Title:
Letter from John Muir to [Robert Underwood] Johnson, 1898 Jun 8.
Creator:
John Muir
Publisher:
Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library . Please contact
this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Contributor:
[Robert Underwood] Johnson
Date:
1898 Jun 8
2008
Type:
Text
Format:
Image/jpeg2000
Identifier:
muir10_0194-md-1
Source:
Original letter dimensions unknown.
Language:
eng
Coverage:
Martinez [Calif.]
Rights:
Copyrighted
The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission
to publish or exhibit them, see
http://library.pacific.edu/ha/forms
Muir-Hanna Trust
1984
Transcription:
Martinez, June 8. 1898 My dear Johnson, That was a fine strong timely article on the forests you wrote, in the midst of
this Cuba din? . But nevertheless the National Parks as well as the reservations are being invaded by loads of sheep not a
single man with sustained authority is on the ground to oppose the destruction. Cant you or Pinchot or Bowers get Bliss to
send somebody out with power to fight them off? A half dozen bluecoats - that would not be missed from the Army would be enough
to save the forests. How is the Senate bill abolishing the Last Cleveland Reservations now. Ever Yours John Muir in
margin: Kindly return these documents when done with them. R.U. Johnson Century Magazine newspaper clipping illegible PERSONAL
INTELLIGENCE. HERALD WEATHER FORECASTS:- The illegible depression has moved eastwardly, followed by a small area of lower
temperature in the Lake region. A centre of disturbance illegible Northwest will slowly drift toward the illegible to continue
newspaper clipping SHEEP ON THE RESERVATION.- E.W. Houghton in Porterville Enterprise, May 20: within the last two weeks
there has been from 18,000 to 15,000 sheep driven up the Frasier mill road into the government reservation in direct and willful
contempt of law. All these parties, with the exception of C. Brown, are aliens and non-residents; they own no land and pay
no taxes, and are in every respect an unmitigable curse to the country, worse than the Egyptian plague of locusts. There is
now a strip of land as wide as the settlers will permit as destitute of feed as the main road, and every future band of sheep
that comes up must either starve or encroach more and more on private property. This will inevitably end n people taking the
law in their own hands. newspaper clipping Mariposa. ANOTHER WAR ON HAND.-The condition of affairs in the California national
parks, owing to trespassing herds, has grown serious. The guards of the regular army troops having been called away on account
of the hostilities, the herds are taking advantage of their absence. Supt. MacKenzie, in a letter to Secretary Bliss, says
that thousands of cattle and horses have passed through Yosemite Park. He is also credibly informed that sheep herders propose
to hold? the ranges by force of arms against all comers, the herders? thus first reaching the range keeping out others. Those
in charge of the flocks, he says, have been supplied with firearms by their employers, and he fears the Park may become the
scene of a fierce struggle. Many of the herders and some of the owners are Portuguese and Basques and are capable of lawlessness
under present conditions. Mendocino. illegible