Friday 28 February 2014

Sepia Saturday 217: A Camping Trip to Rival Any Other


Sepia Saturday by Alan Burnett & Marilyn Brindley

My contributions to the weekly Sepia Saturday theme have suffered a little this summer, mainly due to the run of good weather that we've had, of which I've taken full advantage with plenty of hiking and other outdoors activity, following on from my rather lengthy excursion walking the Camino in northern Spain last year.

I could not resist Alan's image prompt this week, a black and white photograph from the Bergen Public Library's Flickr photostream depicting three classical composers Julius Röntgen, Frants Beyer and Edvard Grieg on an excursion on Mount Løvstakken in June 1900. Another image in the same sequence, and presumably taken on the same day, shows Beyer and Grieg indulging in light refreshments after their exertions.

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress
Roosevelt on Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley, 1903
Stereographic print publ. by Underwood & Underwood

These reminded me very much of one of my favourite photographs which has been reproduced many times, but is shown here in its original format as a stereocard print published by Underwood & Underwood in 1903 (click the image for a larger version). Few of my readers will need to be informed that this was the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) at Glacier Point, Yosemite, with the Yosemite Falls in the background. I haven't yet been able to determine who took the original photograph - and there were quite a number of adventurous glass plate photographers working in the area, right back to 1859 [2] - but I did discover several similar scenes which appear to be part of the same series, and were presumably taken on the same day.

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress
Roosevelt on Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley, 1903
Stereographic print publ. by Keystone View Company

A second pose, very similar to the first but published by Keystone, shows Roosevelt again standing on an overhanding rock at Glacier Point, with the Yosemite Valley and the Yosemite Falls forming a magnificent backdrop to the north-west. The stereophoto is titled, "President Roosevelt's Choicest Recreation - Amid Nature's Grandeur - On Glacier Point, Yosemite, Calif."

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress
Roosevelt on Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley, 1903
Unmounted print, unknown publisher

A third version shows Roosevelt seated, rather than standing, on the overhanging rock, with the photographer facing east and the charcateristic outline of Half Dome just visible at the right hand edge of the view.

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress
Roosevelt and Muir on Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley, 1903
Unmounted stereographic print, unknown publisher

A fourth image, also widely published as a stereophoto, shows Roosevelt and another man - the identity of that man holds the clue to why the President was there, and why this series of images has become so widely known. Much has been written about the relationship between Roosevelt and John Muir, the bearded man to his left, and I don't intend to repeat it here, except to quote some of Roosevelt's own words:
It was my good fortune to know John Muir. He had written me, even before I met him personally, expressing his regret that when Emerson came to see the Yosemite, his (emerson's) friends would not allow him to accept John Muir's invitation to spend two or three days camping with him, so as to see the giant grandeur of the place under surroundings more congenial than those of a hotel piazza or a seat on a coach. I had answered him that if ever I got in his neighborhood I should claim from him the treatment that he had wished to accord Emerson. Later, when as President I visited the Yosemite, John Muir fulfilled the promise he had at that time made to me. He met me with a couple of pack mules, as well as with riding mules for himself and myself, and a first-class packer and cook, and I spent a delightful three days and two nights with him.

Image courtesy of the Sierra Club William E. Colby Memorial Library
Roosevelt's party at the Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Big Tree Grove, 1903
Photograph by Joseph N. LeConte

The first night we camped in a grove of giant sequoias. It was clear weather, and we lay in the open, the enormous cinnamon-colored trunks rising about us like the columns of a vaster and more beautiful cathedral than was ever conceived by any human architect ...


President Roosevelt and party, Inspiration Point, Yosemite Valley

All next day we traveled through the forest. Then a snow-storm came on, and at night we camped on the edge of the Yosemite, under the branches of a magnificent silver fir, and very warm and comfortable we were, and a very good dinner we had before we rolled up in our tarpaulins and blankets for the night ...

Image courtesy of the Sierra Club William E. Colby Memorial Library
Roosevelt and Muir with two Rangers, Yosemite Valley

The following day we went down into the Yosemite and through the valley, camping in the bottom among the timber ... John Muir talked even better than he wrote. His greatest influence was always upon those who were brought into personal contact with him.

