In fewer than 15 minutes, two separate carloads of people pulled up to the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez last Saturday. But then they turned away because the 325-acre park, with its Victorian mansion, historic pear orchard and visitor’s center, had been closed to the public without notice.

Related Articles

“What’s going on?” a man in one car asked. When told that the park was closed because of the federal government shutdown, he said, “I didn’t expect a historic site to be closed. I feel bad.” He had driven an hour from Santa Clara to Martinez, having heard that a famous American once lived there.

That eminent figure is Muir, the Scottish-born naturalist who founded the Sierra Club and hosted President Theodore Roosevelt on a camping trip in Yosemite in 1903. Muir is call

See Full Page