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View from “Mount Thoreau”
Photograph by Christopher Woodcock
Source: nytimes.com
Up in the Sierra Nevada range, between the Wonder Lakes Basin and Mount Emerson, sits a 12, 691-foot mountain that has been deemed unnamed by the government since 1964, as the mountain lies in a “federal wilderness area.”
Disgruntled by the government’s stubbornness, however, “a group of 11 writers, printmakers, poets, wilderness enthusiasts, Thoreau devotees and fellow travellers” set out on a mission not only to climb to the summit of the mountain, but also to name in “Mount Thoreau,” for the legendary writer. In doing so, the group would be taking part in a “minor act of civil disobedience,” a term explored by Thoreau in his essay with the same title. In the essay, Thoreau criticizes government’s involvement in the daily affairs of Americans and claims “That government is best which governs not at all.” Thoreau also believes that American citizens have the right not only to criticize this government, but to challenge it based on their own rights and reason. Thoreau states, “I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. “
It is in this spirit that this group of explorers, writers and intellectuals pursued the naming of “Mount Thoreau,” and continue to challenge the government and its restrictions on nature and expression.
To read more about the expedition, view the article on the NY Times website.
Also be sure to read Thoreau’s short essay “Civil Disobedience”.