John Muir Newsletter, Spring 1996

• Main Author: John Muir Center for Regional Studies
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1996
• Subjects: John Muir; Newsletter; Holt-Atherton Special Collections; University of the Pacific; Holt-Atherton Pacific Center for Western Studies; Stockton; California; John Muir Center for Regional Studies; American Studies; Natural Resources and Conservation; United States History; Glacier Bay; Pacific; Parry; Sutherland; Hooker; Dunbar; Atherton; Huxley; Snag; Bancroft; Royce; Jumper; glacier; glaciers; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/45; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=jmn

John Muir N spring 1996 university of the pacific volume 6, number 2 JOHN MUIR AND THEBIDWELLS: THE FORGOTTEN FRIENDSHIP By Michael J. Gillis (Editor's note: this article was originally published in the Spring, 1995 issue oftheDogtown Territorial Quarterly, and reprinted here with the kind permission of its publisher, Bill Anderson of Paradise, California. The author, Michael Gillis, is Lecturer in History at California State University, Chico. He and a colleague, Michael Magliaria, are working on a book-length study of John Bidwell, Chico's founder and most prominent citizen) The thirty-seven year friendship between John Muir and the Bidwells which began on the slopes of Mt. Shasta in 1877 is a surprise to many people, even to experts in California and Chico history. Although separated by almost 20 years in age, John Bidwell and John Muir took an immediate liking to each other. They were both adventurers and explorers who enjoyed the challenge and rugged beauty of the Sierra Nevada. Both men were well read in the sciences and were amateur botanists and geologists. Their longstanding relationship was built upon common interests, common circumstances and a genuine affection for each other. Muir and Annie Bidwell also hit it off right from the start. Annie, like most women, found Muir fascinating. Muir's familiarity with the Bible and his uncanny ability to recite scripture verbatim impressed Annie. She believed that John Muir's respect and fondness for her husband also indicated that Muir was a good judge of character. Muir admired Annie's resolute character. He also held her in high regard because of her intelligence and curiosity about the natural world. The friendship between Annie Bidwell and John Muir was grounded on mutual respect and affection. For Muir and the Bidwells their chance encounter in 1877 was the beginning of a friendship that would last a lifetime. An examination oftheMuir/Bidwellfriendship offers insights not only into the fabric of northern California social life but provides a better sense of who these people were and how they added substance and color to the history of Chico and California. John Muir was thirty years old when he first set foot in California. In late March 1868 his ship arrived in San Francisco via the Isthmus of Panama and within hours he had crossed San Francisco Bay by ferry and was headed into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Muir's love of nature and all things wild guided him until his death in 1914. He helped found the Sierra Club in 1892 to unite west coast conservationists. He influenced federal land policies and was the precursor of the modern environmental movement. His writings and lectures presented a new way of thinking about the wilderness. He also introduced to Americans an environmental ethic which regarded the mountains, as he put it, ".useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but fountains of life." 1 John Bidwell was twenty-two years old when he came to California in 1841, a member of the first organized party of pioneers to struggle their way west to settle in California. Like many who followed him, Bidwell was fleeing an unpleasant past and was searching for a new and better life in the West. By the time Bidwell died in 1900 he had lived the California dream. He found gold - lots of it. Financed by his gold strike, he carved out an agricultural and ranching (continued on page3) THE SCOTTISH HERITAGE OF JOHN MUIR by Graham White (Editor's note: the following excerpt from the introduction to The John Muir Omnibus, an anthology of five major works by Muir, is printed here courtesy of the author, who is Director of The Environment Centre, Drummond High School, Edinburgh. His full introduction will appear soon in the Canongate Classics series.) But what of Scotland, the land of John Muir's birth, where he is still largely unknown among the mass of people. It is the most extensively de-forested country in Europe, with over 99% of its trees long-gone and its natural heritage sadly impoverished as a result. There are signs that John Muir's spirit is at last coming home