0:00:20 > 0:00:24A little more than 150 years ago, a young man arrived here
0:00:24 > 0:00:28in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada in California.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34He was far from the first person to walk these hills and valleys,
0:00:34 > 0:00:36but he was an explorer all the same.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43And one day he would be remembered with more reverence
0:00:43 > 0:00:45than most of America's presidents.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50He stood beneath the giant sequoia trees
0:00:50 > 0:00:54and experienced a kind of religious conversion...in reverse.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58His name was John Muir
0:00:58 > 0:01:01and what he learnt here would change forever
0:01:01 > 0:01:03our understanding of nature.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17John Muir was one of a small group of explorers
0:01:17 > 0:01:21who took to the stage as the great age of exploration was drawing to a close.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26Many before them sought adventure and fortune,
0:01:26 > 0:01:32staked claims to vast territories in the name of God and country.
0:01:33 > 0:01:39But the last explorers didn't plant flags, they planted ideas.
0:01:39 > 0:01:40Ideas that helped shape
0:01:40 > 0:01:42the modern world we know today.
0:01:58 > 0:02:04It's 1st September 1867. You're 29 years old.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08You came here from Scotland at the age of 11,
0:02:08 > 0:02:11and you're about to begin your career as an explorer
0:02:11 > 0:02:16by walking 1,000 miles from Indianapolis to the Gulf of Mexico,
0:02:16 > 0:02:20from where you will sail to South America and its jungles.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26Now, what do you take on such a journey?
0:02:26 > 0:02:27Well,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30if you're John Muir,
0:02:30 > 0:02:35you take a little bit of money - in God we trust -
0:02:35 > 0:02:37in a secret pocket.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41You take a compass and a bar of soap and a towel,
0:02:41 > 0:02:45and you pack that in a bag. You take some reading material.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48But what do you take?
0:02:48 > 0:02:53Well, John Muir takes The Poems Of Robert Burns,
0:02:53 > 0:02:56good Scot that he was.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58He takes an Englishman's Paradise Lost.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05Of course, he takes The New Testament.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11Because no matter how far you travel, if you're John Muir,
0:03:11 > 0:03:12you never quite get away from this.
0:03:14 > 0:03:20And you also take...a textbook about botany.
0:03:22 > 0:03:23And that's it.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28It's bordering on madness.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33What sort of man makes such little preparation for such a journey?
0:03:34 > 0:03:39What sort of man becomes the patron saint of national parks?
0:03:39 > 0:03:42An idea that has spread around the world, that there should be places
0:03:42 > 0:03:46set aside for all time, free from private ownership,
0:03:46 > 0:03:48accessible to every citizen,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51where people can experience nature and beauty.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04Muir began his journey in Indianapolis.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07He rarely asked directions,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10navigated his way through cities with his compass in hand,
0:04:10 > 0:04:12and never spoke to a single soul.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18It was more like an escape than an expedition.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21John Muir was running away from his entire life.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27Six months before, he'd been an industrial inventor
0:04:27 > 0:04:29with a job in a factory,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32driven by a brand of Christianity that was poisonously grim.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37An industrial accident ended all that.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52What he was doing was setting in a new circular saw,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56and he had taken a leather belt which had been attached to
0:04:56 > 0:04:59much of the rest of the machinery, and the belt after running
0:04:59 > 0:05:04for a few hours had loosened up and it needed to be shortened.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08Well, he made use of a nail-like end of a file to pry out
0:05:08 > 0:05:14the stitches of that belt and, in the attempt to pry it, it slipped,
0:05:14 > 0:05:19pierced his right eye, and in a few moments the aqueous humour,
0:05:19 > 0:05:25- the watery substance of the eye, had dripped out on his hand. - Oh, how horrifying.
0:05:25 > 0:05:32The sight failed, um...and he walked well enough to the house where he was boarding,
0:05:32 > 0:05:37but in a few hours the shock sent the other eye into blindness as well.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41- Right.- And he was in total permanent blindness for several months.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56As soon as he got out into heaven's light,
0:05:56 > 0:06:00he made sure that whatever fate would befall him, light or dark,
0:06:00 > 0:06:04he was going to see as much of creation as he possibly could.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13The recovery of his sight triggered the 1,000-mile walk,
0:06:13 > 0:06:17which took him from Indianapolis through the Cumberland Mountains
0:06:17 > 0:06:19to the rivers of Georgia,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23and from Georgia down through Florida towards the sea.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28And in the course of doing that,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32the revelations seemed to come thick and fast,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36He said... Well, in his journal,
0:06:36 > 0:06:41that whole kingdoms of creatures had enjoyed existence and returned to dust
0:06:41 > 0:06:46long before man appeared to claim them, and that, you know,
0:06:46 > 0:06:50frankly after humans had played our part in creation's plan
0:06:50 > 0:06:53we too could disappear without any extraordinary commotion whatsoever.
