Comments from Graham White -

Muir scholar & noted Scot environmental speaker

"John Muir's walk  from San Francisco to Yosemite Valley in 1868 may have seemed,at the time, 'the wanderings of a tramp' - but, one could now argue that this was one of the most important journeys in the history of Mankind; the journey from unrestrained worship of material greed and money-making, to a higher understanding of the need for balance in all things, and above all, the need to preserve wild places and wild creatures for the benefit of all.

 Humanity will only survive the current century of explosive technological and population growth, if the whole of humanity is willing to follow in Muir's footsteps, along the same ethical and intellectual trail which he followed: 

from ecological ignorance to ecological knowledge

from insatiable  greed to being happy to have 'enough'

from the worship of money and material things, to valuing sunsets, clean water, clean air and the freedom of the high places 

Future historians may well argue that John Muir's journey, on the road from from San Francsico to Yosemite, led to a key moment in the dawning of environmental consciousness,  in the same way that St Paul's conversion, on his journey to Damascus, opened the path for the spread of Christianity.  

One might well ask what would have happened if John  Muir had died of Malaria in Cuba in 1867, so that he never reached California?  

Or what would have happened if, when he asked for 'the fastest way out of town' - he had been told to take the railway to Los Angeles?  

Horseshoe Bend view above Muir Festival location. Photo courtesy of Graham White- All rights reserved.

Would 84 National Parks have ever been created?  Would the Giant Sequoias have been preserved?  Would Yosemite Valley have been completely developed as a tourism complex, complete with casino?  Would the High Sierra now be one vast, treeless grazing land for sheep and cattle?  

Consequently the renaming of State Route 132 as 'The John Muir Highway' would be an important step, in raising awareness of how significant Muir's 1868 journey really was for America and its people; since it was this journey which ultimately led to the intellectual, spiritual and ethical arguments which brought about the preservation of America's wildest and most beutiful places."