to inspire a new generation of conservationists. In 1976 the steady trickle of American pilgrims to Muir' s birthplace in Dunbar inspired East Lothian District Council, under the prompting ofFrank Tindall, the County Planning Officer, to designate John Muir Country Park; eight miles of wild sea-coast stretching fromBelhaven Bay to Tyningham and beyond. In 1981 the Council opened the John Muir House Birthplace Museum at 128 High Street, Dunbar, which attracts visitors from all over the world. About the same time, the National Library of Scotland was given a complete microfilm edition of the John Muir Papers, containing copies of virtually every journal, book and letter that Muir ever wrote. This was gifted by the Holt Atherton Institute at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where the original papers and much of John Muir's personal library are held. This historic archive is now available to scholars in Scotland and the United Kingdom for research into any aspect of Muir's writings. In 19 8 3 Muir's life inspired the creation of the John Muir Trust in Scotland, established to conserve wild land and protect it for future generations through purchase. To date the Trust has acquired four areas of wild land in Scotland: Li and CoireDhorrcail inKnoydart (3,000 acres 1988), Torrin on the Isle ofSkye (5,000 acres, 1991), SandwoodBay, Sutherland (11,000 acres 1992), Strathaird andBlaBheinn in the Skye Cuillin (15,000 acres 1994). None of these areas is true 'wilderness' or 'wild' in the American sense; they all have crofting communities and people have farmed here for hundreds of years, possibly thousands. Whatever the label, these landscapes are among the most unspoiled inBritain and are sublimely beautiful. The John Muir Trust aims to demonstrate exemplary management of these areas, sharing responsibility with local communities for the sustainable use of the landscape, wildlife and natural resources. The Trust's Information and Education Committee, also aims to foster a much wider knowledge of Muir's life and work, here inBritain. In 1994 a group of local people founded Dunbar's John Muir Association, with the support of the John Muir Trust. This new body aims to enhance knowledge of Muir and to reclaim him as a Scottish figure, for the educational and economic benefit of Scotland and Dunbar. It has submitted a bid to the Millennium Fund, for the creation of a John Muir Centre in Dunbar, as a beacon for environmental education and sustainability in Scotland. The Centre will function as an environmental gateway for visitors to Scotland, with stunning audio-visual facilities. It will allow children to experience distant wildernesses, anywhere on the planet, using advanced computer facilities, and will also enable schools to share environmental information and projects. Every country needs heroes to fire the imagination with all that is excellent and provide inspiring role-models for children. Europe has no conservation hero to stand comparison with John Muir and it is timely that the John Muir Trust and Dunbar's John Muir Association are working to bring himhome in time forthe Millennium. Muir's lifeand achievements represent a unique contribution to world conservation and it is vital that he should be brought back into the mainstream of Scottish culture and education. John Muir never forgot his Dunbar roots and Scotland was always in his heart. His first decade in East Lothian was undoubtedly crucial. The foundations of his character: his dogged self-reliance; his hunger for knowledge; his endurance; his thirst for adventure and his profound love of nature, were laid down upon the sandstones and basalt of this rocky shore. Muir was not a systematiser; he wrote no text books and occupied no university chair. But it is arguable that the legacy of his books and successful battles on behalf of conservation, will ultimately have more enduring world-impact than any scientist or statesman of his day. Late in life he wrote his "Thoughts on the Birthday of Robert Burns": (continued on page 6) JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER. VOL. VI, NUMBER 2 SPRING 1996 Published quarterly by the John Muir Center for Regional Studies, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211 Editor Center Director Staff o Sally M.Miller R.H. Limbaugh This Newsletter is printed on recycled paper. (continued from page 1) empire in the newly acquired State of California. He was well traveled, happily married, well read, and active in Californiapolitics. Hispolitical career culminated inhis 1892 presidential candidacy on the Prohibition Party ticket, but at heart Bidwell remained a man of the land. His sprawling 26,000 acre Rancho Chico was an experimental and working ranch. He explored new ways to increase