0:06:53 > 0:07:00He had clearly come to a view that every creature on the planet
0:07:00 > 0:07:04was as worthy as any other, and that man had no special place
0:07:04 > 0:07:10in the ecosystem, simply a place that was exalted enough
0:07:10 > 0:07:13to have a great deal of responsibility attached to it.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38Muir's Christianity was melting.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Everything he'd learned over his father's knee.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44Daniel Muir had dragged the family to America,
0:07:44 > 0:07:50leaving behind a successful business selling animal feed and grain.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53Convinced that the town he left behind, Dunbar,
0:07:53 > 0:07:57was a den of depravity and sin, and that America's solitudes
0:07:57 > 0:08:00would be better for the contemplation of his wrathful god.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06But on his solitary walk, John Muir came to believe
0:08:06 > 0:08:11that God cared no more for man than he did for alligators.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23Muir reached the Gulf of Mexico and caught malaria.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29Suddenly South America seemed impractical. It was America,
0:08:29 > 0:08:33and his own new ideas, that needed exploring.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41He would go to California instead, to visit Yosemite,
0:08:41 > 0:08:46a valley so beautiful that it had been placed under state protection four years before.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56He reached the foothills of the Californian Sierra Nevada range
0:08:56 > 0:08:58in the summer of 1868.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09He found work herding sheep,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12and the higher he went, the happier he became.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24We can easily understand the impact that this place
0:09:24 > 0:09:26would have had on John Muir.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31It was a more magnificent, a more wonderful landscape
0:09:31 > 0:09:33than anything he had ever seen.
0:09:38 > 0:09:39And everywhere he looked
0:09:39 > 0:09:45he would have seen sights that humbled him and raised him up.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50And then in the June, he saw the mountains above Yosemite Valley
0:09:50 > 0:09:54for the very first time, and it was then that the last
0:09:54 > 0:09:59of his father's horror stories of damnation finally fell away.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34John Muir hadn't been to church since he'd left Indianapolis.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38The valley of Yosemite became his church instead.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43Here was an altogether different kind of eternity.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47There were no choirs of angels, no unending fires.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49The god who made all this wasn't angry.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53He wasn't even especially interested in humankind.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58There was nothing here his father could understand, or ruin.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02He was free. It had taken him 30 years.
0:11:20 > 0:11:26Muir took a job running a sawmill for the owner of the valley's hotel.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30With his industrial background he was absurdly overqualified.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34But the job made staying here possible.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37He built himself a cabin near the sawmill
0:11:37 > 0:11:40and let the mill stream run through it.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45He liked the sound of the water and in his spare time, he explored.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48Thank God I'm wearing my lucky socks.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52'John Muir climbed anything and everything he could
0:11:52 > 0:11:54'to see what was up there.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59'And if I want to try and understand him better, I need to do likewise.
0:12:00 > 0:12:05'But I've never climbed anything more complicated than a ladder.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10'Guide climber Dave Lane is giving me a last-minute briefing in the basics.'
0:12:10 > 0:12:15So these are called cams, nuts or stoppers, slings,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18cordelettes, carabiners. Right?
0:12:18 > 0:12:21'But it's kind of hard to pay attention
0:12:21 > 0:12:25'because above my head is 700 feet of the charmingly named
0:12:25 > 0:12:29'Manure Pile Buttress, one of Yosemite Valley's easier climbs.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34'At least they SAY it's easy.'
0:12:35 > 0:12:36That tree...
0:12:42 > 0:12:46All right, Neil, you're on belay, you can climb when you're ready.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49- Climbing, Dave.- OK, climb on.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56'John Muir usually climbed alone in hobnailed boots,
0:12:56 > 0:13:00'thought rope was for cissies, and didn't approve of people
0:13:00 > 0:13:04'hammering anything into cliffs that they could tie ropes onto.
0:13:06 > 0:13:07'You are joking?!'
0:13:11 > 0:13:13So here's the first tricky part.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17This is where we'll look for some feet. Good handhold right here.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19Just remember to stand up straight,
0:13:19 > 0:13:21and use your feet through this section.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27See this big flake sticking out?
0:13:27 > 0:13:30- OK.- You might not be able to see it from there. - I can't see it from here.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33You just want to come right over to this thing.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39'Dave makes it look easy. I think I hate him!'
0:13:39 > 0:13:43- OK, Neil, you're on belay.- On belay.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46'And now it's my turn.'
0:13:46 > 0:13:48- Climbing, Dave.- OK, climb on.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52- Enjoy it.- Ha!
0:14:01 > 0:14:05You just want to go straight sideways to your left.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07Uh-huh.
0:14:07 > 0:14:12Remember it's about your feet, so sometimes taking smaller steps
0:14:12 > 0:14:15works better than taking those big, giant ones.
0:14:22 > 0:14:23Pushing out from the rock...
0:14:26 > 0:14:27There you go.
0:14:32 > 0:14:33Nice work.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44Your buddy, John Muir, would've been looking to come up the easy way too
0:14:44 > 0:14:46- on these sorts of things.- Yeah.
0:14:46 > 0:14:47'What does he mean, "easy"?'
0:14:50 > 0:14:53Just go straight up from right there.
0:14:53 > 0:14:54Uh-huh.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58They do this for fun, you know!
0:15:00 > 0:15:02I'm fighting for my life here.
0:15:10 > 0:15:16'Schooled by nothing more than enthusiasm and hard-won experience,
0:15:16 > 0:15:20'Muir became one of America's leading mountaineers.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24'Later, he would make the first recorded ascent of Mount Ritter,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28'a peak over 13,000 feet high in the middle of the Sierra Nevada.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31'Near the top, as he inched up a cliff face
0:15:31 > 0:15:35'where the holds were tiny, he froze.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39'"I was suddenly brought to a dead stop," 'he wrote,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41"with arms outspread, clinging close
0:15:41 > 0:15:47'"to the face of the rock, unable to move hand or foot either up or down.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51'"My doom appeared fixed. I must fall."
