#olaus murie

[podartists]

Pair of Gibbons | Olaus Murie (1889-1963)

[sofhtie]

sorry for becoming a girl who posts spotify links but i’m talking about this in as many places as possible. literally the beginning of this makes me fucking insane

“I have a woman friend whose name is Mardie Murie, and she is 93 years old. And I think she has done more for Alaska than any other single human being. And it comes out of not only her love and the experience that she had in that great land and her love for that land but uh, her love for the man who was her husband, whose name was Olaus Murie. And when Olaus passed away, many, many years ago, the way that Mardie kept his love and her feeling for him alive in her heart was to commit herself to saving the land that they both loved so very, very much. I know a lot of things I could, I could tell you about Mardie but the thing I want to share with you is that she spoke of Olaus always as her beloved and they loved to dance, the Waltz, especially, and they danced whenever they could, whenever they felt like it, regardless of the conditions. And I have this picture of them out in the frozen tundra of Alaska in each other's arms dancing, and no music except the sound of the wind rushing across that frozen wasteland, or someplace in the forest, or someplace beneath the full moon. And so I wrote this song for Mardie.”

[antiqueanimals]

Those of the Forest, illustrated by Olaus J. Murie, 1989.

[warcrimesimulator]

The coyote, it seems, cannot speak English. He speaks many Indian languages fluently - for he is fluent beyond all other four-footed creatures of the Western Hemisphere. He also speaks Mexican-Spanish; pure Castilian, not at all, and only now and then a word of what some call the American language. The English-American speakers have never taught him any language but that of lead, steel, and strychnine.

The Voice of the Coyote by J. Frank Dobie, 1949 Illustrated by Olaus J. Murie

[intelligentchristianlady]

What We Will Lose

“On this day 60 years ago, in 1960, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was created by Fred Seaton, the Secretary of the Interior. Over 8 million acres were declared federally protected in an effort to preserve an area of northeastern Alaska that, in just 200 miles (about the size of South Carolina), comprised a pristine environment featuring six different ecosystems, 200 species of bird, 42 species of fish, and 45 mammal species, including 120,000 head of caribou.

“The move to protect this area began in the early 1950s when the husband-and-wife team of Olaus and Mardy Murie led an expedition to the Brooks Range in far northeast Alaska. They were both biologists and naturalists, and what they found during their summer expedition was an environment that had remained essentially unchanged for 12,000 years––since the last Ice Age––filled with coastal lagoons, salt marshes, musk oxen, polar bears, and golden eagles. Olaus Murie said: “We saw clearly this was not a place for mass recreation. The Far North is a fragile place.”

“In 1956, the Muries began a dedicated campaign to have the area declared a federally protected refuge. Though they succeeded, the area remained, and remains, under constant siege by lobbyists and oil industry, determined to access the resources buried beneath the land.

“In 2015, President Obama recommended to Congress that 12.28 million additional acres, including the Coastal Plain, be designated as protected wilderness. The Gwich’in people still inhabit this area. They are dependent upon the caribou and call the Coastal Plain “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.”

“Just last month, the outgoing U.S. president Trump moved to complete a lease sale on an area of the refuge for oil drilling.” (x)

[npsparkclp]

Reading the Landscape

This month, we are celebrating a few of the authors, journalists, and poets associated with places that we now know as part of the National Park System. The NPS helps to preserve the legacy and perspective of  writers through park cultural landscapes, allowing us to envision the places in which their words were imagined.

The NPS preserves places that are associated with the literary contributions of specific individuals, like John Muir National Historic Site and Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, but literary discoveries are not limited to those parks. 

John Muir, ca. 1910 (NPS / JOMU 3520)

Some of these written expressions are our first introduction to a place, leading us to it or reflecting the historic character of a park cultural landscape. Others reveal the author's unique relationship to those surroundings. Sometimes, the landscape acts as the entryway to discover the writing, giving dimension to the words. 

