Patty Loew:
Our next report showcases the Marquette County homestead of John Muir, the father of the national park service and cofounder of the Sierra Club. This week, "In Wisconsin" videographer Wendy Woodard pays tribute to his Scottish heritage with a closer look at the natural area surrounding his homestead in Buffalo township.   

Man:
The sudden flash into pure wildness, baptism in nature's warm heart. How utterly happy it made us!

Man:
Nature streaming into us, wooing, teaching her wonderful, glowing lessons, so unlike the dismal grammar ashes and cinders so long thrashed into us.

Man:
Here, without knowing it, we were still at school. Every wild lesson a love lesson, not whipped, but charmed into us. Oh, that glorious Wisconsin wilderness.  

Patty Loew:
You can see why he fell in love with nature. John Muir's passion for environmental preservation helped him influence the thinking of President Theodore Roosevelt and it grew into the National Park System. One of those parks is the Ice Age Trail here in Wisconsin, which runs right through the John Muir county park and state natural area featured in our video essay.