0:15:51 > 0:15:55'His mind, he recalled, seemed to fill with a stifling smoke.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00'This reminds me powerfully of me, right now.'
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Oh, this is murder.
0:16:03 > 0:16:04Wow.
0:16:07 > 0:16:08Good work.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13I can't quite see John Muir up here in his hobnailed boots,
0:16:13 > 0:16:14but you never know.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20Visionary madmen get everywhere.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31- Check out the water blowing up. - I know, I know. It's awe-inspiring.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35- Let's you know how windy it is up there, huh?- Yeah.- Crazy.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45- Do you want to go the easy way or the hard way?- Easy way.- OK!
0:16:48 > 0:16:51Right, here we go. Last pitch.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54This'll be the one that gets me.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59It's one of the biggest rock monoliths in the world.
0:16:59 > 0:17:00Did you come up here, John?
0:17:02 > 0:17:05Is any of this polish yours?
0:17:07 > 0:17:08I hope so.
0:17:12 > 0:17:13I hope so.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18HE GRUNTS
0:17:26 > 0:17:30My handgrip...and my foothold.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33Right.
0:17:35 > 0:17:36HE GASPS
0:17:36 > 0:17:38- Nice job.- Thanks, Dave.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47I'm so glad to be here. You know the way you drive to work sometimes
0:17:47 > 0:17:50and you get there and you can't even remember how you did it?
0:17:50 > 0:17:55You can't remember driving. Well, on there, every single second
0:17:55 > 0:18:01is very clear and it really reminds you that you're here right now.
0:18:03 > 0:18:09So if there was just a little bit of that in the appeal of doing this
0:18:09 > 0:18:13for John Muir, then I understand just a tiny little bit,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16tiny little bit, of what he was about.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18That and the view, of course.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41The valley was only seven miles long.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45But it held so much drama.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49The floor was flat and fertile.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53The walls blasted upwards.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01Waterfalls, fed by the snowmelt every spring, poured down them.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10At one end of the valley stood El Capitan,
0:19:10 > 0:19:13over 3,000 feet of sheer granite.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22The far end of the valley was dominated by Half Dome.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26Muir was drunk on the sheer spectacle.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37There was no-one to spoil this second childhood.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41No-one to stop him devoting his days to nature.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43No-one to stop him throwing himself into it.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52The valley's waterfalls were particularly tempting.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58The largest were the Yosemite Falls.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03The waters fell 2,500 feet in total.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06He climbed by day and by night just to see them.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17One night, he went a little bit further.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21Halfway up the falls, on Fern Ledge, he had the insane idea
0:20:21 > 0:20:23that if he could get behind the falls,
0:20:23 > 0:20:25then he might catch a glimpse of the moon
0:20:25 > 0:20:27through the falling water.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30What he did was wait until the wind changed direction,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34so that it was pushing most of the water away from the cliff face,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37and then he nipped in behind it and he was delighted by what he saw.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41Sure enough, he could see the moon through that cascade.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44But of course, the wind changed direction again,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47pushing the waterfall back onto the rock face,
0:20:47 > 0:20:51and suddenly he was being bombarded with 1,500 foot of water.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07He was in real danger of being swept off to his death,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11but somehow he managed to brace himself against some rocks
0:21:11 > 0:21:13so that he could stay in position
0:21:13 > 0:21:15until he was able to crawl out to safety.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32He was putting himself in real jeopardy, wasn't he?
0:21:32 > 0:21:35He never thought about his own personal safety.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40He would be a ranger's worst nightmare for a backpacker.
0:21:40 > 0:21:45There was this manic sort of desire, this inexorable kind of urge,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48he just could not stop moving deeper into this.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51But he looked forward to losing himself into these environments,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55he took risks, incredible risks, and he got away with it
0:21:55 > 0:21:58time and time again. I don't know, but it's amazing to me
0:21:58 > 0:22:01- that he made it to the age that he did doing what he did. - Plenty of fresh air.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04Plenty of fresh air, and he certainly had a lot of exercise.
0:22:04 > 0:22:10How did Muir go about the business of understanding this place?
0:22:10 > 0:22:12I think the mountains were his teacher.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14Every day that he went out into the Sierra,
0:22:14 > 0:22:18every night when he was in the Sierra, it was not just a communion,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20but a lesson that was being learned
0:22:20 > 0:22:22and the teacher was the Sierra itself.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25When he looked out on the Sierra Nevada he saw, to some degree,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29he saw the cosmos, you know, a microcosm of the universe right here,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33he saw a universe of granite, and he recognised to some degree
0:22:33 > 0:22:35that this granite was not necessarily
0:22:35 > 0:22:40- the way it's always been. - So he saw the constant change?
0:22:40 > 0:22:43That's right. The constancy of change that's happening right now
0:22:43 > 0:22:47as we're talking. There's something here that says,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50"It has happened, it's happening now, and it will happen."
0:22:50 > 0:22:52It's as if all the tenses are here at the same time,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54moving with the wind around us.
0:22:54 > 0:23:03Ultimately, what role does Muir give to humankind in all of this?
0:23:03 > 0:23:05He saw that human beings were a part of it.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09They weren't at the centre of it, they were a part of it,
0:23:09 > 0:23:15and he didn't see any diminishment. He actually saw the opposite.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18I think Muir had this recognition
0:23:18 > 0:23:22that there was no shame in being such a small part of creation,
0:23:22 > 0:23:26that all those parts add up to creation itself.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45"I have died and gone to heaven," he wrote in one letter.