production and produce new strains of wheat, vegetables, fruits and nuts suitable for Sacramento Valley growing conditions. The only thing he loved more than his ranch was his beloved Annie - his "Precious." Annie Bidwell was the same age as Muir but unlike her husband, she was born into a family of gentility and comfort. Born Annie Ellicott Kennedy on June 3 0,183 9 in Meadville, Pennsylvania, she moved with her family to Washington, D.C. after her father was appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Census in 1849. In Washington she lived a life of privilege but one of service as well. At fifteen she was already doing missionary work for the local Presbyterian Church and during the Civil War she served as a volunteer nurse in Washington hospitals. After a lengthy courtship that began in December 1865, she married John Bidwell on April 16,1868. Their Washington wedding was a lavish affair attended by President Andrew Johnson and Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. Shortly after their marriage, Annie and John left Washington for the "wilderness," as Annie called it, of Rancho Chico. Once there, Annie, like her husband and Muir, carved out a life of her own. She became a civic leader, philanthropist, suffragist and temperance reformer. Much of Annie's activist career took place after the death of her husband in April 1900, and it was she, not John, who earned much of the Bidwell's reputation as local saints. In her own way, Annie also proved to be a California pioneer. It was almost a decade after Muir came to California that he crossed paths with the Bidwells. In 1877, abotanical expedition to Mt. Shasta and the headwaters of the Sacramento River composed of Asa Gray and his wife, Sir Joseph Hooker, and Muir was joined by the Bidwells. Asa Gray was a well-known Harvard professor who was often referred to as "the Columbus of American botany." Sir Joseph Hooker, an Englishman, had the reputation of being Europe's premier botanist. Annie, a longtime friend of the Grays, persuaded the scientists to come first to Rancho Chico so that they could travel as a group to the Mt. Shasta area. Botanically, the trip to Mt. Shasta was a considerable success. Hooker and Muir found and catalogued the Twinflower (Linnaea borealis), the first of its kind discovered in northern California.2 For the Bidwells the trip was an opportunity to be in the company of some of the most renowned scientists of the day. At night around the camp fire, stories were swapped. Gray, more scientist than adventurer, dryly discussed botany as if at an academic forum. Hooker, whom John Bidwell found to be a boor and braggart, complained about the inadequacies of American civilization and boasted about his friendships with Darwin and Thomas H. Huxley. Yetforthe Bidwells, spending time in the mountains was a pleasant break from their busy schedules at Rancho Chico. Muir, unlike Gray and Hooker, was a first rate camping companion. His love of the mountains and child-like excitement while hiking and camping contrasted sharply with Gray's uneasiness in the wilderness and Hooker's complaints about the shortcomings of American "civilization." Muir and the Bidwells loved the mountains of northern California in a way that was not shared by the cool scientific minds of Gray and Hooker. After several days of "botanizing" on the slopes of Mt. Shasta, the Grays and Hooker left for an engagement on the east coast, but John Muir stayed. For the next two weeks the Bidwells guided Muir through some of the most spectacular geological regions of northern California. On the trip home they explored the region known today as Lassen Volcanic National Park. Muir howled like a 49er hitting paydirt when he discovered evidence of glacia- tion among the cinder cones. "Hurry, run and see this wonderful thing," he called to Annie. Annie, barely able to keep up with the inspired Muir, shouted back "I can't hurry more than I am - I'm spitting blood now" (she was really coughing up red volcanic dust). Muir encouraged her on, "It is worth dying to see this."3 And he probably meant it. Muir's enthusiasm for the Lassen area was contagious. They began a climb to the top of Mt. Lassen, but before they could reach the summit a strong rain and ice storm turned them back. "Soaked through and through" they sought shelter below tree line where they built a large fire and made their beds among the rocks. Rather than being a miserably cold and wet night in the woods, the Bidwells and Muir thought it was great fun and were giddy with excitement. "Mr. Muir was so merry and so funny, we laughed and laughed," remembered Annie.4 For Muir, mountain storms demonstrated the beauty and power of God's creation, and for John Bidwell this night must have brought back fond memories