And so his mother was calling him, and then nearby campers got into it and started calling him. Then they did it again the next night, and the next night. We used to camp there every year from '70 to '79, and every night someone would start up with calling Elmer and a bunch of people would chime in.
Last year, I was in Sequoia, and someone called out for Elmer one evening. I laughed. I was in a Yosemite chat room back in the day, and someone claimed to have been there when it started.
Here are some links to the Elmer story. Last edited: Jul 20, Joined Nov 28, I've never heard it. The origin seems to be a genuine mystery according to the National Park Service. Joined Aug 6, I find it to be annoying. Nothing like interrupting a peaceful evening camping there and elsewhere in CA with people calling the name.
It would be one thing if someone was actually missing. So no, we never chimed in out of respect to our fellow campers. Just rude. He must have seen our headlights because the front door opened as we walked up. This is my daughter Ellie. That was one helluva bang. Her face brightened a few shades. Charlie turned to the corner kitchen and we grabbed some extra clothes from the car. We changed and put our wet things around the fireplace to dry. We drank our hot chocolate sitting around a pine table between the kitchen and fire.
Charlie laughed. I guess Elmer had that effect on people. We all laughed. Charlie glanced at me. I gave a slight shrug. He turned back to Ellie. Are you sure you want to hear it?
Might be a bit scary on a stormy night in the mountains. I nodded okay. Here goes. As best I can figure, Elmer was a crewman on a B bomber that crashed on Huntington Lake back in Only two survived and the rest of the bodies stayed in the plane until when the lake was drained for maintenance on the dam. Ellie stole a glance at me and wiggled in closer, her knuckles white around her mug.
It was one of the big mysteries our parents talked about. You know, why did only two crewmembers survive? It was in mid-June and there was a mist up around the lake. It was kind of hard to see, but it looked like someone was walking down by the shore. All the Scouts should have been in bed so, I walked down to get that guy back in his tent and put him on KP for breaking curfew.
Ellie and I sipped our cocoa simultaneously, not taking our eyes off Charlie. He was wearing a leather flight helmet with goggles braced on his forehead. I could see the helmet flaps over his ears and tucked into the thick collar of his bomber jacket. He carried a droopy kind of pack on his back that I realized was a parachute.
He appeared thin, not a in a skinny way, but not quite solid. Charlie went on. One of them was a British guy, Basil, who flew in the war and was always telling stories and pulling pranks. So, I got a little closer and threw a rock off in front of him. He looked out toward the rock and, then turned toward me. I was scared now. If this was Basil, it was the best prank he ever pulled.
I grabbed a rock and threw it at him as hard as I could. I swear the rock went straight through him. Ellie gasped and grabbed my leg. I turned and ran back up to the camp and got the leaders out of their poker game. They ran all over the camp but found nothing. One night a few of the men tried to corner it down by the lake, but it seemed to disappear behind some trees and reappear behind others.
The rest of the week we posted a watch. It was a real as the steam rising off this cocoa. It scared the bejeezus out of us. Camp was canceled after July that year and there was some debate about opening the next year. We sat a few moments in silence letting the image of a wandering airman penetrate our thoughts. We talked a few more minutes before he said it was dinnertime and there were some extra trout.
Later in that night he offered Ellie and me the bed saying he could sleep just fine on the couch. I tucked Ellie in. During that time there were many seasons. You need to keep making time for just the two of you. Becky leapt out and ran into my arms, tears of joy streaming down her face. Elmer, a 21 year old man at the time of his engagement and the proposed inception of the "Elmer" idea, was apparently absent when a celebratory cake was to be served.
His family and neighboring campers, close in proximity and camaraderie in those crowded campground days, began calling for Elmer, knowing him to be likely within earshot. For one reason or another, campers throughout the area began chiming in, creating a din of hollering. Before long, an embarrassed Elmer came back to his campsite. According to Robinson, this first instance of "Elmer" disrupted a ranger's campfire program, prompting the ranger to reprimand the family responsible for the original outburst.
Why did other campers decide to take up the call for the missing Elmer? Was it the close bond shared between campers in s Yosemite Valley? Were they really concerned for his well-being? Or were they simply reminded that screaming the name "Elmer" into the night is a funny thing according to the comedy film Elmer The Great?
Edward W. Saurin who can shine a little more barely helpful insight onto the beginning of "Elmer" in Yosemite Valley. Saurin worked as a water-boy in the valley campgrounds in the s. Before running water was installed in the camps, someone had to haul water from the river to campsites in buckets.
Saurin was paid to hand-deliver water to campers, and when people needed his services, they would call for water. In , a young boy supposedly began calling Edward Saurin "Elmer. According to Mr. Saurin, this is likely due to the ongoing popularity of the Joe E.
Brown picture Elmer The Great. This boy supposedly managed to get his family and other campers to call the name "Elmer" whenever they needed water, giving the name-calling scene from the same film a practical purpose that helped it catch on. In any case "Elmer" seems to have first appeared in Yosemite Valley around the summer of But why is he still so popular? It seems there will always be more questions than answers. Why is it always the same time of year that he shows up?
Why is it only Yosemite Valley, for the most part? Perhaps we can settle with knowing it's simply tradition. How does any family tradition start? Families have been camping in Yosemite for generations now, coming back to the same campgrounds year, after year, after year. Perhaps this tradition of camping has provided the perfect breeding ground for another, rather unexpected, tradition. Mothers and fathers teach their daughters and sons about hiking, nature, and "Elmer".
The same families come back to the same campsites at the same time of year, every year for decades. They remember the amusement they had the year before, mimicking the seeking call of "Elmer". They pass "Elmer" on to new families as well, or at the very least they confound and irritate the neophytes with their "Yosemite old-timer" shenanigans. Should we embrace "Elmer" as a multi-generational Yosemite tradition?
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