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Show 511. to the conservation of "Traditional American Virtues." But Muir's appeal to women was d i r e c t e d toward them as human beings, and he hoped that they might join men as equals, seeking their spiritual recreation as p a r t n e r s . As early as 1873 Muir had gone to Hetch Hetchy and the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne with Jeanne Carr, defying Victorian standards of behavior. He never changed his a t t i t u d e about women's place in the wilderness, and perhaps Jeanne Carr was responsible for t h i s . Certainly Muir's participation in the Outings Program showed his continued interest in women's equal role in the mountains, though I must confess that in the e a r l y nineteen s i x t i e s women working on the crews of Sierra Club Outings were more l i k e l y to be assigned duties in the commissary than duties as guides. Muir's i n t e r e s t in not j u s t the Sierra Club but "The more clubs, the b e t t e r , " argued t h a t he wished to see a decentralized and universal movement which would bring together communal groups a l l over America, united by t h e i r evolving consciousness and commitment to the preservation of Nature. This was a grassroots movement, as Muir conceived i t , non-bureaucratic, non-specialist, and c e r t a i n l y a n t i t h e t i c a l to the burgeoning growth of American c u l t u r e at the turn of the century. Thus the Sierra Club, and ecological resistance, could be seen as an a l t e r n a t i v e way of l i f e , a contrary vision which hoped to stop the bulldozer of progress. Perhaps I am trying too hard to suggest the r a d i c a l p o s s i b i l i t i e s of the Sierra Club and Muir's own s t y l e of p o l i t i c s . And for the moment I am ignoring the p r a c t i c a l impossibility of such a plan. |