Creator
John Muir
Recipient
[William] Kent
Transcription
Martinez, Feb. 6, 1908
[in margin: illegible]
Dear Mr Kent:
Seeing my name in the tender & deed of the Tamalpais Sequoias was a surprise of the pleasantest kind. This is the best tree-lover's monument that could possibly be found in all the forests of the world. You have done me great honor, & I am proud of it. Schools here & there have planted "Muir trees" in their playgrounds, & long ago Asa Gray named several plants for me; the most interesting of which is a sturdy frost-enduring daisy that I discovered on the shore of the Arctic Ocean near Icy Cape; a Sierra peak also & one of the Alaska glaciers bears my name, but these aboriginal woods, barring human action, will outlast them all, even the mountain & glacier. Compared with Sequoia glaciers are young fleeting things, & since the first Sequoia forests lifted their
domes & spires to the sky, mounta[illegible] great & small, thousands of them have been weathered, ground down, washed away & cast into the sea; while two of the many species of Sequoia have come safely through all the geological changes & storms that have fallen upon them since cretaceous times, surviving even the crushing destroying ice sheets of the glacial period.
Saving these woods from the axe & saw, from money-changers & water changers, & giving them to our country & the world is in many ways the most notabl[illegible] service to God & man I've heard of since my forest wanderings began - a much needed lesson & blessing to saint & sinner alike & credit & encouragement to God. That so fine devine a thing should have come out of money-m[ad?] Chicago! Wha wad'a' thocht it! Immortal Sequoia life to you.
Ever Yours, John Muir
Location
[Martinez, Calif.]
Date Original
1908 Feb 6
Source
Original letter dimensions unknown.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to [William] Kent, 1908 Feb 6." (1908). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 5264.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/5264
Resource Identifier
muir17_0152-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 17, Image 0152
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyrighted
Copyright Statement
The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish or exhibit them, see http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Fees-and-Forms-.html
Owning Institution
Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Copyright Holder
Muir-Hanna Trust
Pages
2 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
