29 John Muir：Friend of Nature

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John Muir Friend of Nature by RICHARD BRIGHTFIELD Table of Contents INTRODUCTION page 2 Chapter 1 Young John Muir page 4 Chapter 2 Visiting Yosemite page 8 Chapter 3 Protecting Nature page 10 CONCLUSION page 14 GLOSSARY/ INDEX page 15 Comprehension Check page 16

Introduction Yosemite National Park in California is one of the most beautiful places in the United States. It has big mountains and high waterfalls. The park has trails for hiking and places for camping. It has fast rivers for rafting. The coyotes howl and the birds sing. Bears and deer live in the forests. One man worked very hard to protect Yosemite and other natural wonders. His name was John Muir. Coyotes live in Yosemite. People enjoy Yosemite National Park. This is Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park.

Chapter 1 Young John Muir John Muir was born in Scotland in 1838. His family moved to the United States when he was eleven years old. They moved to the land that is now Wisconsin and built a farm. Muir went to school in a small schoolhouse. He also worked on the farm. But Muir did not want to tend the farm forever. He had other interests. Muir liked to read, and he liked to invent things. He made something he called the "early-rising machine." Language DETECTIVE Clue: Was is an irregular verb. Can you find other irregular verbs on this page? Muir once said: "It's always sunrise somewhere." Muir showed his early-rising machine at a state fair. The early-rising machine was like an alarm clock. At the time a person set, the bed would tip on its side. The sleeping person would fall out of bed. Muir took his machine to the state fair to show it to other people. Many boys wanted to try the machine. Each boy would lie down and pretend to be asleep. Then the bed would tip, and throw the boy out of bed. Muir's early-rising machine was a big hit! Muir won a prize. People offered him jobs. But Muir yearned for something else. a big hit: something that people really like or enjoy

Muir went to college. In college he studied geology and botany. Muir's geology teacher thought that mountain valleys were formed by glaciers a long time ago. Not many people believed this. Muir studied glaciers and helped to prove that his teacher was right. Muir wanted to study nature. First he went to Canada and hiked through the wilderness. He studied plants. wilderness: a place where people don't live. and there are no roads or buildings What Does a Geologist Study? Geologists study rocks and earth. They want to learn about natural events like earthquakes and erosion. What Does a Botanist Study? Botanists study plants. They learn where plants live and how they grow. Later Muir went back to the United States. He walked a thousand miles from Kentucky to the Gulf of Mexico. The trip was not easy. Muir became very sick. Muir was lucky to have a kindhearted family. They sent him a gift of money. He used the money to go to California. When he got there, his health got better. This is the Muir glacier. It is in Alaska. John Muir's 1000 mile walk to the Gulf of Mexico John Muir's route

Chapter 2 Visiting Yosemite Muir went into the mountains of Yosemite in California. He fell in love with this beautiful place. He thought its natural wonders were awesome. Muir wanted to preserve, or keep, the natural beauty of places like Yosemite. He did not want them to change. He did not want people to build things there. fell in love: began to love Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park covers about 760,000 acres of land. It is in eastern California. It is named after the Yosemite nation of Native Americans who lived there. Over 60 kinds of animals, 200 kinds of birds, and 1,300 kinds of plants live in Yosemite. It has some of the highest waterfalls in the world. This is a what Yosemite National Park looks like from Glacier Point. Muir wrote in magazines about the dangers that could hurt Yosemite. He also wrote about many other beautiful places in the United States. People were chopping down the sturdy trees to produce lumber. Sheep and cows were eating the plants. Muir wanted to protect the natural places. This place is called Cathedral Rocks. This is El Capitan.