0:23:47 > 0:23:48The letter was to Jeanne Carr,
0:23:48 > 0:23:52the wife of his old university professor Ezra Carr.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Ezra had taught him chemistry and natural science.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02Jeanne had shown him the writings of other Americans who loved nature.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07Their ideas had lain dormant within him then,
0:24:07 > 0:24:11but now he was free of conventional Christianity.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16Muir would always treasure his relationship with Jeanne.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19From Yosemite, he sent her letter after letter,
0:24:19 > 0:24:24delighted by the valley's plant life and its trees.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31In particular, by the giant sequoias.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33He drank the sap.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36He was stunned by the sheer size.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41Wrote to Jeanne Carr, "The king tree and me have sworn eternal love.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43"I wish I was so drunk and sequoical
0:24:43 > 0:24:47"that I could preach the green-brown woods to all the juiceless world,
0:24:47 > 0:24:51"descending from this divine wilderness like a John Baptist."
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Muir was also in awe of their great age.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04Some of these trees might be 2,000, 3,000, even 4,000 years old,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06as old, indeed, as the world itself,
0:25:06 > 0:25:11for those believed in the literal truth of the book of Genesis.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15But Muir no longer believed.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19In his mind, the years began to stack up.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21Tens, hundreds, thousands,
0:25:21 > 0:25:23even millions of years.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39This was Muir's first tantalising glimpse into deep time.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46Soon afterwards, he was introduced to an idea
0:25:46 > 0:25:48that fascinated him still more.
0:25:55 > 0:26:00The idea that valleys like Yosemite had been made by ice.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04Glaciers had slowly gouged out the deep U-shape in the rock.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11Most of America's scientific establishment still believed
0:26:11 > 0:26:15that only earthquakes could have made Yosemite.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18But glaciers made perfect sense to Muir.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22They explained what had happened to the rest of Half Dome.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24They explained why the sides of the valley
0:26:24 > 0:26:27were often so flat and polished.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35He wrote to Jeanne Carr,
0:26:35 > 0:26:36"The grandeur of these forces
0:26:36 > 0:26:39"and their glorious results overpower me.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43"In dreams I read blurred sheets of glacial writing."
0:26:49 > 0:26:50Glaciers obsessed him.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53He gave up his job at the sawmill shortly afterwards
0:26:53 > 0:26:57and went into the hills and mountains, chasing glaciers.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02His explorations took him far from the valley itself.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05His kit was, as always, minimal.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12No gun, no blankets -
0:27:12 > 0:27:15in the end, he even dispensed with his overcoat
0:27:15 > 0:27:16because it got in the way.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18During the day, he'd collect scraps of wood
0:27:18 > 0:27:22and at night he'd make a fire with that and sleep beside it,
0:27:22 > 0:27:24with no other protection amongst the ice sheets
0:27:24 > 0:27:26and snowfields of the High Sierra.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44In October of 1871, he found a living glacier
0:27:44 > 0:27:46at the valley's eastern end.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50The article he wrote for a New York paper,
0:27:50 > 0:27:55showing how glaciers had made Yosemite, was his first publication,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58proof that his love of nature was becoming a career.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02He sent copies to his family.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07His father replied, "Come back to the Church and God's holy word.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13"Leave glaciers and nature behind.
0:28:13 > 0:28:14"Burn your writings
0:28:14 > 0:28:17"so that they will do no more harm to you or others."
0:28:20 > 0:28:24Nothing would dilute his father's fundamentalist Christianity.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40While to Muir's mind, there were only two real sins left -
0:28:40 > 0:28:46desecration of this beauty and indifference to it.
0:29:00 > 0:29:05In the winter of 1873, Muir left his beloved Yosemite.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09He moved to Oakland, just across the water from San Francisco.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15He was on a mission. He had something to preach.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18He was like a John Baptist with a message for the juiceless world.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23And his message was,
0:29:23 > 0:29:27"There is more to America than its towns and cities."
0:29:27 > 0:29:31Muir would urge his fellow Americans to escape, as he had.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44He wrote for the San Francisco Evening Bulletin,
0:29:44 > 0:29:46producing pieces such as
0:29:46 > 0:29:50John Muir's Description Of A Wonderful Region,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54John Muir Gives Some Curious Facts About Sierra Snow,
0:29:54 > 0:29:58John Muir Shakes The Dust Off His Feet And Flees To The Mountains.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01Way to go with the snappy titles, John(!)
0:30:06 > 0:30:09Muir was offering his readers a new understanding of nature,
0:30:09 > 0:30:14preaching a new America that he had found by re-exploring Yosemite.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19Nature had saved his soul.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23He wanted his fellow Americans to share the blessing.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26He was preaching against what San Francisco,
0:30:26 > 0:30:28and all of urban America,
0:30:28 > 0:30:30had come to stand for.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37The galloping, breakneck, unrestrained pursuit
0:30:37 > 0:30:39of cold, hard cash.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49He wrote in the present tense.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Not the tense of cities, in which buildings rise and fall
0:30:54 > 0:30:57and people are born and die every second.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05The tense of landscape.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09A long now of almost unchanging Sierra horizons.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21"Nature's peace will flow into you as the sunshine into the trees.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25"The winds will blow their freshness into you,
0:31:25 > 0:31:28"and the storms their energy,
0:31:28 > 0:31:33"while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
0:31:38 > 0:31:41In 1875, he published his first article
0:31:41 > 0:31:43for Harper's New Monthly Magazine,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46which was circulated throughout the entire nation.
