This year, Sierra Club Outings celebrates 125 years of connecting people to the outdoors and inviting them into the conservationist movement. To begin the celebrations, the Illinois local chapter invites everyone to stop by their Sierra Club booth at the Earthtones Festival on September 19 to learn more about outings with the Sierra Club. Beginning with John Muir’s invitation to President Theodore Roosevelt to go camping, the Sierra Club has sponsored over a century of shared outdoor experiences. Generations of participants have discovered places worth caring for, forged lasting relationships, and found their way in a broader community of advocates, volunteers, and leaders who continue to carry the work forward today.
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John Muir (1838-1914) was America's most famous and influential conservationist. He has been called "The Father of Our National Parks," and "Wilderness Prophet." Famed documentary film maker Ken Burns said about Muir, "As we got to know him... he ascended to the pantheon of the highest individuals in our country; I'm talking about the level of Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, and Thomas Jefferson, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Jackie Robinson -- people who have had a transformational effect on who we are." John Muir remains today an inspiration for environmental activists everywhere.
Recently, some argued that Muir’s writing discriminated against native peoples. The John Muir Trust in Scotland responded: "Some of the remarks that Muir made about indigenous peoples are not acceptable and can seem out of…date. Muir was a human being with…faults, not a saint or prophet. Later in life, …he grew to admire indigenous communities for their light ecological footprint and careful stewardship of the land. He also wrote sympathetically about the impacts of colonialism on native peoples and joined [an] indigenous rights organization, The Sequoya League…. A capacity to change one's mind when presented with new information are character traits to be welcomed..."
As a wilderness explorer, Muir is renowned for his adventures in California's Sierra Nevada. As a writer, he taught people the importance of experiencing and protecting our natural heritage. His writings contributed greatly to the creation of Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon National Parks.
As the Sierra Club celebrates this moment, we also recognize the long legacy of stewardship that predates Sierra Club’s founding, including Indigenous peoples who have cared for these lands and waters since time immemorial.
Muir’s words and deeds inspired President Theodore Roosevelt's innovative conservation programs, including establishing the first National Monuments by Presidential Proclamation, and Yosemite National Park by congressional action. In 1892, John Muir and other supporters formed the Sierra Club "to make the mountains glad." He was the Club's first President, an office he held until his death in 1914. Muir's Sierra Club has gone on and continues to be one of the most active conservation groups in the United States.
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