Loading ...
Yosemite Memories: Elmer
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007Each summer night, campers in Yosemite Valley repetitively call “Elmer.” The call is slow and drawn out, as in “Elllllll… Merrrrrrr!” On hearing the call, another camper somewhere else in the campgrounds will echo the call, “Elllll… merrr” and so on across the campgrounds until the call lessens in frequency and fades away. It is a nightly tradition of Yosemite Valley campers.
The call is reported to have begun in the 1930s after one of the nightly summer shows and firefall at Camp Curry. Campers were returning to their campsites and one woman lost track of her boy. She began calling “Elmer” as the campers streamed back to their campsite and others took up the call. It is lost to history what happened to Elmer, but on the next night the campers began calling “Elmer” after the firefall, as they returned to their campsites. The tradition continued long after the last firefall occurred in 1968.
Post memories of visiting Yosemite National Park by clicking on the headline of this article.