0:31:46 > 0:31:47Others followed.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54His ideas struck a chord. He was changing America's mind.
0:31:54 > 0:31:59He was in demand. Famous. No longer a voice in the wilderness.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02But he continued to visit the wilderness every year
0:32:02 > 0:32:05to recharge the voice.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19Muir's wilderness trip of 1875
0:32:19 > 0:32:22was devoted to a survey of his beloved sequoias
0:32:22 > 0:32:24throughout the Sierra Nevada range.
0:32:24 > 0:32:26He found them in abundance.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45Yeah, these big boys, they're the real forest.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48All these other firs are just...
0:32:49 > 0:32:51..passers-by.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55It's these sequoias that are the witnesses, big sentinels.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59And here comes a pair of identical twins
0:32:59 > 0:33:02and their big brother on the other side of the track.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06Wow! Fantastic!
0:33:09 > 0:33:12Oh, I think it's got a name as well.
0:33:12 > 0:33:14Oliver Twist! It's my tree!
0:33:29 > 0:33:32But his sequoias were under threat.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37A tree as tall as Oliver Twist was irresistible to lumber merchants.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39The economies of scale are blindingly obvious.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50As for me, it's time to face an inconvenient truth.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54I've come here to speak to Jim Spickler,
0:33:54 > 0:33:56who knows all about sequoias.
0:33:58 > 0:34:03And people who know all about sequoias can often be found up them,
0:34:03 > 0:34:06hanging from what feels worryingly like string.
0:34:08 > 0:34:09Are you comfortable?
0:34:09 > 0:34:11- Eh...you know.- Do this.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13Sit back with this, take your thumbs
0:34:13 > 0:34:16and pull those leg straps a little bit down, it'll make you...
0:34:16 > 0:34:18- I don't want to do that.- OK.
0:34:18 > 0:34:19LAUGHTER
0:34:19 > 0:34:23So, Jim, tell me, what is it about the sequoia tree?
0:34:23 > 0:34:24Why are they so big?
0:34:24 > 0:34:27Ah. Well, part of the reason they're so big
0:34:27 > 0:34:30is they're just extremely old.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32This particular tree may be 3,000 years old.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35- So is the species millions of years old?- I would say it is.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37So you might have had dinosaurs
0:34:37 > 0:34:40strolling past sequoias from time to time?
0:34:40 > 0:34:42Sure. Yeah. It's quite possible.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44When Muir arrived here,
0:34:44 > 0:34:47were there logging companies felling the sequoias?
0:34:47 > 0:34:52They were. And you know, he came around, it was about 1875,
0:34:52 > 0:34:55and he saw what was going on, he saw these companies
0:34:55 > 0:34:57just taking these trees with no real regulation,
0:34:57 > 0:35:01so he wrote some letters to local politicians,
0:35:01 > 0:35:02he also went to Congress.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04He tried to get the word out,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07he tried to let people know that this was a species in danger.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09If we didn't slow down,
0:35:09 > 0:35:12if we didn't really consider what we were doing,
0:35:12 > 0:35:15we might lose this incredible species.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19And that is part of the reason why we still have about 60%
0:35:19 > 0:35:23of the original primary forest left,
0:35:23 > 0:35:24because John Muir fought for it.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26He was so aware, wasn't he?
0:35:26 > 0:35:29- He saw the bigger picture.- He did.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32He was an incredible man with a lot of foresight.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36'That's what we in television call "a good out".
0:35:36 > 0:35:39'I'm not waiting for permission. I'm going back down.'
0:35:41 > 0:35:42Here I come!
0:35:44 > 0:35:47'Jim's going to the top, 200 feet further up,
0:35:47 > 0:35:48'for a few shots.'
0:35:57 > 0:36:01It's survivable now, with minor fractures, I think!
0:36:01 > 0:36:05I'm definitely going to live, even if it all goes wrong now!
0:36:05 > 0:36:08A little bit of time in a wheelchair, maybe, I can cope!
0:36:10 > 0:36:13'Here's what Jim shot at the top.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16'And this is what I was doing at the same time!'
0:36:16 > 0:36:19Oh! Oh! Oh!
0:36:19 > 0:36:22Oh, thank goodness for that!
0:36:22 > 0:36:24Oh!
0:36:26 > 0:36:29I'm done with tree-climbing.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49Something had to be done to save the sequoias,
0:36:49 > 0:36:54but Muir was incapable of rushing anything into print.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56Writing was a painful chore.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00In fact, it was becoming dangerously similar to the work
0:37:00 > 0:37:03he kept advising Americans to stop doing.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05But in February of 1876,
0:37:05 > 0:37:11he published God's First Temples: How Shall We Preserve Our Forests?
0:37:11 > 0:37:15in which he sought not just to celebrate or explain nature,
0:37:15 > 0:37:16but to defend it.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38But despite Muir's enormous popularity,
0:37:38 > 0:37:42there was no instant preservation movement.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45It was lonely up here.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53Muir had known Louie Strentzel for three or four years
0:37:53 > 0:37:55by the time they got engaged.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57Jeanne Carr had introduced them.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00She was the only daughter of a successful fruit-grower
0:38:00 > 0:38:04in the Alhambra Valley near San Francisco.
0:38:04 > 0:38:05A wealthy man.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09Louie made him happy. He'd been alone too long.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13He was 42 when they married. She was 33.
