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We would like Listening Point members to know about the Murie Center at Moose, Wyoming. The Muries and Olsons were friends, colleagues and part of the original wilderness preservation fraternity. The Murie Center and the Listening Point Foundation have been established like sister organizations almost simultaneously with the same goal of wilderness education. The following description of the Murie Center has been provided through the courtesy of Susanne McDonald of the Murie Center, P.O. Box 399, Moose, WY 83012, (307) 739-2246, fax (307) 739-0208, muriecenter@wyoming.com |
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The Murie Center News |
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The Murie Center is a young organization that affirms the value of wild nature and its connection to the human spirit. Using conversation as our method, we create an intimate, personal dynamic through which people can explore their own relationship to wild nature to better see how that relationship influences the way they live and the work they do. Our work is that of restoration. We restore new energy and confidence and foster fresh thinking among those who serve a conservation ethic. We work with young people and non-traditional constituencies for wilderness preservation to mentor a relationship between community and land. We develop new ways of communicating the importance of wild land to a larger and more diverse community. We draw our inspiration from the Murie family, Olaus and Mardy, Adolph and Louise. Prior to settling in Wyoming, the Murie brothers worked extensively in Alaska as wildlife biologists. Their pioneering work opened a window into the scientific field of ecology. Their arduous expeditions in the Arctic instilled a deep understanding of the interconnections among wild species in wild places and the importance of large tracts of land left free of human activity in which those relationships could flourish. When each of the brothers married, the couples continued to work together to study and protect wild places. In fact, Olaus and Mardy's honeymoon was a 500-mile dogsled trip to study caribou winter migration.
Olaus and Mardy moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 1927 to study a major population decline in the region's elk herd. Adolph and Louise soon followed. They lived in the town of Jackson for several years before they were presented with the opportunity of purchasing the STS ranch in Moose in 1945. The two families scraped together the money and moved out to the ranch to live. Once on the STS ranch, the Muries set about the task of creating a simple life in harmony with their natural surroundings. In the early fifties, Olaus began a new career as President of The Wilderness Society and the Muries began to invite their friends in the conservation movement out to the ranch to discuss, in a simple and rustic setting, the importance of wilderness, and to develop strategies to protect it. Sigurd Olson was one of the conservation leaders who visited the Murie ranch. During this time, Olaus and Sigurd spoke often about the importance of, as Olson wrote to Murie, "the intangible values of the out of doors." The ranch was a place where such intangibles could be experienced while their importance was discussed. Conversations on the ranch helped lead to the creation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the signing of the Wilderness Act, the signing of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), and, eventually, the awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mardy in 1998. The Murie Center's home is the Murie ranch, still a sanctuary of simplicity and wilderness in Grand Teton National Park, where 98-year-old Mardy lives. The Murie Center's goal is to restore the kind of atmosphere and energy the Muries and their colleagues created when they gathered here. We hope that by bringing together groups of people to instill a love of wildlife places that we too can generate new and exciting ways to live with and protect the wild world around us. |
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