On August 12th, 1911, John Muir left New York on a ship bound for Belém, Brazil. He had just spent a couple of hot summer months on the East Coast, lobbying against the Hetch Hetchy Dam in Washington, DC, negotiating with his publishers in New York, and visiting old friends and colleagues. He was 73 years old, and was about to launch out on another of his global adventures.

Muir was going to South America, for a couple of reasons. One was to fulfill his dream since his 1,000 Mile Walk to the Gulf in 1868, where his intended destination was Brazil in the footsteps of Alexander von Humboldt, the great German polymath, explorer, scientist, and geographer.  But on that journey, he never made it past Florida and Cuba before going to California. The rest, as they say, is history.

The second reason for going to South America is that Muir loved big, old trees, and he was on a quest to see two species that met those criteria: Araucaria angustifolia (called the “Paraná Pine, although not a true pine) in Brazil, along with the Monkey-Puzzle Tree in Chile.  

Muir was an excellent botanist and knew that the living species of the ancient Araucariaceae family are found only on southern continents; he deliberately planned trips to see them in South America, after already studying them in 1904 in Australia and New Zealand. He already knew that the Araucariaceae were members of an ancient family, from the time he spent in the Petrified Forest of Arizona in 1905. 

Learn More: 

• Following John Muir to Brazil in Search of the Paraná, by Bruce Byers  (August 3, 2026) – A detailed report about Muir’s trip to Brazil in 1911, and Dr. Byers re-tracing of his footsteps in 2026.
• The Araucaria War, by Bruce Byers (August 21,2026) – Researching Muir’s 1911 visit to southern Brazil, Dr. Byers was astounded to learn that Muir appeared oblivious to the the devastation of the once-vast Araucaria angustifolia forests in southern Brazil happening during the time of his visit, and likely appeared to have no inkling that a major conflict was about to break out between his hosts, the American-owned Southern Brazil Lumber & Colonization Company, and the local small-scale subsistence farmers who opposed the wide-scale lumbering. 
• A Visit to the Big Tree   by Bruce Byers (September 11, 2026) – Bruce Byers continues his reports on his visits to the Auracaria forests of Brazil in the footsteps of John Muir. Seeing places and trees that Muir would have seen in his 1911 visit, Dr. Byers also reports on the wind-song of the Araucarias, comparing it to what Muir described as ponderosa pine music.  Upon hearing the Auracaria music, Dr. Byers soon realized that this Araucaria sound was different – different than ponderosa pine, or any tree-song he had heard before. What would Muir have thought of this kind of tree-song?
• Araucarilândia: Ecology, Culture, and Conservation of Araucaria angustifolia  by Bruce Byers (September 28, 2026 –  This installment of Dr. Byers trip to southern Brazil continues the story of the places John Muir visited in 1911 on his quest to see Araucaria anguvstifolia, one of the species of the ancient conifer family with which he was fascinated, and to see for himself what had changed compared with the sketches and descriptions in Muir’s journal. It hasn’t really been so long since Araucaria logging and lumbering was in full swing—up until at least the 1960s, Araucaria were being cut everywhere. Scattered remains of the species is still found in Brazil’s national parks and private protected areas, a few research sites, and as scattered trees across the highland landscape on farms and in cities, in remnant patches, and as lone trees in farm fields.  Instead of the vast dense Auracaria forests that Muir would have seen, much of the landscape was now tree “farms,” plantations of exotic pines from the southeastern United States (Pinus taeda, Loblolly Pine, or P. elliotii, Slash Pine) or Eucalyptus from Australia. What remains are scattered ghosts of an old ecosystem. 
• “In Search of Araucaria: John Muir’s Journey to Brazil and Chile in 1911” (YouTube) – Dr. Byers’ presentation at the University of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis, Brazil, June 9, 2026. 
• “John Muir in the Amazon Basin” , by Laurel Bemis
• John Muir’s Last Journey – Press Release about Muir’s travel journals and correspondence covering his travels to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile – fulfilling his life-long dream to explore the Amazon. On the same trip, he also traveled to Africa, after visiting Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay,  especially to see the famed Monkey-Puzzle Tree of Chile.