Muir's three nights with Roosevelt at Yosemite in May 1903 has been referred to in a rather grandiose fashion as perhaps "the most significant camping trip in conservation history," with some justification. Muir, an ardent conservationist, prolific author and activist, had been visiting and writing about Yosemite for three and a half decades. He was the first to suggest that Yosemite's U-shaped valleys were carved out by glaciers, in stark contrast to the contemporary view of their origin as the result of catastrophic earthquakes. He had befriended naturalist author Ralph Waldo Emerson, was a co-founder and first president of the Sierra Club, an associate of literary naturalist John Burroughs, and was a close friend of influential scientist Joseph LeConte.

"Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter." – John Muir in a letter to his wife Louie in July 1888

"There! empty your heads of all vanity, and look ... Yes, I pottered around here ten years, and you think you can see it all in four days." - John Muir to John Burroughs in 1909

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
John Muir on a 1964 U.S. commemorative stamp

Ranger-naturalist Richard J. Hartesveldt wrote, in an article published in Yosemite Nature Notes in 1955:
This unusual meeting of two great conservationists had a strong influence upon the formulation in our government's land and resources policy ... The prelude to this meeting began a few years earlier when forests which had been set aside by Presidents Harrison and Cleveland were endangered by pressure from commercial interests who wanted the Congress to release them from Federal control. To John Muir, through his vivid writings, goes much of the credit for preventing the passage of such legislation.

Image courtesy of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum
John Muir, Preservationist
Celebrate the Century U.S. commemmorative stamp, 1998

The President became interested in the conservation attitudes of John Muir by reading Muir's enthusiastic writings. He indicated to the famed naturalist through California Senator Chester Rowell that he desired to make a trip to Yosemite for the express purpose of "talking conservation" with him ... After receiving a personal letter from Roosevelt, [Muir] wrote ... "An influential man from Washington wants to make a trip into the Sierra with me, and I might be able to do some forest good in freely talking around the campfire."

The President arrived dressed for the business at hand in his rough hunting clothes. He and Muir left the main party of dignitaries and slept on the ground at night, once in the snow, which delighted the President. The conversations around their Sierra campfires would probably fill several volumes, since both were prolific talkers. Although we shall never know all that transpired on this memorial outing, there is much evidence of the good which resulted from it.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
John Muir featured on the California state quarter, 2005

John Muir was emphatic about the need for legislation to prevent archeological ruins from being destroyed by "pot hunters" and other collectors. The Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon were foremost among specific areas mentioned. Perhaps it was at this time that the two conceived a workable plan which would vest the President with the necessary power to set apart as national monuments areas deemed nationally significant. The purpose was, of course, to save time when areas were in immediate danger of invasion, and also to circumvent opposition in Congress which might prevent many such areas from being established. The legislation was enacted in 1906 and is known today as the Antiquities Act.

Image © 2013 Brett Payne
Redwoods at Muir Woods National Monument, November 2013
Image Copyright © Brett Payne

Sadly I didn't have enough time during my recent brief stay in California to visit Yosemite, as it's been on my bucket list far longer than the term has actually been in existence (i.e. 2006). I felt it deserved more than the couple of days I had available, so it will have to wait for another time. I did, however, get a chance for a quick visit to Muir Woods National Monument - declared as such by Roosevelt in 1908, and named after John Muir at the request of the donors, William and Elizabeth Kent - an old-growth coastal redwood forest close to Mount Tamalpais, with my long time friends Bob and Veronique. Thanks, Bob and Vero, next time we'll do Yosemite.

References

Underwood & Underwood (Copyright, 1903) Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir on Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley, California, in 1903, stereograph (unmounted), Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC)

The First Yosemite Photographers / Yosemite Photographers In The Early Days ... Incredible Challenges But Amazing Results, including A Thousand Words by Bill and Mary Hood, by undiscovered-yosemite.com.

President Roosevelt and party, Inspiration Point, Yosemite Valley, California, photographic print, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC)

Muir, John (1871) Yosemite Glaciers, New York Tribune, 5 December 1871, reproduced online by the Sierra Club.

