Q 01/05

Young inventor John Muir rigged his bed to do what at a set hour each morning?

A) Ring a row of bells

B) Tip him onto his feet

C) Splash him with cold water

D) Pull off his blankets

Answer · why

B) Tip him onto his feet

Tip him onto his feet is what the bed did, and on dark winter mornings it lit a lamp as well. Muir called his wake-up contraption an early-rising mach...

Q 02/05

What did John Muir design into the small cabin he built for himself in Yosemite Valley?

A) A tree growing through it

B) A roof open to the stars

C) A stream flowing inside

D) A floor of bare granite

Answer · why

C) A stream flowing inside

A stream flowing inside was the whole idea: Muir led part of Yosemite Creek through a corner of the room so he could hear running water. He lived in t...

Q 03/05

During a fierce winter windstorm in the Sierra, John Muir did what to feel the gale more closely?

A) Climbed a tall tree

B) Stood on a cliff edge

C) Rowed onto a lake

D) Lay on a bare summit

Answer · why

A) Climbed a tall tree

Climbed a tall tree is right: Muir went up a 100-foot Douglas spruce and clung to its whipping top for hours. He compared himself to a bobolink on a r...

Q 04/05

Which US president camped with John Muir in Yosemite in 1903 and woke under a dusting of fresh snow?

A) William Howard Taft

B) William McKinley

C) Grover Cleveland

D) Theodore Roosevelt

Answer · why

D) Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt asked Muir to show him the real Yosemite, and the pair slipped away to sleep in the open near Glacier Point. Three years later Yose...

Q 05/05

A slipped tool in an Indianapolis wagon-wheel factory temporarily cost John Muir which of his senses?

A) Sight

B) Hearing

C) Smell

D) Taste

Answer · why

A) Sight

Sight came back after six weeks in a darkened room, and Muir emerged a changed man. He quit the factory for good and resolved to spend his life studyi...