John Muir's Birthplace

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Content updated Mon, 01 Feb 1999 11:41:57 GMT

John Muir's Dunbar... [home]

Acknowledgements

Postscript

Tributes...

by the late Dr J Morton Boyd, CBE, FRSE
Patron (1997-1998), Dunbar's John Muir Association

"While I was yet miles from the sea back in the palmy woods", he wrote, "I caught the scent of the salt sea breeze which ... suddenly conjured up Dunbar, its rocky coasts, winds and waves; and my whole childhood, that seemed to be utterly vanished in the New World, was now restored amid the Florida woods ... I could see only dulse and tangle, long-winged gulls, the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth, and the old castle, schools, churches, and long rambles in search of birds' nests ... How imperishable are all the impressions that ever vibrate one's life".

This was John's spontaneous tribute to the enduring influence which his boyhood in Dunbar had upon the person he was to become and to his achievements on the world stage of conservation, natural science and public life - achievements which live on today as he is voted "the most famous Californian of all time".

Dunbar is where it all started. The spirit of John Muir, the boy, still dwells in its streets and country byways and chimes with the spirit of John Muir, the man of world stature whose same spirit dwells in the High Sierra of California and in the heart of the conservation movement worldwide. Dunbar is the birthplace of the great man and place of pilgrimage for all people.