By the close of the 19th century, railroads and telegraph lines spanned the American continent. Settlement had spread to such an extent throughout the West that the Census of 1890 announced there was no longer a frontier line. Without the “frontier beyond,” Americans began to view the wilderness differently. It was not, after all, endless and inexhaustible, but finite, shrinking and worthy of protection. The most effective spokesman for the cause of western wilderness preservation in the latter decades of the 19th century was the Scottish-born naturalist, John Muir (1838-1914). After studying at the University of Wisconsin, Muir hiked all over the West, studying and writing about the region’s wild places, especially its mountains, forests and glaciers. In arguing for the preservation of nature in its primeval state, Muir was echoing views expressed earlier by Thoreau and Emerson, but he articulated them with new intensity. Muir was particularly entranced by the beauty of California’s Yosemite Valley and its surrounding Sierra Neva mountains, which he called the “range of light.” At his urging, the area was finally designated a national park in 1890, the nation’s third after Sequoia (1890) and Yellowstone (1872). In 1892, Muir founded the Sierra Club, an organization dedicated to the preservation and enjoyment of the wilderness.

Tags: California, flash cards, John Muir, Sierra Club, Yosemite