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Show 361. Homestead Act had not succeeded in creating the family farm in the West, but his c r i t i c a l a t t i t u d e took a different direction from Henry George's. When Muir guessed how l i t t l e of Nevada would "be made to blossom in grass and wheat," he turned t h i s disappointing fact to an unexpected advantage: . . . if t i l l e r s of the s o i l can thus be brought to see that possibly Nature may have other uses even for rich soil besides the feeding of human beings, then will these foodless "deserts" have taught a fine lesson. Like Powell, he f e l t the need to cast a skeptical and s c i e n t i f ic eye on the Myth of the Garden which had been the basis of the Homestead Act. A case in point was a character he satirized in his a r t i c l e on the San Gabriel Mountains, a fellow he described in a l l e g o r i c a l fashion. This "strange, dark man of doubtful parentage" talked to Muir in the dark of his cabin because he was out of candles. He hoped to s e t t l e among the boulders at the mouth of Eton Canyon, "make money, and marry a Spanish woman." He was busy mining for water: "People mine for irrigating water along the f o o t h i l l s as for gold." He already envisioned an orange orchard in "a small irregular patch of gravelly d e t r i t u s , " and knew where he would plant his vines, and where he would put his bee boxes. "All this Prospective affluence in the sunken, boulder-choked flood-bed of Eton Creek!" Muir marveled. No wonder Muir preferred to say a word for wild Nature; he was appalled by the unreasonable human expectations of c u l t u r e. |