Roosevelt, Theodore (1913) In Yosemite with John Muir, from An Autobiography (1913), excerpted from Chapter IX. Outdoors and Indoors, reproduced online by the Sierra Club.

Roosevelt, Theodore (1915) John Muir: An Appreciation, Outlook, vol. 109, pp. 27-28, 16 January 1915, reproduced online by the Sierra Club.

John Muir and John Muir's Influences, by the National Park Service.

John Muir (1838-1914) and Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), The National Parks, America's Best Idea, a film by PBS.

Geologic Map of Yosemite Valley, from Geologic Map of Yosemite National Park and Vicinity, California, U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-1874 by N. King Huber, Paul C. Bateman, and Clyde Wahrhaftig, publ. 1989, from the United States Geological Survey.

Sierra Club Historic Photographs, from the Sierra Club William E. Colby Memorial Library.

Barrus, Clara (1920) John Burroughs - Boy And Man, Chapter XVII: Work And Play In Later Years, from The Catskill Archive

Hartesveldt, Richard J. (1955) Roosevelt And Muir - Conservationists, in Yosemite Nature Notes, Vol. XXXIV, No. 11 (PDF from Yosemite Online Library), p.132-136, November 1955, article reproduced by undiscovered-yosemite.com.

36 comments:

  1. The only thing I remember about Teddy Roosevelt from high school was his charge up San Juan Hill. But as an adult, I've learned and come to appreciate his great contribution to creating and preserving our national parks. Obviously Muir deserves a lot of the credit too.

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    1. Understandably, I don't think I ever learnt a great deal about Roosevelt at high school, but I suppose the most enduring imjages of him in my mind are his hunting trips to Africa.

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  2. I envy your summer, and hope that ours coming will be as wonderful, and also with spring being a few short 20 days away, I hope we get one this year. Our winter has been brutal! Your post is very interesting, and shows quite the spry man .... and such lovely supporting photos.

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    1. Autums is here, and with it a chill in the evening air, but our autumns are usually mild, so hopefully we'll be able to continue with plenty of walking for a while yet.

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  3. Welcome back, and I see you haven't lost your touch. An interesting post with some great descriptions too. However, it hasn't changed my views about camping.

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    1. Thank you Marilyn. I don't think you'll be spending many nights in those Camino albergues then either?

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  4. I spent a night at Yosemite many years ago. I would love to see it again for a longer time.

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    1. Perhaps we should have a Sepia Saturday convention there?

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  5. Nice informative & interesting post. But I'll say this about conservation: it's a good thing but can sometimes be too rigid. I’m glad I got to see lovely Mirror Lake in Yosemite, for instance, before it was allowed to disappear because it wasn’t “natural”. I was also lucky enough to watch the spectacular Fire Falls which no longer exist because again, they weren’t natural. Natural beauty should obviously be preserved. But I can’t help feeling something as beautiful as Mirror Lake, even though man-created, should also have been preserved. Funny thing about conservation. I guess it depends. When tourists began complaining two large trees were getting in the way of the view at Yosemite’s Inspiration Point, what did the Park do? They went out & chopped ‘em down!

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    1. Conservation was, is, and always will be, a most contentious issue, just the fuel for many an argument. I will steer clear of the politics in this case, just to say that if you can please clear the Park of 90% of the tourists for me when I visit, I will be most grateful ;-)

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    2. Yeah - that would be a good trick. :)) But it helps to choose the right time & where you go. The grandeur of Yosemite Valley is, of course, spectacular; but the high country offers so much beauty. When my husband was working for Hetch Hetch Water & Power his job was to hike the Tuolumne River watershed in the Park & he took some wonderful pictures along the way.

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    3. That does look spectacular - doing part of the Pacific Crest Trail one day would be wonderful.

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  6. A good thing snow didn't fall from that giant fir tree and put out Roosevelts fire as in "To Build a Fire".

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    1. Well I'm sure that the story's been filtered through many a rose-tinted glass over time. I didn't see any mention of pesky bugs, angry bears or poisonous rattlesnakes, for example.

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  7. an excellent journey with these two great nature lovers....have been there and seen all that years back when it was still in its glory. The pictures of Teddy and Muir are iconic now. Nice post.

