Boulder Woman (as told by an active barer)
Informant: I learned it my first year, and then took it on as nature director at camp. Boulder woman is an exclusive legend of YMCA camp Ta Ta Pochon because it had happened up there. A friend of mine and I were taking a group of campers on a trail, a nature trail which crosses the stream about half a mile up from camp and that’s were Boulder Man, or Boulder Woman, actually lives, or lived. And back in the 60’s she was living up that area which we call Bible Point. We took the kids up there on our Wednesday hikes. I do like to do the hike at dusk because it is more fun. We got the whole area . . . it’s dark, not too dark, enough where you’re hearing from all the animals and once and a while you hear (imitates wolf cry) “ooooooooh” or you hear some twigs breaking which I love the best. It really helps. Anyways . . . so my friends and I were going up that way to see what the trail was like and we someone running away from us, about a half a mile, and we found out that it was Boulder Woman
Interviewer: So Boulder Woman was a real person?
Informant: Boulder Woman. We saw her running.
Interviewer: And that’s where this story started?
Informant: I was told a previous story, but this is with my own eyes, what I saw. Somebody running up a half a mile, so we took off after her, just the two of us, no kids with us at the time, and we said “hey, what’s going on, this is camp and why are you here?” Face to face and umm, so she said well, “Her name was Boulder, and her family lived just above camp where two streams cross”. That’s true, there are two streams that cross at camp. So she went on to tell us that there was a flood in the 60’s, that wiped out her family’s place. Some people just call that [the chair] the chimney, but it actually is Boulder Woman’s throne. And so people will say that’s Boulder Man’s chair, just the chimney, no! Maryann and I know the truth of Boulder Woman.
So we were running along beside her, trying to catch up with her so she said, “okay, you got me”. We said, “we don’t want to hurt, you we just want to figure out what’s going on . . . if we could help you”. So, she said, “No, I’ve been here since the 60’s and I lost my husband and son in the flood of 1960”. Which actually is true because a couple of buildings from camp were destroyed by a flood as well. You could just see parts of buildings hanging around. Everything she said was true, correct, so we kind of believed her. We started following her around, she told us the whole story where she lost her husband and her son and her whole house, she just wanted to stay up there, I mean where else did she have to go? So she didn’t want the kids to know that she was up there, she didn’t want them running up there. And so umm . . . what she would do, she didn’t care for littering, and we were thinking we don’t either. So what she wanted to do then was that she wanted to remind people not to throw their candy and junk and to take care of nature. So she would come out at night, when the kids were in their beds and after devotions, and so Boulder Woman would come by and throw stones or what we would call “boulders” at the cabins to make certain that they would know that she meant business so that they would know that you were not to throw candy wrappers and that you were to take better care of nature. So that was the main story of Boulder Women, but all the people have told it different ways, I don’t like to tell it really scary because then kids are scared out of their minds. Some other boy counselors decided that no, its really Boulder Man, it’s not Boulder Woman. And so they wanted to make sure that they showed us women that they did not know what we were talking about, but we said “Oh no. Ingrid and I have spoken to Boulder Woman” so . . . we know better. And so what did they do? They went and they took big huge boulders and they threw them at Cabin 8 and one went right through the roof.
Interviewer: What year was this?
Informant: that was in 1979. And another boulder went flying and knocked a 2-foot piece off of Cabin 8, which is probably still visible today. And so we had to stop telling Boulder Man because it was freaking kids out, it was really getting scary. But to this day, I know that there is a Boulder Woman and we don’t know if she is still there or what, but there are remnants of her plates and forks and stuff we have taken kids up there to see Boulder Woman, because that’s where she is, that’s where she lived and that’s what she did for a long time. I haven seen her for many years, but I do know her and I do believe that she was real, because I saw her.
Interviewer’s notes:
The length and detail of the tale are very indicative that the informant is anactive barer of the story. She takes the legend beyond camp lore by asserting that Boulder Woman is in fact true because she has “met” her, which leaves the authenticity entirely up to the audience to decide. This is further complicated by the fact that the informant claims the be the origin of the story. This creates a plausibility which keeps the story alive and well.
Additionally, with a female active barer, who also happens to be the nature director, the tale begins to reflect these aspects. The Boulder Figure now decidedly becomes a Boulder Woman and her presence becomes a cautionary one, warning the campers to respect nature.