Samuel Hall Young 
Alaska Days with John Muir 

Samuel Hall Young, a Presbyterian clergyman, met John Muir when the great naturalist’s steamboat docked at Fort Wrangell, in southeastern Alaska, where Young was a missionary to the Stickeen Indians. In Alaska Days with John Muir he describes this 1879 meeting: ‘A hearty grip of the hand and we seemed to coalesce in a friendship which, to me at least, has been one of the very best things in a life full of blessings.’ This book, first published in 1915, describes two journeys of discovery taken in company with Muir in 1879 and 1880. Despite the pleas of his missionary colleagues that he not risk life and limb with ‘that wild Muir, ‘ Young accompanied Muir in the exploration of Glacier Bay. Upon Muir’s return to Alaska in 1880, they traveled together and mapped the inside route to Sitka. Young describes Muir’s ability to ‘slide’ up glaciers, the broad Scotch he used when he was enjoying himself, and his natural affinity for Indian wisdom and theistic religion. From the gripping account of their near?disastrous ascent of Glenora Peak to Young’s perspective on Muir’s famous dog story ‘Stickeen, ‘ Alaska Days is an engaging record of a friendship grounded in the shared wonders of Alaska’s wild landscapes.

Table of Content

Introduction The Mountain The Rescue The Voyage The Discovery The Lost Glacier The Dog and the Man The Man in Perspective

About the author

Foreword writer Richard F. Fleck is author of many books including Henry Thoreau and John Muir Among the Indians, editor of John Muir’s Mountaineering Essays, A Colorado River Reader, which was selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities to be the reader for seven states project 2001?2. He contributed a biography of John Burroughs for the Encyclopedia of New York State. Fleck is also the author of numerous introductions to trade paperback editions including Henry David Thoreau’s Maine Woods, John Muir’s Our National Parks, and Samuel Hall Young’s Alaska Days with John Muir.