Muir’s father was driven to immigrate not by a desire for earthly riches but for religious freedom. A strict Protestant whose views clashed with those of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, he hoped to join a settlement of the Campbellite Disciples of Christ somewhere in North America. For young John, North America’s reputed natural marvels made the journey seem worthwhile. He recalled his desire to taste the sweet syrup that came from the maple trees growing in New England and the northern Midwest, to see the “hawks, eagles, [and] pigeons, filling the sky,” and to explore the continent’s “boundless woods full of mysterious good things.”
The next morning, John, his father, and two of his six siblings boarded a train bound for Glasgow, from which they would embark upon their transatlantic journey. The rest of the family planned to follow once a homesite was established. As Muir looked back at the shores of his native country, he felt only joy and anticipation for experiencing what he had only read about in his schoolbook: the “American wilderness.” In the naivete of his youth, it was impossible for him to “know what we were leaving, what we were to encounter in the New World, nor what our gains were likely to be.” Like so many other nineteenth- century immigrants, Muir made a bittersweet bargain. He exchanged the familiarity of a home he might never see again for the chance of a better life in an unknown land.
The sea crossing lasted more than six weeks. John kept busy by befriending the captain and crew, peppering them with questions about the marine life teeming in the cold Atlantic waters off the coast of North America. Meanwhile, his father, Daniel, holed up below deck. There, he debated with the other immigrant families as to which region of this new land offered the best prospects. Although Daniel had intended to settle in present-day Ontario, they convinced him that “the States offered superior advantages, especially Wisconsin and Michigan,” Muir recalled.
When the Muirs disembarked in New York City, they immediately headed for the Midwest via the recently completed Erie Canal. Upon reaching Wisconsin, a state admitted to the Union just one year earlier in 1848, Daniel Muir worked with a land agent to quickly obtain 160 acres of land in Marquette County for $200. There, he constructed a sturdy little house made of oak while the children spent their time “wandering in the fields and meadows, looking at the trees and flowers, snakes and birds and squirrels,” Muir remembered.