Friends of John Muir's Birthplace

Today – 18th April 2021 – marks the 40th anniversary of the twinning link between Dunbar and Martinez. Ten years ago Will Collin was instrumental in the arrangements to mark the 30th anniversary as he was, then, a member of the Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace committee; a Trustee of the John Muir Birthplace Trust; and a member of Dunbar Community Council. Will drew upon his personal connections with a number of people and organisations in Martinez to arrange the exchanges of messages between the two communities. Visits from Martinez residents to Dunbar, and vice versa, have also cemented the twinning links over the past decades. What follows is a summary of some of the interactions that have been reported in some of the newsletters articles and posts over the past 10 years.

The Dunbar and Martinez Celebrate 30th Anniversary and Dunbar-Martinez Sister City 30th Anniversary posts from 10 years ago. The first post includes the text of an article that Will Collin contributed to the FoJMB Newsletter April 2011 [pdf] newsletter. The second post includes a beautifully worded message to us all in Dunbar from the Board of Directors of the John Muir Association in Martinez.

Also in the April 2011 newsletter was an illustrated article about a John Muir’s Birthplace exhibition marking the 30th anniversary the twinning with Martinez, California. Local resident Steven Boyle, who was one of the first Rotary Club ‘ambassadors’ to visit Martinez in 1997, displayed some of his own nature photographs, alongside a selection of historical photographs of both towns, produced by Dunbar and District History Society and Martinez Historical Society, commemorative objects, and messages from our sister city.

Although the Martinez News-Gazette link in the Sister Cities celebrate Muir Legacy post is no longer valid the rest of the post provides more news about the 30th anniversary celebrations.

Will had also contributed a short article for the John Muir Association’s Spring 2011 Newsletter, as follows:

Dunbar and Martinez, California, were ‘twinned’ in 1981. On 18 April of that year, Martinez Mayor Eric Schaeferread the proclamation declaring Martinez and Dunbar “sister cities,” the American terminology. The twinning of Dunbar and Martinez was due to links with John Muir, the former being his birthplace and the latter being his home from his marriage in 1880 to his death on Christmas Eve 1914. The twinning is a civic link, not simply a John Muir one. There are benefits for many areas of our two towns and surrounding districts, for example in education, cultural exchanges and tourism.

To recognize the 30th Anniversary of the Dunbar-Martinez sister cities link, Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace, supported by the John Muir Birthplace Trust, have initiated an exchange of greetings between the two cities. In addition, Dunbar officials propose to send letters to schools, churches, history societies, Rotary clubs, Masonic lodges, senior citizen organisations, Dunbar traders and Martinez Chamber of Commerce, and other pairings.

John Muir Birthplace staff have also added a post to its website with Will’s updated version of the 30th Anniversary announcement. See John Muir’s Birthplace: Twins for 40 Years! Dunbar & Martinez for the complete story.

Under the title ‘Goodwill Ambassadors’ the article in the FoJMB Newsletter July 2011 [pdf] newsletter noted that:

Dunbar Community Council hosted a reception in the Birthplace on Friday 1 July for Frank and Carol Walsh who spent a couple of days in Dunbar in the capacity as Goodwill Ambassadors on behalf of the Martinez city council. Frank was involved in the early years of the twinning in arranging the student exchanges between Alhambra High School and Dunbar Grammar School.

[Note from the editor: This post may be updated with more twinning news over the next few days.]

In early-2020 Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace worked together with other groups in Dunbar to focus on Muir’s role as an environmental activist and successful campaigner and his relevance for our situation today.

The exhibition was scheduled to be installed in the Birthplace and be on show between April and October. The intention was that it would support the review and expansion of the John Muir’s Legacy section of the permanent exhibition. However, due to the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact this had on the preparation, production and installation of the physical exhibition, it is not yet known when the exhibition will be physically installed and opened in the Birthplace.

The hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic means that some of the exhibition’s content and themes outlined in a public preview back in February have been amended to include references to the current crisis.

This latest addition to our virtual exhibitions starts at the John Muir, Earth-Planet, Universe page.

The latest news item in the John Muir Birthplace website – https://www.jmbt.org.uk/2020/05/28/happy-birthday-sierra-club/ – prompted an update to the Exhibitions section of this website about the Friends’ exhibition, ‘125 Years of the Sierra Club’, that was hosted in the Birthplace from April 21^st until July 26^th 2017 (having been extended beyond the end of June).  Six panels gave an overview of the history of the Sierra Club with an emphasis on John Muir’s involvement in the founding, and ethos, of the organisation.

See this latest addition to our virtual exhibitions at the 125 Years of the Sierra Club page.

On this day 7 years ago Friends of John Muir Country Park (FoJMCP) arranged  a work party to coincide with the weekend of Muir’s 175th birthday celebrations. So, on Saturday 20^th April, 2013, members of FoJMB joined FoJMCP to plant hundreds of trees at Linkfield car park. The work party included Scottish Government Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Paul Wheelhouse MSP shown in the photograph (below) planting the first of many trees.

Paul Wheelhouse MSP planting the first of many trees

FoJMB Newsletter #24, June 2013 featured this story with quotes from Paul Wheelhouse: “Throughout his incredible career, John Muir worked tirelessly to preserve the natural environment for future generations, inspiring people worldwide with his exceptional passion and commitment. During our Year of Natural Scotland in 2013 it is entirely fitting that we mark the 175th anniversary of his birth – here in Dunbar – by celebrating his outstanding natural legacy and encouraging people across Scotland to follow in Muir’s footsteps to experience the great Scottish outdoors. I regularly visit John Muir Country Park, and it’s a real honour for me to have a chance, here, to formally mark the life of someone whose work I greatly admire.”

and from East Lothian Council’s [then] Cabinet Member for Environment, Cllr Norman Hampshire: “John Muir’s innovative work in recognising the importance of protecting the natural environment has been widely appreciated and adopted across the world. Growing up in Dunbar the young John greatly loved the variety of the natural environment around the town. Events such as this weekend not only promote the values and beliefs of Muir but also seek to actively put many of his ideas into practice to enhance and protect the local environment.”

2013 was also the Year of Natural Scotland and a banner was attached to the one of the areas set aside for planting to mark the occasion.

The Year of Natural Scotland 2013

This was what this area looked like during the planting.

Tree planting in progress, April 20th 2013

Seven years on this is what it looks like now!

Seventh birthday

The following visitor countries of origin have been transcribed from the one visitor book that covers 2019. There were 613 entries in total. The following word cloud has been generated from these entries.