0:38:15 > 0:38:17But she didn't like travel.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20He took her to Yosemite.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22She was unimpressed.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26He went to Alaska to see the glaciers -
0:38:26 > 0:38:27she didn't come.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32His father-in-law asked him to help run the fruit ranch
0:38:32 > 0:38:34and Louie had babies.
0:38:35 > 0:38:40And John Muir, very slowly, lost touch with his wilderness.
0:38:48 > 0:38:54Wife, home, family - the stream of articles dried up.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58Either he had nothing else to say, or no time in which to say it.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01No more John Baptist preaching to the juiceless world.
0:39:01 > 0:39:06He was working hard, growing fruit, and making money.
0:39:06 > 0:39:08John Muir had gone native.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13When John Muir became a fruit farmer,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17he didn't just leave a gap in the market, he left a gaping void
0:39:17 > 0:39:22in America's sense of self, which no-one else could really fill.
0:39:23 > 0:39:28Other American writers had extolled the virtues and power of nature.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30But none had done it so successfully,
0:39:30 > 0:39:35none had so thoroughly captured the popular imagination.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39For almost ten years, he focused all of his phenomenal energy
0:39:39 > 0:39:41on providing for his family.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45He loved them dearly, but the work dried him out.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49He was as juiceless as the world.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51He lost weight.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54In the end, Louie released him.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58"Go back to writing," she said. "Go back to nature."
0:39:58 > 0:40:03And in 1889 he returned to Yosemite with a visitor from New York.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08His companion edited The Century,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11a magazine with a million regular readers.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15Robert Underwood Johnson had travelled
0:40:15 > 0:40:20all the way across America to try and end John Muir's silence.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23He wanted more of Muir's writing,
0:40:23 > 0:40:26more brakes to apply to America's materialism.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34When they reached Yosemite, they were horrified to find that
0:40:34 > 0:40:38California's so-called protection of the valley had allowed
0:40:38 > 0:40:45ploughed fields, a new hotel, a saloon, and a pig farm.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48They made camp.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50And Johnson pitched. "Look at the valley."
0:40:50 > 0:40:55It was supposed to have been under the protection of the State of California
0:40:55 > 0:40:59since 1864, and now it was quite literally a pigsty.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04"We need the nation to declare the mountains around it as a national park.
0:41:04 > 0:41:09"And you, John Muir, are the only person who can make that demand."
0:41:11 > 0:41:1518 years before, the American government had created the world's
0:41:15 > 0:41:20first national park around the geological miracles of Yellowstone.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25Yellowstone was a unique,
0:41:25 > 0:41:30alien landscape centred on an ancient volcano.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33Congress had decreed that no-one should be allowed to own it,
0:41:33 > 0:41:37although some felt that this had been done merely to guarantee
0:41:37 > 0:41:42one of America's largest railway companies a tourist destination.
0:41:45 > 0:41:50"Now was the time," said Johnson, "to expand on this precedent."
0:41:50 > 0:41:53Yosemite needed National Park status.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56Muir agreed,
0:41:56 > 0:42:00but said he was not the man to lead such a campaign.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06Johnson pleaded for hours, but he went home empty-handed.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20He sent Muir letters, conscience calls,
0:42:20 > 0:42:24and carried on his campaign using articles by other writers.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27The government responded by tabling a modest bill
0:42:27 > 0:42:31reserving just 200 square miles around Yosemite.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35And at last, Muir dragged himself to the writing table.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40In the articles he finally sent to Johnson,
0:42:40 > 0:42:44Muir gave the idea of a national park new meaning.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47He told of his near disaster on Yosemite falls,
0:42:47 > 0:42:50delighted in the story of one winter
0:42:50 > 0:42:54when rain and snow made waterfalls throughout the Sierra Nevada.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01"500 miles of flooded waterfalls chanting together," he wrote,
0:43:01 > 0:43:02"what a psalm was that!"
0:43:05 > 0:43:08Yosemite itself was a place of worship.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12"No temple made with hands could compare with it
0:43:12 > 0:43:17"and human hands were despoiling it," as he wrote.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22Muir demanded the preservation of a place that should remain
0:43:22 > 0:43:24grandly independent of humankind,
0:43:24 > 0:43:28and proposed a national park surrounding the valley,
0:43:28 > 0:43:32covering not 200, but 12,000 square miles.
0:43:46 > 0:43:51Robert Underwood Johnson published the articles at the beginning of September.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54And at the end of September, Congress passed a bill
0:43:54 > 0:43:56which reflected Muir's demands in their entirety.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01It was law the very next day.
0:44:09 > 0:44:14More was to come. Muir published an article calling
0:44:14 > 0:44:19once again for the protection of sequoias throughout the Sierra Nevada.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23And this time the President responded by personally
0:44:23 > 0:44:27proclaiming 13 million acres of land as forest reserves.
0:44:28 > 0:44:33Thanks to Muir, preservation was now an established and accepted idea.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51When a tree's as old as this one,
0:44:51 > 0:44:54it's hard to be sure just how old it actually is.
