University of the Pacific's Shan Sutton, the head of the special collections at the university library, displays several pieces from the John Muir collection. (Glenn Moore/San Joaquin News-Service)

John Muir's legacy showcased at University of the Pacific

STOCKTON -- Just as John Muir dedicated his life to preserve Sierra Nevada treasures such as Yosemite Valley, officials at the University of the Pacific try to do the same to his legacy.

The university's Holt-Atherton Special Collections department has nearly 17,000 items in its "John Muir Papers" collection.

Included are journals, sketchbooks, manuscripts and pictorial works of the man who is considered one of the world's most famous and influential conservationists.

Influential enough that on Monday, the U.S. Mint released the California state quarter featuring an image of Muir, Yosemite's Half Dome and a California condor.

"When people are doing John Muir research, we're the first place they stop," UOP head of special collections Shan Sutton said. "The collection is part of a bigger focus on Western and California history, but Muir is our best-known papers."

About 75 percent of Muir's known papers are housed at UOP, Sutton said. The material, which is physically owned by the Muir-Hanna Trust -- an organization of Muir descendants -- has been on deposit at the university since 1970.

With a rich tradition of supporting the study of Western and California history, and some Muir family members attending UOP in the past, the university became an ideal place for the collection, Sutton said.

"This department is the main resource for Muir studies in the world," Sutton said of the collection. "The family has trusted us to preserve the materials and make them available to researchers."

Along with the Muir collection, UOP has the John Muir Center for Environmental Studies and a full semester class dedicated solely to his work. Additionally, a conference on Muir history is held every five years at the university.

Special Collections also has sections dedicated to legendary jazz musician Dave Brubeck, a UOP alumnus, and Japanese internment, etc.

For Muir, conservation became his life, as he worked with legislators to enact laws preserving lands. In 1890, he convinced Congress to establish Yosemite National Park, and he later inspired President Theodore Roosevelt to expand Yosemite and create additional national parks and forests.

John Muir

Muir, who died of natural causes on Christmas Eve in 1914 at the age of 76, founded the Sierra Club -- one of the largest environmental groups in the nation -- in 1892.

The Muir collection is in good condition, Sutton said.

"It's good considering their age," Sutton said. "Paper from this era tends to be good, but most of his journals are in pencil, and lead fades over time. Photographs are tricky because the emulsion fades."

Numerous researchers, along with UOP students, have used the Muir collection. Professors and graduate students at other universities, textbook publishers, scholars and documentary makers have all used the collection for research.

Up until his death, Muir remained active. He was even found dead with a manuscript of his trips to Alaska resting in his lap, Sutton said.

"He was more passionate about it at the end than ever before," Sutton said. "He was more steadfast in his defense of the wilderness.

He passionately led the unsuccessful fight to preserve Hetch Hetchy into his 70s and acted as the strongest lobbyist for the cause.

"Most people think it kind of broke his spirit when that failed because he died a year later. It bothered him."

After a long battle, Congress passed the Raker Act in 1913 that allowed the city of San Francisco to build a dam and reservoir at Hetch Hetchy, effectively submerging the valley that rivaled Yosemite in its granite grandeur.

Construction of the O'Shaughnessy Dam was finished in 1923. Ten years later, San Francisco began using water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir for its public water supply.

"To him, Hetch Hetchy was much too special a place as a wilderness to be put under water," Sutton said. "It illustrates how relevant his beliefs and activities are to today."

Contact reporter Anthony Cusumano at cusumano@tracypress.com.