Margaret Murie
|
|
Margaret "Mardy" Thomas Murie (August 18,1902-October 19,2003) was the enabling force behind the Wilderness Act in the United States, and the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She was known as the "Grandmother of the Conservation Movement".
Mardy Murie was born in Seattle, Washington in 1902 and then moved to Fairbanks, Alaska in 1911. Murie was the first woman to graduate from the University of Alaska in 1924.
Mardy met her husband Olaus Murie in 1924. They took a honeymoon on a dogsled trip on Alaska's Koyukuk River. This area was later incorporated into the Arctic National Wildife Refuge.
Mardy and Olaus moved to Moose, Wyoming in 1927, where they built a log cabin and raised three children.
Due to the efforts of the Muries (as leaders of the Wilderness Society), the US Government protected the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 1960. Mardy Murie also hatched the idea of the Wilderness Act, which was passed by the United States Congress in 1964. The Wilderness Act protected millions of acres of wilderness across the country.
Bill Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mardy Murie in 1998, for her work in protecting wilderness areas.
Mardy Murie was also an author, who wrote about her Alaska and Wyoming adventures in books such as Two in the Far North and Wapiti Wilderness.
Mardy Murie passed away in her log cabin on October 19, 2003.
References and sources
- The Murie Center (http://www.muriecenter.org/)
- Mardy Murie biography @ Wilderness Society (http://earthday.wilderness.org/hero/murie.pdf)
- Mardy Murie obituary (http://www.wilderness.org/AboutUs/MurieObituary.cfm)