0:44:54 > 0:44:59But it's a strong possibility that when this tree was a sapling here,
0:44:59 > 0:45:03the people of Britain were still using bronze axes.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10Thanks to John Muir, the mountains, and meadows,
0:45:10 > 0:45:14and lakes of Yosemite, the giant sequoias of the Sierra Nevada
0:45:14 > 0:45:19would be untouchable forever after. Beyond the reach of industry.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22Muir's children, and his children's children
0:45:22 > 0:45:25would benefit from the right to visit these places,
0:45:25 > 0:45:27these living things.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38At Johnson's suggestion, Muir founded the Sierra Club
0:45:38 > 0:45:41initially to watch over how the government ran its new parks
0:45:41 > 0:45:43and reservations.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47Muir was elected president for life of what is now the world's
0:45:47 > 0:45:50largest grassroots environmentalist organisation.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00Is there a direct line of descent from John Muir
0:46:00 > 0:46:02to modern environmentalists?
0:46:02 > 0:46:05Absolutely.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08The thing which Muir provided, which is the backbone
0:46:08 > 0:46:12of modern environmentalism is the sense of time.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15The sense that we are part of long natural time,
0:46:15 > 0:46:18and that we should look both backward and forward in time,
0:46:18 > 0:46:23and not just be bound by what's happening right now.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27And there is now an important difference, which is that Muir
0:46:27 > 0:46:32was focused on the idea that if you took the best wild places
0:46:32 > 0:46:39and protected them, that the system could work because things that
0:46:39 > 0:46:43happened in cities wouldn't affect things which happened in Yosemite.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45We now understand that's not true.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48Pollution doesn't stop at urban boundaries,
0:46:48 > 0:46:50global warming certainly doesn't stop,
0:46:50 > 0:46:52but the fundamental
0:46:52 > 0:46:57first principle of environmental thinking, which is long time -
0:46:57 > 0:47:01think back, think forward - that comes in a direct line from Muir.
0:47:01 > 0:47:07What do you think he wanted people to experience in a place like this?
0:47:07 > 0:47:11I think he wanted people to experience...
0:47:11 > 0:47:14the joy of being small.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18The joy of having something larger they were a part of,
0:47:18 > 0:47:23which in that era there was a technical term for it - awe.
0:47:23 > 0:47:28The word "awe" was used in Muir's era to mean that sense that
0:47:28 > 0:47:33you're very small compared to the works of God or nature,
0:47:33 > 0:47:34but that's not a bad thing.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38So Muir was bringing a new kind of religious spirit, and it was
0:47:38 > 0:47:43the idea that the heart is most filled with joy when it is close to God,
0:47:43 > 0:47:47and it is closest to God when it is aware of its smallness.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56Despite his presidency of the Sierra Club,
0:47:56 > 0:47:58Muir avoided public appearances.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01His real pleasure remained the wilderness itself,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04and his best work was on the page,
0:48:04 > 0:48:06however hard he found it to write.
0:48:10 > 0:48:15Muir called his study the scribble den. It was chaotic.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19He compared the heaps of papers to terminal and lateral moraines -
0:48:19 > 0:48:22the heaps of stones left by the passage of glaciers.
0:48:24 > 0:48:29From this chaos, Muir struggled to extract a book - his first,
0:48:29 > 0:48:31The Mountains Of California.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36He finished it in 1894.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39Muir was careful to intercut the passages of hard science
0:48:39 > 0:48:43on the role of glaciers with more seductive passages.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46Such as the occasion when a windstorm enticed him
0:48:46 > 0:48:49to climb a tree just to see how it felt.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52"Perfectly safe," he assured his readers,
0:48:52 > 0:48:56because the Douglas fir he had chosen was deeply rooted.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58From 100 feet in the air, he enjoyed
0:48:58 > 0:49:02the profound bass of the naked branches booming like waterfalls,
0:49:02 > 0:49:07the quick, tense vibrations of the pine-needles, now a murmur,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10now rising to a shrill whistling hiss,
0:49:10 > 0:49:13now falling to a silky murmur.
0:49:13 > 0:49:15"I kept my lofty perch for hours,
0:49:15 > 0:49:19"frequently closing my eyes to enjoy the music by itself,
0:49:19 > 0:49:24"or to feast on the delicious fragrances streaming past."
0:49:24 > 0:49:29It was madness, majesty and geological insight all combined,
0:49:29 > 0:49:31and it was a bestseller.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39Muir wrote his second book, Our National Parks,
0:49:39 > 0:49:42to underline their untouchability.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46And once it was published, it became hard to tell John Muir
0:49:46 > 0:49:48and the national parks apart.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52Even though the idea of national parks wasn't his,
0:49:52 > 0:49:55he presided over them.
0:49:55 > 0:49:59He was their guardian. He was the spirit of the wilderness.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07And in 1903, it became clear that one American in particular
0:50:07 > 0:50:12felt he might benefit from close association with Muir's aura -
0:50:12 > 0:50:15the President himself, Teddy Roosevelt.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18It was time for another campfire conversation.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22Roosevelt was seeking re-election.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25The people saw him as a man who loved the outdoor life.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28To be honest, they saw him as someone who loved shooting it.
0:50:32 > 0:50:38He wanted to be seen as someone who actively cared for America's wild places.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41So he set aside three days to camp with John Muir.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45Photo-opportunities included.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52When Roosevelt finally left, Muir was deeply impressed.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56He felt that he'd met a man who was sincere in his love of nature.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00Roosevelt had even promised to help reclaim the valley floor
0:51:00 > 0:51:03from the slipshod management of the State of California.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06The election of 1904 is the only one in which
0:51:06 > 0:51:10we can be absolutely sure Muir actually cast a vote.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12And he cast it for Theodore Roosevelt.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21It seemed he'd backed the right man. After his re-election,
0:51:21 > 0:51:26Roosevelt created 230,000,000 acres of national parks.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29He created 18 national monuments too.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33Reclassified landmarks such as the Grand Canyon
0:51:33 > 0:51:35as monuments to American life and history.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40And in 1905, as promised,
0:51:40 > 0:51:45the valley floor in Yosemite was placed under federal control.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48But in the same year, he took the forest reserves
0:51:48 > 0:51:51and placed them under the control of the Department of Agriculture.
