Our National Parks

This collection of ten essays extols the beauty, grandeur, and importance of Yosemite, Sequoia, Yellowstone, and other national parks of the American West and urges the preservation of these natural areas. It was this book, published in 1901, that brought John Muir to the attention of his future friend and fellow conservationist President Theodore Roosevelt.

John Muir (1838-1914), founder of the Sierra Club, is the individual most responsible for the creation of Yosemite National Park. Alfred Runte, National Parks historian, is a distinguished scholar and the author of Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness.