A Wild Idea: The Hunting Trip That Changed John Muir and Created the American Wilderness

Say John Muir, and most people think of Yosemite Valley and the Sierra Nevada. Yet, at a critical juncture in his career in late fall 1874, a young Muir left Yosemite for Mount Shasta and the basin of the upper Klamath River. There he happened into a big-game expedition that lay the foundation for the Wilderness Act of 1964 — which became law, in fitting symbolism, on the fiftieth anniversary of Muir’s death. This is the story of that expedition and the singular, seminal essay that came from it.