Whether you are planning summer reading or a summer road trip, we hope you find new places to explore in our landscapes of literature mini-series. 

Follow along, catch up, or add you own favorites with #literarylandscapes. 

More literature and poetry in the NPS

What are cultural landscapes?

Featured:

Adolph Murie: Wildlife Biologist, Conservationist (Denali National Park & Preserve)

Writings of John Muir (Sierra Club)

[rjzimmerman]

I had not heard of John Gorka before tonight. I was reading an interview about Aldo Leopold, the ecologist and author of Sand County Almana, with Olaus Murie, one of his friends. The interviewee quoted the songwriter, John Gorka, as follows:

Wilderness in the classic sense has taken in its hits, both literally and in terms of our historical and cultural understanding.  Wildness persists.  I am reminded now of the songwriter John Gorka’s words:

I'm the tapping on your shoulder

I'm the raven in the storm

I'll take shelter in your rafters

I'm the shiver when you're warm.

So I googled John Gorka. He’s a folk musician and songwriter. I also did an iTunes search, and found the song, Raven In The Storm, from which the interviewee was quoting. And I like the song. Mary Black, another folk singer, also has a version (live). The song is new to me, even though it was released in 1990. It’s lyrics are creepy........I think it’s about fear, and fear of the wilderness certainly fits in there for some people (maybe most people).

Enjoy.

[buffalogirlsdesign]

Celia Hunter (on the left) fought alongside Mardy and Olaus Murie to safeguard the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and became the first female president of a national conservation organization - The Wilderness Society. She played a major role in the passage of legislation that protected over 100 million acres in Alaska. On her dying day she wrote a letter to Congress urging the protection of the Arctic Refuge from oil drilling. #womeninwilderness #celiahunter #articrefuge #wilderness #wildernessprotection #alaska #womenempowerment #womenphotographers #history #photography #historyofphotography https://www.instagram.com/p/B7qskMmJ5Ws/?igshid=i7hobjbu2itq

[casbooks]

Title: The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960

Author: Douglas Brinkley

ISBN: 9780062005977

Description: When legendary naturalist John Muir began exploring Glacier Bay in 1879, he was unprepared for 'the sheer poetic depth of the Alaskan wilderness.' Twenty years later, Muir joined the Harriman Expedition, which found Alaska to be 'a unique, untrammeled, sui generis wilderness in need of preservation.' Indeed, as soon as the U.S. acquired this magnificent and bountiful land, the war began between those who would recklessly exploit Alaska's natural wealth for profit and those who believed that this was a sacred place to be cherished and protected. Brinkley's scrupulous, dramatic chronicle of the complex struggle to protect Alaska's glorious wilderness and wildlife in the years before it became a state is the second book in what he describes as his lifework, a multivolume history of conservation in America that began with his unique portrait of Theodore Roosevelt, The Wilderness Warrior (2009). Here Roosevelt is one of many colorful visionaries Brinkley vividly portrays, from explorers and scientists (Charles Sheldon, William T. Hornaday) to artists and writers (Rockwell Kent, Walt Disney, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder) to heroes Olaus and Mardy Murie, who campaigned tirelessly for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Essential to understanding today's environmental challenges, Brinkley's Alaskan history and pantheon of valiant conservationists is boldly original, enlightening, enthralling, and profoundly moving.

Tags: Alaska, USA, General History,

Subjects: Books.General History.USA

[podartists]

Cow and Calf Elk | Olaus Murie (1889-1963)

[womenofwilderness]

Mardy Murie and her living quarters, Last Lake, Sheenjek River Valley, Alaska, 1956--a summer she and Olaus would later remember as one of their happiest times

[antiqueanimals]

Those of the Forest, illustrated by Olaus J. Murie, 1989.

