 Doug Harnsberger, an architect and Berkeley alum, loves hiking in the California Sierras. About midway into the John Muir Trail in 2015, he remembers his amazement coming upon this small building. It's just 22 feet on the outside across, but the thing about it that you see from a distance is that it is an organic architecture that rises from the granite that surrounds it as if it belongs to the landscape. The detailing of the structure and its implied significance with the bronze plaque out front told me that this was a special project. And I realized at that moment that it was my job to uncover the storyline. That meant going back to his alma mater to Berkeley's Bancroft Library. I went to the Special Collections and received three cartons of Sierra Club papers. At the end of the day, the last carton in the very last file, of course, was the Muir Memorial Shelter information that I was looking for. I very carefully unfolded the blueprint, not knowing how fragile it was. It had not been opened up in probably 60 or 70 years. It was the drawing for the shelter, designed by Henry Gutterson, himself a Berkeley grad from 1905. He was commissioned to build it by Sierra Club President William Colby in 1930 in memory of Sierra Club founder, the famous naturalist and national parks advocate, John Muir. The Italian truly huts of the 19th century inspired the shelter's design. But as an architectural historian himself, Doug recognized the builder's greater intentions. The second drawing that I opened up showed that he wrapped it with two steel cables, which was his way of saying, I want this stone roof to stay up for the ages. It signals that this is not just a place to get out of the rain and the elements. It is a place to celebrate the spirit of John Muir. The bronze plaque is an indication of that. The high-pitched roof has a little temple quality to it. All these signals that Gutterson was designing this as a secular temple to honor John Muir. That was key. Through Doug's efforts, the shelter was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. And now his goal is for the shelter and the entire trail to be designated a national historic landmark. This is the only thing, the only thing that's ever been built to honor John Muir by the Sierra Club or by any other organization to memorialize and celebrate Muir's spirit. That's the essence of it.