Golden Gate Chapter, CRFG
Growing unusual edibles in
the San Francisco Bay Area

Tour of the Orchards of John Muir National Historic Site with Keith Park of the National Park Service.

12:00 PM - 3:30 PM

12:00 noon - Fruity Potluck. (Bring something to share, and your own bowl/disk/spoon/fork/cup to eat with, reducing landfill waste).

1:00 pm - Tour will begin promptly, don't be late! Our group will have a tour led of the site, including the historic orchards. .

Our host and tour guide Keith Park:

Keith has served over 15 years as a horticulturalist and certified arborist with the National Park Service, and maintains the historic landscapes at John Muir National Historic Site, Eugene O'Neil National Historic Site, Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park, and Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial. He works with underserved communities and provides hands-on technical assistance to other NPS units and non-profit organizations across the region. Park has worked with the City of Richmond's Urban Tilth nonprofit, and collaborated with Yosemite National Park staff, the Yosemite Conservancy and a local Native American forestry crew on maintaining the historic Curry Village apple orchard, and was honored with a NPS Pacific West Regional Awards for Cultural Resource Stewardship. He was formerly the lead horticulturist at Filoli Estate for 10 years.

About the John Muir National Historic Site:

The original fruit orchards were first established in 1853 by prominent physician and horticulturist Dr.John Strentzel, a Polish immigrant settling in the Alhambra Valley to farm, as California gold rush opportunities waned. When naturalist and conservationist John Muir married Dr. Strentzel's daughter, pianist Louisa Strentzel in 1880, the ranch was at its peak, with 2,300 acres growing a collection of over 1,000 varieties of fruits and ornamentals.

John Muir assumed the responsibilities of ranch manager at that time, as Dr. Strentzel's health declined. John began reducing the number of varieties by top-work grafting the trees to just those thought to be economically feasible to produce. In 1877 the new transcontinental railway established a train station near the ranch, and the abundant fruit could then be easily shipped all the way to the East Coast for the first time.

When John Muir's brother David took over management in 1892, it freed John to continue his explorations and conservation work, that year founding the Sierra Club. John Muir died in 1914, and is laid to rest on the ranch.

The National Park Service manages 336 acres of the original ranch which includes the orchards, the Victorian era 'Muir House', the original 'Martinez Adobe', and grave sites of the Strentzel family, with the majority of the acreage being Mt Wanda.
The John Muir National Historic Site website