of his dangerous but exciting trip to California. For Annie, this was pure enjoyment - a taste of the wild frontier. The companionship and good humor shared by Muir and the Bidwells during this trip bound them together in a friendship that lasted a lifetime. Muir's vast knowledge of botany and interest in the natural world struck a harmonious chord with the Bidwells. The Bidwells loved the land too and were anxious to share their interests and learn mote about it. Annie wrote: "In all the pleasant days we spent with Mr. Muir, it was a revelation to us - wherever we stepped he had something wonderful to show us. "5 After they returned to Rancho Chico, Muir stayed on as a guest of the Bidwells. There he, the Bidwells, and Sallie Kennedy (Annie's sister) took leisurely rides into the canyons and down to the banks of the Sacramento River. At mid-day they would picnic under a large valley oak where Muir explained his views on glaciation or John Bidwell would talk about his ideas for the ranch, while Annie would discuss her work with the Indians. Muir showed an interest in BidwelPs farming methods and was given a thorough tour of the operation which included a dairy, vast fields of grains, fruit and nut orchards, a turkey and chicken ranch, and hundreds of acres of experimental vegetable and fruit crops under cultivation.6 Together for over a month, Muir and the Bidwells had endured wintry mountain storms, traveled hundreds of miles on horseback, talked botany and agriculture, and enjoyed the bounty of Rancho Chico. The time had come, however, for Muir to return to Stockton. Muir asked Bidwell if one of his men would build him a small boat so that he could return home by way of the Sacramento river and the Delta. Within a couple of days a small leaky craft dubbed the Spoonbill was built and ready for its maiden voyage. The boat "was loaded with bedding and provisions - more than Mr. Muir wished, as his usual provision being a bag of bread," Annie remembered.7 She stocked the boat with bread, tea, dried fruit and nuts and a warm quilt which Muir would later use as a bedroll when he roamed the Sierras the following year. With American flags flying from its bow and stern the Spoonbill was ready. The last goodbyes were exchanged while Muir climbed into his boat. The Bidwells and Sallie Kennedy shouted encouragement to Muir as the current of the Sacramento River pulled him away from shore and carried him downstream. Muir continued to wave good-bye until, "The last I saw of you was Miss Kennedy white among the leaves like a fleck of dust, then sweeping around the bend you were all gone."8 Shortly after Muir arrived in Stockton, he wrote to the Bidwells describing his float trip down the river. Here he christened the boat to a more appropriate name - the Snag Jumper - and he requested Sallie's address in Washington, D.C. Muir enjoyed the time he spent with Sallie and found her attractive but nothing was to come of their acquaintance. His frequent wanderings and her living so far from his beloved mountains made that impossible. The time he spent with the Bidwells made a deep and lasting impression upon Muir. He confided to them in a letter that, "It is seldom that I experience much difficulty inleavingcivilizationfor God's wilds, but I was loath indeed to leave you three that day after our long free ramble in the mountain woods. ."9 John Bidwell wrote back to Muir. Muir's unconventional departure from Chico became a source of great amusement for the Bidwells and in his reply he shared with Muir the standing joke between him and Annie. "Where is Mr. Muir?" John and Annie would occasionally call to each other. "Am afraid he is drowned" sang the other. 10 The Bidwells and Muir continued to visit and correspond for the next thirty-seven years. About a year and a half after the Shasta trip, the Bidwells did something unusual - they offered Muir part of Bidwell Mansion as a study and a depository for his botanical collection. Although the Bidwells were known for their generous hospitality, they remained private people. Prior to coming to California Annie was adamant that no one but they should reside in the Mansion. However, her letter to Muir dated February 11,1879 leaves little doubt that she would make an exception for him: "Join us in our drives.and rambles and as the General says 'tell us something of the world we live in onRancho Chico.'" 11 Muir never took the Bidwells up on their offer but he did send Annie some pressed flowers as a token of his thanks. Annie Bidwell's letters and John's diary clearly indicate that Muir was a very special friend. Bidwell's diary entry of February 18,1880 provides some evidence. The words "John Muir arrived!" are written in extremely large letters and obviously indicate Bidwell's excitement. 