Scot's trip north in 1888 to climb Mount Rainier. They agreed to meet again two years later for a joint Alaska excursion.4 Rendezvousing at Port Townsend on June 17, they traveled by steamship to Fort Wrangel, then on to Glacier Bay, which they reached the morning of June 23. As soon as they unloaded their gear, Muir took a jaunt alone while Loomis stayed in camp, trying to keep warm without a fire. The contrast between the ship's creature comforts and the icy blast of an Arctic storm quickly drained the lawyer's enthusiasm. He began to have second thoughts which must have increased as he watched the steamer sail out of the Bay, leaving him stranded for a week. Muir returned late that afternoon, determined to camp near the glacier, but Loomis complained about the lack of a good campsite, with no trees or timber in sight, a "chilling wind," and "no wood worth mentioning." "It is a wilderness of ice & rocks, and a cold, barren & dreary place to camp - even for one interested in science." They made a crude shelter for their provisions and pitched a tent, but Loomis continued to grumble. His foul mood ... |
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