Bully for Yosemite!

By Candace Fleming

On May 15, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Yosemite National Park and was greeted by a cheering crowd. The President’s luggage was thoughtfully taken to the fanciest hotel in the area.

“Someone get my bags!” shouted Roosevelt.

The president was not happy. He had not traveled all the way to California to give speeches or stay in fancy hotels. No, President Roosevelt was going camping in Yosemite Valley. And he was going with the famous outdoorsman and preservationist John Muir.

John Muir had lived in Yosemite for thirty years, working as a wilderness guide and living off the land. He tried to persuade people to preserve the area. But that wasn’t easy.

At the turn of the century, most Americans believed the country was too big to be used up.

John Muir knew better. When loggers dynamited the giant sequoias in Yosemite Valley, Muir spoke out. “Any fool can destroy trees!” he thundered. “But only Uncle Sam can save them!”

Uncle Sam tried to. In 1890, the government formed Yosemite National Park, but the new park did not include Yosemite Valley. The valley was, Muir wrote, “the grandest of all nature’s temples.”

But the temple went unprotected. Giant sequoias were ripped from the earth, washing soil into clear streams that became choked with mud. The only way to save the valley was to make it a national park as well. Muir needed help.

In March 1903, help appeared. Muir received a letter from President Roosevelt himself, proposing a camping trip in Yosemite and asking Muir to be his guide. “I do not want anyone with me but you,” Roosevelt wrote.

Here was the opportunity Muir needed! Roosevelt had already expressed his outrage over the destruction of the wilderness. The President had once said, “The time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone.”

Muir quickly agreed to guide Roosevelt. When the President’s train rolled into Yosemite a few weeks later, Muir was waiting.

Ignoring the chaos around them, the two men rode on horseback the twenty miles to Yosemite Valley and pitched camp in Mariposa Grove. Beneath a canopy of ancient sequoias, the two men chatted nonstop.

Muir quickly discovered that the President deeply loved the outdoors and had a great understanding of nature. Muir was more hopeful than ever.

The next morning, the campers rode to the top of Glacier Point. The splendor of Yosemite Valley mesmerized Roosevelt. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything,” he said. “This is dee-lightful!”

Muir was also delighted—with the President. “I had a perfectly glorious time with the President and the mountains,” he later wrote. “I never had a more interesting, hearty companion.”

That night the two men camped at the edge of Bridalveil Meadow, and Muir decided it was time for some serious “forest talk.” Yosemite Valley was the main topic, but Muir also urged Roosevelt to protect the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest.

“I stuffed him pretty good regarding timber thieves and the destructive work of the lumbermen,” Muir later wrote.

On their second morning, the campers awoke to find themselves covered with more than four inches of snow. “We slept in a snowstorm!” exclaimed Roosevelt. “This is bully! Hurrah for Yosemite!”

That day Yosemite did its best to dazzle the President. Roosevelt whistled to the birds, and they obligingly whistled back. The sunlight glittered on rocks and cliffs. All the while, Muir pointed out the desperate plight of this picturesque valley.

Muir and Yosemite did their work well. Just days after his camping trip, Roosevelt gave a passionate speech urging forest preservation.

“The sequoias deserve protection,” he said, “simply because it would be a shame to let them disappear. We are not building this country of ours for a day. It is to last through the ages.”

Roosevelt was as good as his words. By the end of his presidential term, he had added 148 million acres to forest reserves, created sixteen national monuments, and established five national parks—a grand total of 234 million acres set aside for the benefit of the American people.

And John Muir? He fought for preservation until his death in 1914. He also became a great admirer of President Roosevelt. When he heard the news that the President had signed a bill making Yosemite Valley a national park, Muir shouted, “Bully for Teddy Roosevelt!”