SIERRA CELEBRATES
JOHN MUIR’S
1,000-MILE WALK
November 18, 2017
On Saturday, November 11, 2017, the Florida Sierra Club, in connection with its Climate Change Seminar, held the Celebration of John Muir’s 1,000 mile walk to the Gulf in 1867. The marking of the event came from Paul Thibault, Executive Committee of the Florida Sierra Club.
Thibault first thought of the idea when visiting St. Augustine, Muir’s first stop in Florida. Thibault thought of following Muir’s trek from St. Augustine to Cedar Key. It seemed relevant to hold these events in Cedar Key due to climate change and sea-level rise threats to Cedar Key.
Why was this emigrant from Dunbar, Scotland, important in our history? Speakers Frank Jackalone, Merald Clark, Amy Gerhardt, and Andrea Dennison told the story of John Muir from their points of view.
Records show that in 1867, while working in a carriage shop, Muir suffered an accident that blinded him. He recovered his sight a month later, but the experience had changed his life. Instead of hankling machines, he wanted to go see his country, the fields, and the woods.
Muir set out on what turned out to be a 1,000 mile-walk that ended in Cedar Key. Along the way, he spent some nights in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia, while waiting for his brother to wire him mon; the area was swampy with many mosquitoes. He then went on to Florida, landing first in Fernandina. From there Muir followed the path made for the railroad, as the vines, he recorded in his notes, were too thick to penetrate.
Muir finally made it to the Gulf. The sea smells reminded him of his birth area of Dunbar, Scotland. He found employment quickly at the local sawmill. Not long after his arrival in Cedar Key, he exhibited signs of a “fever,” which today is believed to be malaria or typhoid or a mix contracted from the mosquitoes in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah.
Muir eventually fell into a coma. Muir was treated in the sawmill bunkhouse for several days and then taken to the home of Mrs. Sara Hodgson where whe nursed him back to health. Muir’s recovery took nearly six months. Hodgson’s act of kindness changed history. When Muir was able to get out of bed, he would go lie under an old oak tree. It was here in Cedar Key that he came to realize that nature was important for its own sake, not merely for how many can use it. With that came the understanding of how important preserving nature was.
When well enough, Muir left and traveled first to Cuba, finally stopping in California, captivated by the Sierra Nevadas. Muir intentionally set out to meet President Roosevelt. Muir convinced Roosevelt of the importance of preserving the land resulting in America’s first National Park, Yosemite. Muir was also involved in the creation of Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon National Parks, which is why Muir is referred to as the “Father of Our National Parks.”
Muir was encouraged by friends to form an association to protect Yosemite from stockmen and others who would try to diminish the boundaries of Yosemite.
The Sierra Club conference visitors in Cedar Key this past weekend, after hearing Muir’s story, hiked, bicycled, and golf-carted to the Cedar Key State Museum for the rededication of the John Muir plaque on the lawn. Later the group hiked up to Hodgson Hill to visit the oak tree near the Dennison residence, where Muir is believed to have spent many months convalescing.
Deuteronomy Clark, teller of Florida tales both tall and true, treated the crowd to a comedic version of a man who met John Muir in 1867.
Muir and friends established the Sierra Club to protect local lands. It was not intended to become a national and political organization. Yet, the Sierra Club has come to be the nation’s largest, most influential environmental organizational.
As Andrea Dennison pointed out, “An act of kindness that seemed small, but it changed lives. What would our life and country be like if John Muir had died in Cedar Key?” That is something we in Cedar Key can reflect on, especially when we look at our pristine wilderness areas, we can thank John Muir and our own Sarah Hodgson.
******
