The Blue Mountains resident and author Robert Burcher’s most recent book, My Summer of Glorious Freedom, was a 30-year labour of love.
The book chronicles the two years John Muir, the famous American naturalist and founder of the modern environmental movement, spent travelling around southern Ontario collecting plant and flower specimens and working at a water-powered mill in Meaford.
To celebrate Ontario Public Libraries week, Burcher spoke at the Meaford Public Library on Oct. 18 about his book and the research and travelling he completed during the writing process.
Muir was in Canada from 1864 to 1866, however very little has been written about this period of his life and his diaries/journals were lost in a fire that destroyed the mill he was working at in Meaford. It was Muir’s hobby of collecting and saving plants and flowers in a plant press he carried with him as he wandered around that allowed Burcher to retrace Muir’s steps. Starting with his days living and working in Bradford, to a trip to Hamiltion and Niagara Falls where he connected with his brother and headed north to Meaford for steady employment at the mill owned by the Trout family in Meaford. Muir recorded the day and location of each specimen he saved and Burcher used that information to tell his story.
For Burcher the odyssey began 30 years ago when he was hiking in the Beaver Valley and came across a plaque near Epping that denoted Muir’s time in Canada. The plaque’s condition had deteriorated and it was covered in graffiti, Burcher successfully worked to have it cleaned up and relocated. Not long after, he connected with the Canadian Friends of John Muir. This committee was formed to raise awareness of Muir’s time in Canada and Meaford and eventually did the research and archeological digs to confirm the location of the cabin and mill sites where Muir lived and worked.
“He was a nobody when he lived here. He was a worker at a sawmill,” said Burcher.
Burcher’s library presentation included a reading from his book, a slideshow of photos of his journeys and a video outlining Muir’s history in the local area and the importance of the Trout Hollow site.
Burcher said the relatively scant details available about Muir’s history in Meaford and southern Ontario led him to research and write the book.
“Nobody knew how he got here. Nobody knows about his two years here. That became this book,” he said.
The mill Muir worked at on the Bighead River burned to the ground on a cold February night in 1866. Muir’s journals were destroyed in the mishap and the loss of his job led him to depart Meaford and return to the United States. The mill produced rake handles and other farm equipment, which were critical tools in the farming economy in the days before tractors and heavy equipment.
Burcher had a list of every plant Muir collected during his time in Canada and he then set out to trace the steps of John Muir.
“This book is about my journey throughout Ontario chasing plant specimens. I had a few escapades on this trip,” he said.
Burcher started the journey in 2015 and it took five years for him to complete it. For Burcher, finding a wild calla lily, which Muir had catalogued in his collection, became a side focus of his project. Muir recorded that he found the flower 40 miles northeast of Hamilton near the Forks of the Credit at a location he called the Devil’s Half Acre. For some time, the lily eluded Burcher and at one point caused him an almost near-death experience. Eventually, he was able to find the flower in an almost routine location after consulting an expert.
“I told a naturalist in Hamilton I was looking for (the lily) for three years. He said: 'are you kidding? It’s blooming right now on the next side road.' It was in a ditch,” said Burcher.
Burcher said his journey to complete the book was inspiring for him.
“I was channelling John Muir. I often dressed up in costume when I was travelling along to see what it felt like,” he said.
There are copies of Burcher's book available for loan from the Meaford and The Blue Mountains Libraries.
