John D. Olmsted (March 2, 1938 – March 8, 2011) was a California naturalist and conservationist most famous for creating the

Independence Trail The Independence Trail is located approximately 7 miles from downtown Nevada City within the South Yuba River State Park in the Sierra Nevada foothills within Nevada County, in Northern California. The trail is the former Excelsior Ditch, which ...

in Nevada City, California, as well as helping to save numerous other parcels across California, including Jug Handle State Natural Reserve in

Casper, California Caspar is a unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California, United States. It is located on the Pacific Ocean, north of Mendocino, at an elevation of . It is bounded on three sides by state parks: the historic 1909 Point Cabrillo Ligh ...

, Goat Mountain in the Berryessa Snow Mountain Wilderness and the

Bridgeport Covered Bridge The Bridgeport Covered Bridge is located in Bridgeport, Nevada County, California, southwest of French Corral, California, French Corral and north of Lake Wildwood, California, Lake Wildwood. It is used as a pedestrian crossing over the South Yu ...

. His efforts and vision of a park at

Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnoc ...

led to the creation of the

South Yuba River State Park South Yuba River State Park is located along the South Fork of the Yuba River in the Sierra Nevada, within Nevada County, in Northern California. Geography The park's portion of the South Yuba River Canyon stretches from Malakoff Diggins State ...

, a length of Nationally protected Wild and Scenic land along the

South Yuba River The U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 10, 2011 South Yuba River is a left-entering tributary of the Yuba River originating in the northern Sierra Nevada at Lake Ang ...

in Nevada County, California. Olmsted patterned his life after that of fellow environmentalist John Muir, with his trademark beard, formal clothing, and poetic and spiritual leanings towards the benefits of time spent in nature. He earned a master's degree in plant ecology at Pomona College and became education director at

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the development ...

in San Francisco, California. He worked as a naturalist, docent and educator at the Oakland Museum, UC Berkeley Extension and the Mendocino Art Center. He founded the Earth Planet Museum in Grass Valley as a tribute to John Muir and to environmentalism in California, and as a visual history of recorded audio and alternate technologies. During his time in Mendocino, he worked with Hans Jenny in recognizing and preserving the Pygmy Forest, which is located within the boundaries of Jug Handle. His dream of a cross-California hiking trail remains the focus and goal of his devoted followers. He was a resident of Nevada City, California, and is survived by his two sons, Erik Olmsted and Alden Olmsted.

References

* http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-john-olmsted-20110319,0,7256213.story

* https://web.archive.org/web/20130706131345/http://www.mendotahoe.org/mission_history.html * http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/people/john_olmsted.aspx * https://web.archive.org/web/20120712044143/http://www.sbcouncil.org/sierravisionawards * http://www.theunion.com/article/20101015/NEWS/101019899 * http://earthplanetmuseum.wordpress.com/ * https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c80k299w/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Olmsted, John 1938 births 2011 deaths American conservationists