0:51:53 > 0:51:58Agriculture? Did Roosevelt want to farm the forest reserves?
0:51:58 > 0:52:02Muir grew nervous. Perhaps some of his national parks
0:52:02 > 0:52:06were about to be found not just beautiful, but useful too.
0:52:10 > 0:52:131905 was a bad year.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17It took away his wife. Louie died of stomach cancer.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20And while he was still mourning her loss,
0:52:20 > 0:52:25on April 18th 1906, at 5.18 AM,
0:52:25 > 0:52:28his house in the Alhambra Valley rattled and shook.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30All five chimneys collapsed -
0:52:30 > 0:52:34some of the ornamental plaster ceilings fell...
0:52:34 > 0:52:36but the damage was superficial.
0:52:40 > 0:52:4460 miles away in San Francisco it was not.
0:52:44 > 0:52:49The earthquake of 1906 claimed 3,000 lives. Fires raged.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51The financial damage was incalculable.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59A former mayor of the city pointed out that a more abundant
0:52:59 > 0:53:03water supply would have saved both lives and property.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07He drew attention too to a water source that would be ideal.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11The valley of Hetch Hetchy,
0:53:11 > 0:53:13which just happened to lie within
0:53:13 > 0:53:15the boundaries of Yosemite National Park.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25Hetch Hetchy's waterfalls were just like those of Yosemite Valley
0:53:25 > 0:53:27fed by melting snow.
0:53:30 > 0:53:32So as long as snow fell on the Sierra Nevada,
0:53:32 > 0:53:34the supply was inexhaustible.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43Muir did everything he could to defend Hetch Hetchy.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47He mobilised and motivated the Sierra Club membership,
0:53:47 > 0:53:51he wrote articles in which he claimed that it was a second Yosemite,
0:53:51 > 0:53:53hardly inferior to the valley he most adored.
0:53:59 > 0:54:05Those who wanted the waters of Hetch Hetchy were temple destroyers, Muir insisted.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10Devotees of rampant commercialism. Dam Hetch Hetchy?!
0:54:10 > 0:54:14As well dam for water tanks, the people's cathedrals and churches,
0:54:14 > 0:54:18for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the hand of man.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31Roosevelt failed to throw his weight behind Muir's cause.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35Instead he gave speeches about the need to ensure that resources
0:54:35 > 0:54:37were available for national greatness.
0:54:40 > 0:54:44The Sierra Club bombarded politicians with mail.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48Congress held three separate sets of hearings on Hetch Hetchy.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51The debate dragged on for six years.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53But in December of 1913,
0:54:53 > 0:54:57the newly elected president, Thomas Woodrow Wilson
0:54:57 > 0:55:01signed an act allowing the construction of a dam in Hetch Hetchy.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14During the campaign,
0:55:14 > 0:55:18Muir's opponents had claimed that he cared for nothing but beauty.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24But beauty wasn't the beginning and end of Muir's case.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26He wanted America, and its citizens,
0:55:26 > 0:55:31to understand that nature wasn't simply theirs to exploit.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34He wanted them to understand, and to truly feel,
0:55:34 > 0:55:38what he'd once called the long, slow pulse beats of nature.
0:55:38 > 0:55:44He wanted them to understand, just as he had ever since his long walk to the Gulf,
0:55:44 > 0:55:48that the world was more than just a storehouse for human use.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55The loss of Hetch Hetchy was too much to bear.
0:55:55 > 0:55:58He was dead of pneumonia within the year.
0:56:08 > 0:56:14Muir died a disappointed man, but in fact he'd only lost a battle.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19The loss of Hetch Hetchy became a cause celebre.
0:56:19 > 0:56:24It brought into being a group of people who would defend America's national parks.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32And then, as man's impact on nature became clear,
0:56:32 > 0:56:34they sought to defend nature itself.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40They became environmentalists.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55Thanks to Muir's writings, national parks have spread all around the world.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00And over the years, the purpose of national parks
0:57:00 > 0:57:04has grown closer and closer to the real core of Muir's vision.
0:57:04 > 0:57:09That original insight that first and most powerfully occurred to him
0:57:09 > 0:57:11as he walked 1,000 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22Why should man value himself
0:57:22 > 0:57:27as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation?
0:57:32 > 0:57:37That was what John Muir had learnt and it was what he tried to teach.
0:57:37 > 0:57:42It was what he wanted all of us to learn from a valley like this one -
0:57:42 > 0:57:44our place in nature.
0:57:44 > 0:57:49So although, in the end, he focused on a few dramatic valleys and glaciers,
0:57:49 > 0:57:53somehow his vision was always a global one.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56When he set out on his 1,000-mile walk
0:57:56 > 0:57:59to the Gulf from Indianapolis in 1867,
0:57:59 > 0:58:04he wrote in the journal that he always wore on the belt around his waist
0:58:04 > 0:58:07the only address that made sense to him -
0:58:07 > 0:58:11John Muir, Earth-planet, Universe.
0:58:23 > 0:58:25Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:25 > 0:58:27E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk