Last updated: June 8, 2020
Audio
Assigned to the Valley
Transcript
It is Sergeant Bowman again. You know, ways back between--well, this would have been about October 1903, that's when I got the news. It was news I wasn't expecting to hear. Sometimes that can be good and sometimes that can be bad. But the timing was funny because you see, soldiers are only in Yosemite and it don't matter if we're talking colored soldiers or white soldiers, but colored soldiers are only in Yosemite during the summertime from where the snow starts to melt, to where it starts to fall again, about May through October. And this is October I'm talking about, October 1903, and I was back in Camp A.E. Wood and we're all getting ready. I mean, Troop K, Troop L, all getting ready to ride back to the Presidio of San Francisco. And from that point on, I had no idea where we were going to go and what was going to happen to us, what was going to happen to me. You know, there's always that sense of loss when you're a soldier. You get these attachments to the men around you and they become as close or closer than your own family because, you know, your life is in their hands and their life is in yours, and that makes them your brother. And so I got to me another family when I joined the cavalry. And so we're all thinking together, we're going to be leaving together, right now together, getting to San Francisco together; and whatever is the next day bring, you're going to face it together. And when you face it together that gives you resolve, that gives you strength, that gives you courage because you're all together, you are family, you're cavalry, you're Troop K, you're Troop L. And so, when the lieutenant pulled me over to one side on that morning, that particular morning, I was a little bit nervous about what he want, this is Lieutenant Resnick. And he told me that I was going to be on what is called the TAP Service. You know, I felt something just dropped beneath me right inside my gut, because I didn't know what was going to be, what he's going to say next. And I said, "Well, sir, what's that mean? What do you--what do you want me to do?" He said, "There's the guardian." I said, "What's that?" He said the guardian, Mr. George Harlow in Yosemite Valley. He was--he requested if he can have a soldier who could help him with his duties in Yosemite Valley. And I think I told you folks that, well, the Valley itself in the Mariposa Grove don't belong to the National Park; it's part of the State of California. And Mr. Harlow work for the State of California. So he requested a soldier to help him during the winter. And the lieutenant looked at me, he says, "Well, you--you're the man I'm thinking to be good for this duty." You know, when a lieutenant asks you to do something, when an officer asks you to do something, you have several choices. The choice that--the thought I had on my own mind was this choice, saying, "I'm sorry, sir, you know, I appreciate this request and I'd like to oblige you but you see, there's this really nice woman I met when we were in San Francisco after we got off that Logan and we were garrisoned at the Presidio, I met this really nice woman and she misses me. She misses me dearly and to be honest with you, sir, I miss her too. So I've been looking forward to the ride back. Those 14 days, I figure, we're going to fly like ain't nothing at all, because I'm going to see that woman again. So I'd like to oblige you. I'd like to stay here and help, Mr. Harlow, but you see, I can't do that because I want to get back to San Francisco and meet up with her. So I'm basically saying no, I can't do that." Now, that what's I was thinking but if I had said those words, that's called, well, possibly getting court-martialed, disobeying a direct order and potentially leaving the United States Army but that's what I wanted to say. But instead, I knew the military, the army had become my life. It was more than $13 a month, it was more than having the company of the men around me and having command, being a sergeant. It was more than all of that. It had become part of me. It was in my blood. So, as a sergeant I had to respond not as a man, not as a human being, so the part of me that was a sergeant, that was the strongest part, looked at him and said, "Well, thank you, sir. I know it wasn't an easy decision but, you know, you could have picked another man for this particular assignment but you picked me, so I'm all right with that." You know, it don't--it won't bother me seeing everyone ride on off out of here, ride out and looking all that--looking as pretty as you will be on columns of two riding out the Yosemite. That ain't--that ain't going to be bother me because I'm thinking I'm doing what the lieutenant wanted. I'm sticking behind here and I'm going to stay with that--what's his name? Harlow, that's right. I'm going to stay with Mr. Harlow and I'll make certain that what needs to get done gets done, so I'll be all right. You get on back to San Francisco. It's a pretty city but I'll be all right here in the winter when the snow is falling and filling up ravine and gulley, and canyon. I'll be all right here. It'll be cold but I'll be warm enough because I know that I did my duty. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine with that, sir. Thank you for the opportunity to stay behind here in Yosemite all winter long." Well, he got what I was saying but--and he understood that something else was going on but all he did was just smile at me, give me a salute, I saluted back. And then next day, I rode Yosemite. But you see, I've never been to Yosemite Valley before. And Yosemite Valley in the minds of many people is Yosemite. And I didn't quite understand that before I rode into the valley because I had only seen it off at a distance up from that area called Glacier Point. I've seen it a little bit from there. And it was pretty from up there but being away from it, being above it ain't the same thing as being in it. And when I rode into Yosemite Valley down the Wawona Road with Bridalveil Fall off to one side, and I'm going deeper and getting deeper into it and there's El Capitan and I'm fully seeing it now off the one side, biggest piece of rock I ever have seen in my life. When I saw that and felt it rising up as I was going down, it was all getting bigger and higher, rising up around me and the shadows were as black as night and I'm riding into the warmth of that space, and it felt like an embrace to be in that place, in that space; and I realized that there is something in this world that is so much bigger than you are and yet you're a part of it. That's what it felt like. I didn't feel like I was diminished to nothing. I was still there, a speck of something, a bit of fire, god himself, a little bit of god in all of us, and I felt it was still there burning in me but it felt like it was almost nothing in that space, in those shadows, and I looked up and I saw Ribbon Fall to one side and Bridalveil to the other. And El Capitan right there in the sun and I just started riding into that green, cool space and I've never felt anything like that. You know, I--from time to time when I was a boy in South Carolina, I wonder what it would be like to ride a mule into church. I never had the thought at the time but that's what it felt like, I was riding a mule because that's what I was riding at the time. And that mule being safe, we were riding into--into church, into a cathedral in the--into god's country but it wasn't up high, it was now down low right here, god everywhere, god not just up on the mountain top, god here in the deepest places of the world itself. And that's what it felt like, riding into Yosemite that I was riding my mule into a cathedral and that's the best way to describe it but it was a cathedral that was alive, who's the ground of it was green with grass and rock, and the sides were gray and white, and the sparkles coming out of the rock. I didn't know what it was but the sun we had is just right, you could see it shining. And there was a calm breeze and those oak trees, in the shade of them, when you went under was like another waterfall but a darkness itself cooling you at the neck, on the--on the--on the shoulders and on your face, and then the wind would pick up and take that sweat right off your brow. Oh, I thought I had passed over entirely into that better world. And I remember thinking at the time because remember, when I was coming down that old road, I was still a bit upset about not seeing my friend back in San Francisco, but I forgot all about--well, I forgot mostly about her when I rode down that road into Yosemite because it was then that Yosemite Valley, it got into me. And I stand or sitting a little bit taller in the saddle. When I felt that, when I saw what was around me, I realized how lucky I was. I stopped feeling alone. I stopped feeling abandoned. I realized, huh, this was all good. This was all good. And that's Yosemite Valley and, huh, you know, ain't nothing like it. Ain't no place like it but it's not just a place, it's something that's within you after a bit, and that valley became who I am and who I may one day be. It was future, it was the present and it was the past; and all of it was flowing within each other and became everything. Huh, if you ain't been there, you got to get there. And so, I tell you that Yosemite Valley is something else.
Description
Sgt. Boman is "volunteered" for an assignment in Yosemite Valley.
Duration
12 minutes, 17 seconds
Credit
Shelton Johnson
Date Created
07/17/2013
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