Nearly a century after his death in 1914, the great naturalist John Muir still inspires unabashed tree-huggers like myself. His deep, powerful love of nature led to his life’s calling -- preserving and defending the environment -- and set an example for legions of others to follow.
He was the founder of the first group organized to defend the environment, the Sierra Club. He is called the “father of the national parks” because of his unrelenting efforts to preserve the nation’s most beautiful, unsullied lands. His prolific writings and teachings still serve as the base for modern conservation.
Muir himself was inspired by the countless natural wonders he encountered as he explored wild areas around the country and, later, around the world. One of his most important journeys took place in 1867, when he was 29 years old -- a long ramble through the woods, fields, swamps and rivers of the Southeast, including Georgia.
Early on, I read his account of that trek in his book “A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf.” It played a major role in my lifelong love of nature and wild places.
I was reinspired the other day when I visited an outstanding new exhibition called “Nature’s Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir’s Botanical Legacy” in McElreath Hall at the Atlanta History Center. Sponsored by the center’s Cherokee Garden Library, the free exhibit will run through Dec. 4.
It features several of the botanical specimens collected by Muir during his treks across the Southeast and elsewhere and relates his surprise at coming across flora and fauna that he had never seen before.
Of an experience near Gainesville, he wrote: “The Chattahoochee River is richly embanked with massive, bossy, dark green water oaks, and wreathed with a dense growth of muscadine grapevines, whose ornate foliage, so well adapted to bank embroidery, was enriched with other interweaving species of vines and brightly colored flowers. This is the first truly Southern stream I have met.”
Of his encounters near Athens, Muir wrote: “The water oak is abundant on stream banks and in damp hollows. Grasses are becoming tall and cane-like and do not cover the ground with their leaves as at the North. Strange plants are crowding about me now. Scarce a familiar face appears among all the flowers of the day’s walk.”
He dodged rattlesnakes near Athens and waxed eloquent over the longleaf pines he saw near Augusta. Because of Muir's devotion to wilderness preservation, we still have unspoiled places where we can have similar awe-inspiring experiences today.
In the sky: The moon will be new on Oct. 26 and a thin crescent low in the west just after dark on Oct. 27, said David Dundee, astronomer with Tellus Science Museum. Mercury reappears low in the east just before dawn. Venus is low in the west just after dark. Mercury and Venus will appear near the moon on Oct. 27 low in the west just after sunset. Mars is high in the east a few hours before dawn. Jupiter is in the east at dusk. Saturn is low in the east a few hours before sunrise.
If you go
"Nature's Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir's Botanical Legacy." Through Dec. 4. Free. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays. McElreath Hall, Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta. 404-814-4046, www.atlantahistorycenter.com/cherokeegardenlibrary.
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