The Patron Saint of National parks

The BBC had this film on John Muir, the explorer of the western USA, who influenced the country to preserve their natural heritage.



rejecting the negative fear of Calvinism, he found God in the beauty of nature.

more about his writings here.


Leaving home, Muir spent two and a half years as a student at the University of Wisconsin, then worked briefly in an Indiana machine shop as an inventor until a serious accident temporarily blinded him.

Deeply thankful to recover his eyesight, he decided to behold “the inventions of God,” inaugurating what would become a lifelong journey with a thousand-mile walk to the Gulf of Mexico. In his backpack he carried a copy of the New Testament – even though he had committed it to heart – alongside Milton’s Paradise Lost and a book of Robert Burns’ poetry.
... “Who shall read the teaching of these sylvan pages, the glad brotherhood of rills that sing in the valleys, and all the happy creatures that dwell in them under the tender keeping of a Father’s care?”