[pct-l] Fw: John Muir's Birthplace

[Edward Anderson]

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in Berkeley where we could read a collection of unpublished writings of John 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