12 Few entries in Bidwell's diary of thirty-five years were written with such large characters. Airships, comets, earthquakes, tornadoes, generals and presidents all played second fiddle to the arrival of Muir. And why not? In Muir, John Bidwell had found a friend. Annie believed that Muir was a man who shared her spiritual beliefs and Muir's frequent references to the Almighty undoubtedly pleased Annie. Although Muir had abandoned conventional Christianity, both Annie and Muir saw God's handiwork in the natural world. As Muir put it, all the creatures of the Earth, including man, were "part of God's family." 13 Muir rejected the belief that God had given man dominion over the earth and therefore the right to shamelessly exploit it. He wrote, "The world, we are told, was made especially for man - a presumption not supported by the facts." 14 Annie cared little for religious debate. Like Muir, she believed love of God was demonstrated by action, not words. Muir returned to Rancho Chico in February 1880 on his way back from his first Alaska trip. He used Bidwell Mansion as a base camp, traveling twice to Sacramento to give lectures. His topic, "Glaciers of California and Alaska" was well received by full houses. 15 One-on-one, Muir was a captivating talker; in fact his listeners usually couldn't get a word in edgewise. However, in front of large audiences he often felt nervous and uncomfortable. It often took Muir a few minutes to settle into his speech but then he was off and running - what Muir lacked in eloquence he made up for in enthusiasm. During Muir's two-week visit with the Bidwells, they took regular "short drives" into the local canyons and did somehikinginthefoothills.16 Apparently, whileMuir visited with the Bidwells he never told them that he was engaged to Louise Wanda Strenzel of Martinez. Muir wrote Annie announcing his marriage of April 14,1880inaletter John "opened by mistake." John Bidwell responded to his friend's marriage announcement, "So you were caught, ha?. Of course you were and surrendered to, at discretion, of course. .welcome your return to civilization." 17 When the Bidwells expressed surprise that Muir had not disclosed his marriage plans, Muir wrote to Annie explaining, "I told you one day during my last visit that I thought of spending the winter in Martinez, but you did not take the hint."18 Muir's marriage was a surprise to many who knew him. Was he ready to give up his rambles for home and family? Could Muir become the farmer his in-laws expected him to be and run the Strenzel farm profitably? Could he ignore the pull of glaciers and the mountain wilderness? Muir must have been deeply troubled. Muir's decision to marry was a practical one. He needed a base camp. At his new home in Martinez he could maintain his botanical collection, remain close to his beloved mountains, and continue his writing. So for Muir, his marriage was not prompted by a need for female companionship nor was he loved starved. Rather, it was a compromise between his need to ramble and write, and the recognition that he was no longer a young man who could survive on a bag of bread and a sip from a cold stream. The first few months of marriage took their toll on Muir's health. He fell ill with stomach problems and developed a persistent cough. All that changed, however, with the birth of his first daughter in February 1881, Anna Wanda. He wrote the Bidwells about his good fortune, "Bloomtime has come and never since the Glacial Period or Baby Period began on earth were happier people. "20 After a while Muir settled into his new life as a rancher, husband and father. He worked long hours in the orchards and vineyards. Muir was known to drive a hard bargain and turned a handsome profit on his crops. Meanwhile a second daughter, Helen (Midge) was born in 1886. Nevertheless, for all his success at running the ranch and raising a family, Muir remained, at times, unhappy and chomping at the bit to run free again. He wrote Annie, "I'm anxious to run up to Chico in the old free way.but as you can readily guess, it is not now so easy to wing hither and thither like a bird, for here is a wife and a baby and a home." 21 For the next few years the Bidwells and Muir were unable to get together. For the Bidwells, the burden of running the ranch, illnesses and John's political activities precluded any contact. Muir was pretty much stuck on his ranch in Martinez and when he wasn't traveling he was writing. They did their best to keep in touch by exchanging pressed wild flowers, fruitcakes and holiday greetings. However, in the fall of 1888 the Bidwells and Muir were once again botanizing and exploring the canyons of Rancho Chico much as they had more than a decade before. John Bidwell's letters and diary indicate his excitement about being reunited with Muir. His diary entry of May 14,1888, reads "Expecting the Parry's tonight and perhaps John Muir also." To his disappointment, John Muir did not arrive with the Parrys but instead came to visit in September. Annie was very disappointed that she was unable to join them in their rides since she was still suffering from consumption which she had contracted that summer. 