[pct-l] John Muir's Birthplace

[giniajim]

I think there is some question about which house Muir was born in, whether his parents' house, or his mother's family's house across the street.  One of them is now maintained as a national monument.  The Scots are very proud of John Muir!  http://www.jmbt.org.uk/content/

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Edward Anderson 
  To: pct-l at backcountry.net 
  Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 3:21 PM
  Subject: [pct-l] John Muir's Birthplace


  I became inspired by John Muir's writings while I was in High School: early 
  1950's. Later in the 50's I hiked the JMT - without resupplies - and also 
  climbed Whitney solo via the same route that Muir had taken. It is now known as 
  the "Mountaineers Route" and is rated grade 4. 

  In 1963 my wife and I visited Muir's birthplace in Dunbar, Scotland, hoping to 
  visit the house where Muir was born. We were unable to find anyone who knew 
  which house. We asked several people and no one had even heard of him. In 
  desperation, we looked in the phone book for a Muir. We found a John Muir. We 
  called him and learned that he was a school teacher. He told us he was related 
  to "our" John Muir. That's all he knew - had no idea which house. We were 
  surprised that there was no monument. We were there on a holiday and had to move 
  on or we would have visited the Chamber of Commerce (or equivalent). We did 
  visit the Castle where Muir described climbing as a child. I assume that, by 
  now, there must be a monument to John Muir - that Dunbar would be proud of him.

  When we had a son we named him after Muir. We also visited the Bancroft Library 
  in Berkeley where we could read a collection of unpublished writings of John 
  Muir. The Sierra Club had more.

  MendoRider


        
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