Dunbar's John Muir Association...

When I was a boy in Scotland I was fond of everything that as wild, and all my life I've been growing fonder and fonder of wild places and wild things. Fortunately, around my native town of Dunbar by the stormy North Sea, there was no lack of wildness, though most of the land lay in smooth cultivation.

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with the other stars, all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.

John Muir was born in Dunbar, in East Lothian, Scotland on 21 April 1838. At the age of ten he emigrated with his family to America. The family settled in Wisconsin where they became farmers and where John Muir attended university. In his twenties he travelled to and there established his reputation as a naturalist, explorer, mountaineer, farmer, geologist, writer, and, above all, pioneer of nature conservation.

He played a crucial role in creating Yosemite National Park, fought to save the giant redwoods of California and, in 1892, was a founder and the first prseident of the Sierra Club, now the premier conservation body in California with a membership of over 600,000.

He strongly influenced President Theodore Roosevelt in creating other National Parks and, as a result of his lifelong struggle on behalf of wild places and wildlife, Americans have honoured Muir with the title of 'Father of Our National Parks'. He has been voted 'Most Famous Californian of All Time', appeared on two US postage stamps (the more recent a current issue) and more than 200 parks, woods, schools, etc., bear his name.

For many millions of Californians, John Muir is as famous as Alexander Graham Bell or Andrew Carnegie, two other Scottish emigrants, and his writings are as celebrated as those of Robert Burns or Robert Louis Stevenson. Yet in Britain he is largely unknown and even in the land of his birth few Scots have heard of him.

Every year admirers travel thousands of miles to visit his childhood home at 128 High Street, Dunbar, despite the fact that there is no formal invitation, no international promotion and little official welcome when they get here.

Dunbar's John Muir Association

Dunbar's John Muir Association was constituted on on 27 July 1994 as a charitable organisation founded by local people with the active support of the national John Muir Trust. The Association, also known as DJMA, has the twin aims:

• to tell the world about Muir's life, his work, and his belief in the unique and irreplaceable value of wild places and wild creatures;
• to implement his philosophy by conserving, restoring and enhancing landscape and wildlife in East Lothian and Scotland.

Dunbar's John Muir Association has already established a John Muir town trail in Dunbar complete with brass plaque way markers and published the associated booklet "John Muir's Dunbar". It has organised a variety of events designed to promote knowledge of, and interest in, John Muir and his work. It has also organised a number of conservation projects principally in the John Muir Country Park.

DJMA aims to establish the John Muir Centre where his life and achievements will be celebrated. It is envisaged that the Centre will be a beacon for current environmental issues; it will serve as a world-wide information centre using state of the art information technology; and it will practice what it preaches by organising and supporting local conservation projects. Sadly a submission to the Millennium Commission for funding was unsuccessful, although the project was short-listed. Nonetheless, the Centre still features in DJMA future planning. [see also DJMA Newsletter #8].

Presently DJMA is involved as a partner in the John Muir Birthplace Trust which has purchased and now aims to develop 128 High Street, Dunbar, as an interpretation centre telling the story of John Muir's life and the legacy of his contribution to the modern conservation movement.