22 Muir and Bidwell were able to get together again in May 1889 for dinner and an evening of conversation at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco.23 At that time both men had taken up causes that required much of their time. Bidwell had become the leading spokesman of the Prohibition Party in California and would soon be named its candidate for Governor. Muir was returning to his "real work" of writing and working for the preservation movement. Century Magazine hired Muir to write two articles arguing in favor of establishment of a national park in the high country surrounding Yosemite Valley. Muir' s traveling and writing obligations began to take their toll on him. When their mutual friend, botanist Charles Parry, died, Muir wrote a despairing letter to the Bidwells, I've been thinking of you every day since dear Parry died. It seems as if all the good flower people, at once great and good, have died now that Parry has gone -.Oh dear, it makes me feel so lonesome.And how fine and how fruitful that trip to Shasta with you! Happy days, not to come again! .It seems easy to die when such souls go before.24 Unable to shake his depression, Muir decided to take the remedy he had prescribed for many other people. He packed his bags and headed for Alaska. Within a short time the mountains and glaciers had healed him. He wrote to his wife from his camp at Glacier Bay: "My cough has gone and my appetite has come, and I feel much better than when I left home."25 Like Muir, Bidwell loved to travel and did so at every opportunity. After his nomination by the Prohibition Party for Governor in August 1890, he dashed off to Yellowstone Park for a few days of hiking and exploring. He returned home to Chico at the end of September, just in time to begin his campaign swing down the length of California. At one of Bidwell's last campaign stops in the San Francisco area, John Muir paid him a surprise visit. Bidwell was very happy to see his old friend. They took rooms at the Occidental Hotel and downstairs "had a grand meeting. Mr. Muirpresiding."26 This gesture by Muir must have meant much to a tired and dejected Bidwell. Carrying the banner of prohibition in a state that remained decidedly on the side of drink was a heavy burden for a seventy-one year old man. Bidwell and Muir were both stubborn men. Bidwell's prohibitionist position and his support of women's suffrage were out of step with the times and he paid the price because of it. Muir's unwillingness to budge on matters concerning the preservation of wilderness made him a convenient target for timber and mining interests. They both held minority views, yet because both men were part of a loose-knit California aristocracy, their opinions were heard. Bidwell's pioneer status and his vast Rancho Chico gave him respectability. Muir's writings and his reputation as "John of the Mountains" insured a respectful audience. Neither man subscribed completely to the views of the other but their views did not conflict and they managed to work together. Both Bidwell and Muir had a stake in the health of the forests and rivers of California. For Bidwell it was a practical matter. He recognized early on that water would be the life-blood of the Sacramento Valley. For Muir, the Sierras were a gift from God and any attempt to destroy them was heresy. Bidwell's major concern was the damage that hydraulic mining had done to the waterways of Northern California. As early as 1865, Bidwell had warned his fellow farmers about the debris and silt that filled stream beds and caused flooding, and how it made river navigation difficult if not impossible.27 Besides the economic damage, he deplored the aesthetic destruction of once verdant mountainsides. In an address to the Farmers UniononSeptember 22,1881,he said: / wish hydraulic mining could continue, and the whole country prosper. At the same time, I admit that it is not a pleasing scene to see havoc made of hills, and mountains, and stately forests, and a once lovely prospect changed to a desolation. 