Overland Monthly, Muir’s Wisconsin mentor Jeanne Carr
introduces him to his future wife, Louisa “Louie” Wanda
Strentzel, the daughter of a prosperous Polish immigrant
who owned a large fruit farm in Alhambra Valley near
Martinez, whom he married in 1880. By then, Martinez
was his home. He began construction of a mansion in
Martinez for his father and mother-in-law in 1882. His
brother David and his family moved to Martinez 10 years
later in 1892, and Muir had even gone into partnership
with his father-in-law Dr. John Strentzel and helped
managed the family’s large fruit ranch for 10 years.
John Muir made friends wherever he went. Ralph
Waldo Emerson paid a 33-year-old Muir a visit in
Yosemite in 1871, he became lifelong friends with John
and Annie Bidwell of Chico in 1877, and even spent 3
days and nights camping alone with President Theodore
Roosevelt in Yosemite in 1903.
It is widely accepted that Yosemite National Park,
amongst with many others, wouldn’t exist without the
influence of John Muir. And of all the places in the world
he could have landed, he wound up right here in Contra
Costa County. Today, Muir’s remains lie beside those of
his wife in a small family cemetery one mile south of the
Muir House in Martinez. Together they had two daughters
and 10 grandchildren.
If you’d like to dive deeper, as there’s an encyclopedia’s
worth of information on John Muir and his adventures,
head to vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit, or visit the
John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez by calling
(925) 228-8860 or visit nps.gov/jomu.
John Muir on right.
John Muir in the woods