[mado-science]

Amazing Covers all the main mammals very well! I bought this to supplement my Mammalogy class at university. This book contains information on tracks (really great pictures in dirt, snow, mud), homes (even burrow size for small mammals), and some general signs. Definitely worth it, I recommend this book. One negative thing is that there aren't pictures of what each animal looks like, so if you're not familiar with them then you can track but you don't know what it looks like. Also because it's so comprehensive, it is heavy. Not hardback chemistry textbook heavy, but it's not basic stuff. Go to Amazon

Great book for any level tracker or outdoorsmen! I'm a dedicated person to the art of primitive living. It's been a lifelong learning experience and tracking animals and knowing their signs is the MOST important part of survival besides the basics. (Shelter, Fire and water). So anyone looking to make themselves a better hunter or outdoor enthusiasts look no farther. Great descriptions on tracks, scats, scrapes, kill sites and etc. You will definitely add to your Arsenal of knowledge with this book and make any trip to the wilderness that much more fun. Go to Amazon

Comprehensive and accessible with beautiful pictures I often see tracks in the snow at my parents' house in Vermont in the winter, when it is also easier to spot scat, holes, and tree damage. This book is very comprehensive and has some great photos allowing you to compare the signs that different animals leave behind. I learned so much just from a brief perusal and am already seeing a few things I didn't understand before (it helps to hike with my parents' two dogs who helpfully identify the scent mounds). I am definitely a 'beginning' tracker (if that); I am not sure if this book would be useful for a more experienced tracker but it seems like an excellent book for the curious outdoorsman. Go to Amazon

Best tracks book I have owned I have owned a lot of tracks and tracking books over the years but my 12 year old son asked for a tracking book for his birthday so I set out to try and find the most comprehensive one I could that would cover all the animals he could ever hope to encounter where we live in the mountains of NW Montana. This book is really the end all be all of references for tracks. From tracks we find on our porch in the snow that turned out to be a pine martin looking for squirrels to wolf and bear tracks in the mountains this has been a wonderful reference for him and for myself. Go to Amazon

love to look for wildlife wishing we were on the road...love to look for wildlife. City girl the book is for those people who want to know what is a sign animals have been active...very interesting Go to Amazon

Porn for Scat and Tracks Obsessives! Amazing book. Can't put it down. Thanks especially to the colorful scat photos, I can now confidently identify the culprit who has been stealing our vegetables. And thanks especially to the graphic photos of paw prints and strides and such I will be able to track this varmint down and terminate it. Bless you. Go to Amazon

This is an excellent reference and my go-to guide whenever I come across ... This is an excellent reference and my go-to guide whenever I come across tracks or sign that I suspect to be mammalian. Anyone interested in learning more about how to identify and distinguish mammal tracks and sign should have this in their library. Go to Amazon

Move Over, Olaus Murie! In the beginning, there was the Peterson Field Guide to Animal Tracks. Then came Tom Brown's Field Guide to Tracking and Nature Observation. Next Paul Rezendes broke new ground with Tracking and the Art of Seeing. Authors and publishers like Halfpenny, Audubon, Stokes and lots of regional track finders notwithstanding, there was a pause. Go to Amazon

Four Stars One Star Christmas Wonderful informative book Five Stars Five Stars Excellent! fantastic book It would be nice to see what the actual animal looks like

[rivermusic]

There is growing awareness of the beauty of country ... a sincere desire to keep some of it for all time. People are beginning to value highly the fact that a river runs unimpeded for a distance... They are beginning to obtain deep satisfaction from the fact that a herd of elk may be observed in back country, on ancestral ranges, where the Indians once hunted them. They are beginning to seek the healing relaxation that is possible in wild country. In short, they want it.

- Olaus Murie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaus_Murie

[podartists]

Mandrill | Olaus Murie (1889-1963)

[womenofwilderness]

Mardy Murie, “Grandmother of the Conservation Movement,” was a committed lifelong conservationist and protector of wildlife and wild lands. Wife of former Wilderness Society President Olaus Murie, Mardy Murie was a wilderness warrior in her own right, serving on The Wilderness Society governing council and advocating for wilderness in Alaska and beyond throughout her life.