28 The next year at the Anti-Debris Convention in Sacramento, he returned to the same theme in his opening remarks: My mind reverts on this occasion to the time when every stream was as pure and clear as crystal. No man can measure in dollars and cents.the value of returning these streams to their pristine purity and of clearing the rivers and plains, and of returning them once more to their original beauty and susceptibility to cultivation. When I saw the wide ruin already begun and the greater impending ruin, I could not remain at home, so I came here to consult with you. 29 Even though hydraulic mining damaged the environment, Bidwell found in hydraulic technology an indirect benefit for agriculture. In a letter to the Sacramento Record- Union he explained, Irrigation is the natural successor to hydraulic mining, and important beyond computation.By showing that waters can be conducted almost everywhere, hydraulic mining has unwittingly solved a most important feature in the problem of irrigation. 30 Bidwell's goal of protecting watersheds to insure a clean water supply for agriculture dovetailed with Muir's efforts. Muir like Bidwell saw trouble brewing in the hills. In a letter to the Sacramento Record-Union, published on February 9,1876 and entitled"God'sFirst Temples: How Shall We Preserve Our Forests?", he warned that running fires, grazing sheep, hydraulic mining and uncontrolled lumbering would lead to disaster. Hills stripped of vegetation would be unable to hold water and this would lead to erosion, the silting of rivers and eventually the decertification of the state.31 Unfortunately, his suggestion that the government should step in for the good of the forests and the people fell on deaf ears. (TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT ISSUE) End Notes: 1. Douglas H. Strong, Dreamers and Defenders, University of Nebraska Press, 1988, p. 98. 2. A. Hunter Dupree, Asa Gray, Harvard University Press, 1959, p. 407. 3. Annie K. Bidwell, Reminiscences of John Muir, Bancroft Library, (dictated: San Francisco, Jan. 29, 1917). 4. Bidwell, Reminiscences, p. 5. 5. Bidwell, Reminiscences, p. 4. 6. John Bidwell's Diary, (JBD), Sept. 4 - Oct. 3, 1877. 7. Bidwell, Reminiscences, pp. 5-6. 8. Letter from John Muir to the Bidwells, Oct. 10, 1877, Bancroft Library (BAN). 9. Ibid. 10. Letter from John Bidwell to John Muir, Nov. 29, 1877, Holt Atherton Center for Western Studies (HAW), University of the Pacific. 11. Letter from Annie Bidwell to John Muir, Feb. 11, 1879, (HAW). 12. JBD, Feb. 18, 1880. 13. John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, and A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf, Houghton Mifflin, 1916, p.324. 14. Muir, Story of My Boyhood, pp. 354-355. 15. Chico Enterprise Record, Jan. 24, 1937. 16. JBD, Feb. 19, 1880. 17. Letter from John Bidwell to John Muir, June 21, 1889, (HAW). 18. Letter from John Muir to Annie Bidwell, June 20, 1880. California State Library, MSS Box 5.5, fldr 11. 19. Stephen Fox, John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement, Little, Brown and Co., 1981, pp. 70-71. 20. Letter from John Muir to Annie Bidwell, March 29, 1881. (HAW) 21. Letter from John Muir to Annie Bidwell, Jan. 2, 1882. (HAW) 22. JBD, May 14, July 20, Sept. 4, 1888. 23. JBD, May 22, 1889. 24. William Frederic Bade, The Life and Letters of John Muir, 2 Vols., Houghton Mifflin, 1924, Vol. 1, pp. 242-243. 25. Bade, Life and Letters, Vol. 2, p. 247. 26. JBD, Oct. 29, 1890. 27. Address to the Annual Fair of the Agricultural Society of Northern Districts of California, 1865, C.C. Royce, John Bidwell: Pioneer, Statesman, 1906, unpaginated. 28. Royce, John Bidwell, Address to Farmers Union, Sept 22, 1881. 29. Royce, John Bidwell, Address to Anti-Debris Convention, Sacramento, 1882. 30. Sacramento Record-Union, Jan. 19, 1884. 31. Sacramento Record-Union, Feb. 9, 1876. (Scottish Heritage continued from page 2) It is glorious to know that one of the greatest men to appear in the last century was a Scotsman - Robert Burns - .this lesson of divine love and sympathy for humanity .which he sent forth white hot from his heart, has gone ringing and singing around the globe, stirring the heart of every nation and race. The men of science and natural history often lose sight of the essential oneness of all living beings in their seeking to classify them in kingdoms, orders, families, genera, species etc while the Poet and Seer never closes on the kinship of God's creatures and his heart ever beats in sympathy with the great and small as earth- born companions and fellow mortals dependent on Heaven's eternal laws. Muir was a one-off; a unique personality who broke the mould: Poet, Philosopher and Preacher as much as he was botanist or geologist. He is not amenable to simple analysis. The questions he posed about the survival of wild landscapes and wild creatures are as relevant today as when he first asked them. And his great vision of the whole of Nature as a divine manifestation, shining with beauty, brimming with purpose, filled with https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1044/thumbnail.jpg