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    1. I have yet to enjoy it, but now I have a better picture in my mind of what to expect, perhaps I'll get there a little sooner than I might otherwise have.

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  8. When I visited Vancouver last year, I got to see very big and tall trees, somewhat like the one in your post. It made me feel very small indeed.

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    1. We have giant California redwoods more than a century old not far from us too - they are VERY impressive.

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  9. Oh yes, you must visit Yosemite - it is so beautiful. I took photos there and had them enlarged to put on my wall - noone believes they are photos, they look like paintings.
    And we too have had a lovely summer but some welcome rain today - good to catch up on blog reading and writing.

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    1. I will, Jackie, and look forward to having some of my own memories and photos to preserve.

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  10. That meeting and friendship between Roosevelt and Muir changed our nation, and the world too, and yet it might easily have never happened. Roosevelt was a remarkable man for someone with a political life to have developed an interest in nature conservation. One of my top ten books is the story of his harrowing adventure in the Amazon after he had left the Presidency in 1913. It's titled "The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey" by Candice Millard. It's a real page turner that captures the character of the man and the ordeal of real wilderness exploration.

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    1. I must look out for that Mike - thanks for mentioning it.

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  11. As always, very edifying. Once again I am humbled by your knowledge. Thanks for posting.

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    1. As always, the internet is a very handy source.

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  12. Great post, Brett. Very infomative; I I knew nothing about Muir and little about Roosevelt. I'd love to get my hands on those stamps too.

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    1. Both seem to have been very interesting men.

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  13. I can never work out why stereographic landscapes look so different to an ordinary photo. To me they almost look like an etching or a fine pen and ink drawing, Is it the depth of focus which makes them so distinctive? I had never heard of this illustrious John Muir so I went scrambling around on Ancestor trying to make a connection to my John Muir (1740-1821) of Blantyre but no such luck. It's amazing how many John Muirs were born about that time ! A most interesting post.

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    1. The views in stereographic photographs were usually selected with a large depth of field, i.e. plenty of near and distant objects, and the type of lens was chosen to ensure that all points were in focus. The most dramatic stereo- or three-dimensional effect is achieved when there is relatively little in the middle field, such as in these Roosevelt/Yosemite views, producing a big contrast.

      Unfortunately, the effect is almost completely lost when viewed on a simple screen, but if you have mastered the knack of "free viewing" stereo pairs, it's well worth clicking on them to enlarge to full size, then adjust the size of your browser window until the same points on each image are a similar distance apart to the distance between your eyes ... and go wild.

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  14. We visited Yosemite and the Sequoia forests a year or so and they have a huge impact on Australians who usually focus on far and flat horizons. I did a lot of reading about Muir at the time. What an amazing man.
    Your post is perfectly illustrated as usual.

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    1. Thanks Boobook - it sounds like that part of the world is one not to be missed.

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  15. I was just thinking as I saw the impressive Roosevelt and the Grand Canyon photos both looking monumental that I'd only ever seen Roosevelt on stamps before. Reading on realised that I had actually seen a photo of the camping trip with Muir and forgotten. What an important meeting that was for preservation of nature. Fascinating to read all about it.

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    1. Yes, there are a few Roosevelt stamps around, and I think that's probably where I first knew his face. However, I thought it would be nice to concentrate on Muir for a change.

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  16. A wonderful post! And I've never seen that second Muir stamp.

    I dream of seeing Yosemite as it was back when Muir walked through it. I have memories of it in the '50s and '60s. It's so close, but I've never been back. I think of the crowds and go in another direction.

    Should you come back to California and have the time drive north into Humboldt County to see the old growth redwoods. Incredibly beautiful.

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    1. Hi T+L and thank you. Yes, I'll be back and I've made a note to see those. I'm sure there are parts of Yosemite which aren't too busy, or perhaps at certain times of the year ...?

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    2. If you come back let me know.

      And heading to the high country in Yosemite gets you away from the crowds, but then you won't see the valley. But camping in the high country is wonderful.

      And look here for more about the old growth redwoods:

      http://humboldtredwoods.org

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    3. The Humboldt Redwoods State Park looks like a magnificent "must see" - I'm off to have a better look on Google Earth shortly. I'll certainly get in touch if I get a chance to return.

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