{"id":108922,"date":"2025-02-25T10:18:22","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T10:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-february-25-2025-alaskastudying-mardy-murie\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T10:18:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T10:18:22","slug":"americanstudies-february-25-2025-alaskastudying-mardy-murie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=108922","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: February 25, 2025: AlaskaStudying: Mardy Murie"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[100
\nyears ago this week<\/a>, Calvin Coolidge designated Alaska\u2019s Glacier Bay a
\nNational Monument<\/a>. So this week I\u2019ll AmericanStudy that beautiful spot and
\nother Alaskan places, people, and stories!]<\/p>\n

On three
\nfactors that help explain the unique life and legacy of the \u201c<\/span>Grandmother
\nof the Conservation Movement<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Alaska: Born Margaret Elizabeth Thomas in
\nSeattle in 1902, Mardy and her family moved to Fairbanks, Alaska when she was
\n9; although she briefly attended colleges in both Oregon and Massachusetts, she
\nwould return to Alaska to finish school at the <\/span>Alaska
\nAgricultural College and School of Mines<\/span><\/a>[ (becoming its first female graduate
\nin 1924). While <\/span>her life<\/span><\/a>,
\ninspiring marriage (on which more momentarily), and conservation efforts would
\ntake her to many other places for much of the rest of her life, Alaska always
\nremained a focal point, as illustrated by her successful 1956 campaign to
\ncreate the <\/span>Arctic
\nNational Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a> and her late 1970s testimony in support of
\nthe <\/span>Alaska
\nNational Interests Lands Conservation Act<\/span><\/a> (signed by President Carter in 1980).
\nAlaska is of course hugely singular on the American landscape, but it\u2019s also
\nlong served as an exemplification of the broader need to protect public lands,
\nand no one has been more instrumental to those efforts than Mardy Murie. <\/span><\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Her Marriage: She was Mardy Murie because of <\/span>Olaus
\nMurie<\/span><\/a>, a biologist and fellow conservationist she met in Fairbanks and <\/span>married<\/span><\/a> (at
\nsunrise in the village of Anvik) the same year she graduated college. I\u2019m not
\nsure any single detail could better capture their genuine partnership than the
\nfact that <\/span>their
\nhoneymoon<\/span><\/a> consisted of a 500-mile dogsled journey around Alaska to research
\nits wildlife and ecosystems. The lifelong, deeply inspiring partnership that
\ndeveloped from there would eventually take the Muries to Moose, Wyoming (near
\nJackson Hole), where the ranch that served as both their home and their
\nresearch base has since become a <\/span>National
\nHistoric Landmark<\/span><\/a> (linked to Grand Teton National Park) as well
\nas an <\/span>operating
\nscientific and conservation school<\/span><\/a>. Mardy\u2019s activisms weren\u2019t defined
\n(and certainly weren\u2019t circumscribed) by her marriage, but they were absolutely
\ncomplemented and amplified by it, as were his. <\/span><\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>The
\nWilderness Act<\/span><\/a>: While it doesn\u2019t really make sense to boil centuries-long
\nmovements down to individual moments or laws, it\u2019s nonetheless fair to say that
\none of the most significant such turning points for the environmental and
\nconservation movements in America was the 1964 passage of <\/span>the
\nWilderness Act<\/span><\/a>, the first law to create a national legal definition of
\n\u201cwilderness.\u201d That act was written by the then-Executive Director of the
\nWilderness Society, <\/span>Howard
\nZahniser<\/span><\/a>, and in both its creation and its nearly decade-long fight for
\npassage represented a collaboration between many of the leading voices in that
\nlongstanding organization\u2014a community that featured Mardy and Olaus Murie
\nthroughout their lives. While Olaus had tragically passed away in 1963, <\/span>Mardy
\nattended the ceremony<\/span><\/a> at which President Lyndon Johnson signed the
\nAct, as is only appropriate for an activist without whom every 20th<\/sup>
\ncentury conservation effort would look different and far less successful. <\/span><\/p>\n

Next
\nAlaskaStudying tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? Alaska contexts you\u2019d share?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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