Stop 2: John Muir in Martinez

The Strentzel/Muir home at the John Muir National Historic Site.

NPS photo, Luther Bailey.

Transcript for the John Muir NHS Cell Phone Tour

Stop Number 2

This land and house was once owned by Dr. John Strentzel and his wife Louisiana, John Muir’s future in-laws. Dr. Strentzel was a medical doctor with a talent for growing fruit who experimented with more than a thousand varieties of fruit trees and ornamentals. Through his work in those early days of California horticulture, he was able to determine what kinds of fruit would grow best in this northern California climate. At one point, he grew 50 different varieties of pears.

John Muir was encouraged to visit Dr. Strentzel through a mutual friend. Knowing of the doctor’s interest in trees and the promise of a warm meal was all it took to get the bachelor Muir to visit the Strentzel family. Little did he suspect that Strentzel’s beautiful daughter Louie would become his wife.

Dr. Strentzel’s first home in Martinez was a modest house located about a mile south of here. Muir writes his sister Sarah about a visit in 1877:

“Coming home here I left my boat at Martinez, thirty miles up the bay, and walked to Oakland across the top of Mount Diablo, and on the way called at my friends the Strentzel’s, who have eighty acres of choice orchards and vineyards, where I rested two days, my first rest in six weeks. They pitied my weary looks, and made me eat and sleep, stuffing me with turkey, chicken, beef, fruits, and jellies in the most extravagant manner imaginable, and begged me to stay a month.”