It was a warm August afternoon in south Monterey County.
I was pretty sure I knew where I was going as my friend and I
meandered down a quiet road south of King City. I was on a quest
- to discover The Valley of Our Lady.
We turned right at the patches of concrete where the town
of Jolon had been torn down, proceeded to the gate of the Army
post at Hunter Liggett, and hailed the guard. He granted us permission
to go in and "look around." Just past the former William
Randolph hunting lodge is Mission San Antonio; and the road that
I knew would be there. A couple of miles later, the asphault
ended and signs announced "Blackout Area. No Civilian Traffic."
Back at the gate, I hailed the guard and said, "Ever
been out that road to the right of the mission?" Yes Sir,"
he replied. I was excited! "Does it run along a ledge over
a winter river and then drop down into a little valley?"
The guard smiled and said, "Sure Does!"
Following a little talk with his superior, we were permitted
to go as far as we wanted, and found The Valley of Our Lady.
I could not, however, find the giant oak tree - an important
and highly symbolic part of John Steinbeck's early and highly
metaphysical novel To A God Unknown. I concluded that
Steinbeck must have just made it up. Or else the tree had been
cut down, or had been burned, or otherwise destroyed. I was just
thrilled and convinced that I had, indeed, found The Valley
of Our Lady.
Giant Oak from To A God Unknown
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I remained convinced until I met Timothy Bottoms a year later
at the Steinbeck Festival in Salinas. That's when I learned that
- if I had gone farther (a lot farther) I might have met Timothy
sooner and found the real Valley of Our Lady. He owns
it!
You've seen Tim and his brothers (Sam, Ben and Joseph) in
scores of movies and TV shows. Tim played Adam Trask in the TV
mini-series East of Eden. Sam played his son Aron in this
semi autobiographical epic novel by John Steinbeck. Both Tim
and Sam are featured in the East of Eden exhibit at the
new National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, located two blocks
from where Steinbeck was born and raised.
Tim is no stranger to Steinbeck Country. He was 12 when he
climbed up a hill and shot a buck that, he says, "was about
as big as I was," over by the Avila ranch near Los Padres.
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He was sitting on the ridge dressing out the deer when the clouds
cleared over the valley below. Sunlight flashed on a house. He
thought he heard a rooster crow. Something clicked inside him.
A magical mystical feeling swept over young Timothy Bottoms.
He managed to get the deer back and gave it to the caretaker
of the ranch were he and his family were visiting. The old man
told him how to get down into the magical valley. So, he got
on a horse and took off.
Sitting in the sunlight on the porch of the house sharing
a candy bar with a white chicken, a starving white cat appeared
and polished off the Baby Ruth. Tim looked around. The doors
were open. There were bullet holes in the wall. Junk all around.
And sixth grader Timothy Bottoms thought it was the greatest
place in the world. That was the early 1960's.
During the following years, his family continued to vacation
and play at the ranch nearby. Tim would depart and visit "his"
ranch in the magical higher valley. The cascading green of Big
Sur area of California's coast lay just up and over the high
mountains that bordered the valley to the west.
In 1971, Tim and his brother Sam made a movie called The
Last Picture Show. Shortly after that, Tim was back in his
valley. He'd never seen anyone there. Now, however, he saw what
appeared to be the owner's name on a paper in a garbage pile.
He'd made some money on the movie. He wrote the man a letter.
There was no reply. So, he went back to work making movies.
Movies included: Johnny Got His Gun, Love
and Pain (And the Whole Damn Thing), The Paper Chase,
and then - The White Dawn (in 1975.)
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Ranch House in The Valley of Our Lady
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Timothy Bottoms' best birthday present that year was a letter
from a realtor in King City. offering him an opportunity to buy
his magical place that was also John Steinbeck's literary locale
more than 40 years earlier.
The giant oak tree is there - the size of a sequoia. So is
the spring that "...flows over the mossy covered rocks."
The mystical glade, the Indian trails over the peak to Big Sur
where "The Seer" lived in John Steinbeck's second novel:
To A God Unknown.
Dating back to the 1760's, the ranch has had several names.
Vincente Avila called it Salsipuedes (Get Out if You Can.)
That was also the original name of the San Antonio River's south
fork. Timothy kept the name. He also knows it has another special
name for Steinbeck fans around the world. It is The Valley
of Our Lady.
Copyright 1998 Roger Powers. All rights
reserved
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