Title
The Hetch-Hetchy Valley.
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Kimes Entry Number
259
Original Date
1-1-1908
Publication
Sierra Club Bulletin, v. 6, no. 4
Page/Column
pp. [211]-220
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "The Hetch-Hetchy Valley." (1908). John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes, 1986 (Muir articles 1866-1986). 294.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/294
William and Maymie Kimes Annotation
Emphasizing the value of "mountain temples" Muir writes: "They are the greatest of our natural resources, God's best gifts, but none, however high and holy, is beyond reach of the spoiler." Muir asserts that the spoilers "are trying with a lot of sinful ingenuity to get the Government's permission to dam and destroy the Hetch-Hetchy Valley for a reservoir, simply that comparatively private gain may be made out of universal public loss .... " With further introductory remarks, the article then includes, with a few minor changes, a reprint of no. 258. Muir closes with a listing of each argument of the dam-builders, followed by a forceful counter-argument of his own. He concludes: "These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the mountains, lift them to dams and town skyscrapers. Dam Hetch-Hetehy! as well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the bean of man." See also: no. 260; no. 268. This issue of the Bulletin also contains a letter from the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club to the Secretary of the Interior (pp. 262-263) and a report in the form of resolutions, headed "The HetchHetchy Water Project" (pp. 264-265). Muir signed both the letter and the report.