Rich Hoggan
English 48B
02-10-11
Muir Journal Posting

John Muir -- the man who single-handedly pushed for numerous state and federal parks through out California -- is a man who cares for nature like his own family as such Muir didn't appreciate seeing the woodlands around Lake Tahoe turned into pastures for cattle. Worse yet, Muir witnessed a horrific scene as he was making his way back to Lake Tahoe. In his book, Tahoe Beneath The Surface, Scott Lankford writes, "Such, then, was the scene which an aging and heartsick Muir now confronted from the window of his rolling railroad carriage as it approached Truckee: save for the hydraulic mining and mercury based ore refining practiced on the Western slope of the Sierra -- which Muir also witness -- no landscape in all of America had been as systematically raped, abandoned, and destroyed as the Lake Tahoe basin in the late 1800's: hardly a welcome sight for a famous naturalist on his first summer vacation in almost a decade" (149).

If you were to read the entire chapter on Muir you would understand just how deeply he cared about nature. This site to him must have been shocking if not appalling to watch as he was helplessly stuck on the train only able to witness the destruction taking place before his eyes. It's almost like watching your favorite city transform into something you no longer recognize. In this case you could argue that Muir's city was Lake Tahoe, it's massive trees its sky scrapers. For the most part, Lake Tahoe has been the center of many attempts to transform it. The first settlers did the hard work of removing it's native people's from the land, and then came the big four who wanted to transform Lake Tahoe into a system of railroads in order to facilitate cross-country travel. Now while I don't consider it barbaric to bring cross-country travel to the West coast by means of a mountain route, the barbaric part of this transformation came at the expense of the Chinese. And finally the transformation is coming in the form of those who wish to turn Lake Tahoe into a tourist destination for the rich which is coming at the expense of vast redwood forests.

Taken from a profile page on ecotopia.org, we read "…perhaps the greatest tribute ever given to Muir took place in a private conversion between two great contemporary mountaineers. Galen Rowell once asked Rheinhold Messner why the greatest mountains and valleys of the Alps are so highly developed, why they have hotels, funicular railways, and veritable cities washing up against sites that, in America, are maintained relatively unencumbered by development. Messner explained the difference in three words. He said, You had Muir." (ecotopia.org - John Muir). If you think about it, John Muir treated Lake Tahoe as a family and as a result protected Lake Tahoe. And once the only caregiver died and was no longer able to protect and care for Lake Tahoe, not much could be done to stop its destruction or at least transformation.

Looking at the environment of Lake Tahoe, it's a terrific place to be. I remember always enjoying the drive up to Lake Tahoe just to see the water fall as we made our way up the mountain. This is probably why I enjoy doing long exposure photography of water as well. But being able to enjoy such sites means having to thank those who systematically fought to protect something younger and subsequently future generations could enjoy especially Muir. For without Muir, Lake Tahoe would almost indefinitely be a different place today.