[Geysers] Wonderland Nomenclature

[TSBryan at aol.com]

Nathan asks interesting questions that no doubt will also be answered to by 
Lee Whittlesey. Was this triggered by the thing I posted to this list a couple 
of weeks ago? Anyway, to answer a few of Nathan's eleven questions from my 
non-official perspective:

1. Photos are no doubt all over the place. In the 1977 version of Aubrey 
Haines' "The Yellowstone Story," Norris is pictured on page 241 and Henderson on 
page 295. The same volume also has Langford, Hayden and etc. etc.

2. Simply having a sign next to some feature decidedly does NOT make it 
official. See #11 below.
3. No significant refinements have been made to the priority rules. See #11 
below.

6. Is it not the Amazon that is hands-down the longest river in the world?

8. Lee (and others) have published a book about the waterfalls, which I'm 
sure would be far more complete than any earlier, unpublished essay.

10. I, too, would like to see more of Henderson's stuff.

11. "... I was wondering what standard was used in 'The Geysers of 
Yellowstone' for listing a geyser's name without quotation marks..."
     Well...... I suppose when you get right down to it, I just sort of "did 
it" based on personal opinion. (My book, you know!) However, this does get 
into the business of official versus entrenched versus acceptable versus 
unofficial versus something completely new. And, with the help of Lee, who has 
recruited others, I'm hoping to improve the situation in the 4th Edition of the book 
(which is largely written but won't be out [probably] until early 2006). I've 
submitted a list, asking which name within quotes can have the quotes 
eliminated; which accompanied by an "UNNG designation can have the UNNG _and_ quote 
marks deleted; which can lose the UNNG but not the quotes; and which still gotta 
have UNNG and quotes.
     Boy, how I'd love to get rid of every UNNG in the book, because I think 
it's rather sloppy.
     Now, I wonder how much of the following Lee will agree with...

OFFICIAL -- Approved by the U S Board on Geographic Names, which if you 
didn't realize it is one of the very most ancient of USA agencies, having been 
established in (I think) 1792 or some such; now operates within USGS. USBGN may 
approve a single name application (form available online -- for Yellowstone, 
must be submitted to the park) or, by approving a particular book or map or such, 
all the names therein [gee -- maybe I oughta submit my book]. Names 
so-approved are the ONLY ones that are actually OFFICIAL. Examples: Grand Geyser; (ha) 
New Crater Geyser

ENTRENCHED is, I feel, not the same as Acceptable. If a name is entrenched, 
meaning that "everybody" uses it and has used it so extensively that it would 
be pointless to try to change it, then it certainly needs no quote marks. 
Although not officially official, it is so close that it might as well be official. 
Examples: Uncertain Geyser; Dilapidated Geyser; Westside Group; A-0 Geyser; 
Hillside Geyser (West Thumb).

ACCEPTABLE has gotten extensive use and violates no naming rules or 
conventions, but it hasn't necessarily been around all that long; having been published 
in one form or another (especially by NPS but also in such items as my book 
and GOSA publications) helps here. So in general, probably, this level needs to 
keep the quote marks. Examples: "Boardwalk Geyser" (lord, how I still hate 
that name); "Composite Geyser"; "Phoenix Geyser"; probably "Aftershock Geyser", 
although relatively recent, violates nothing and is in use. 

UNOFFICIAL is decidedly a gray area but, to me, is virtually the same as 
"acceptable" in large part because of "official" use by government agencies. For 
example, "Daughter of Green Dragon Spring" [yay], which was published in that 
on-line NPS-USGS-YVO paper by Heasler etc. And with that, by the way, I think 
the quotes can now be eliminated from Son of Green Dragon Spring -- it's been 
used for many years and now has been published in government documents. There 
are many others in this category.

NEW would be recent things. I would love to eliminate all UNNG things, but I 
know that that simply won't happen, so these have got to have both UNNG and 
quotes. I suppose at this point this would have to include this year's 
UNNG-GNT-4 "Solstice Geyser" (which I see I left off the list I sent to Lee!).

We don't need another book, so I'll quit at that.

Scott Bryan
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