[Geysers] RE: A 1901 trip to the geysers

[Ralph Taylor]

Lee,

Here are my best guesses, although some are admittedly pretty conjectural.
Things on Geyser Hill change a lot from year to year, so it is pretty hard
to pin down a small spring there from a 100 year old description!

>Subject: A 1901 trip to the geysers

>Directly south of our camp [near Grotto Geyser], and located about one
>hundred yards away from it are the Splendid, the Daisey and the Comet
>Geysers, with the Pansey and Lilly Pools. [Okay, one of these is Brilliant
>Pool, but what is the other one?]....

The best candidate would be Bonita Pool, I'd say based on the area over a
century later.

>Leaving the Daisey, we proceeded down towards the river and came to the
>Oblong Geyser.....

>Crossing the footbridge...we were shown the Sun Flower [Chromatic Pool?]

That would be my guess -- there aren't any other sizeable pools in the area

>and Beauty Pools, the latter being the largest pool without any visible
>outlet...We are shown the Wave [Spring] and the Pan [East Economic
>Geyser?]

Very likely

>, called so on account of something curious in their formation of
>coloring; and then came to the Economic Geyser. [Here follows a long
>description of what the crowd did when they saw Economic Geyser erupting.]

>[After descriptions of Turban Geyser and Grand Geyser, the writer mentions
>"Oyster Spring," which is present Belgian Pool, and then describes Bulger
>Geyser, Sawmill Geyser, and Castle Geyser. Now the test gets harder for
>you...]

>After looking at the Castle from a distance, we once more turn our faces
>toward the up grade and are shown a very curious pool called the Broken
>Heart [what feature  is this?], 

If the hill referred to is Geyser Hill (which doesn't quite fit with the
subsequent description) then "Broken Heart" could be the spring across the
boardwalk from Liberty Pool and a bit to the south [no official name that I
know of, but that I have heard called "Frog Spring"].  The color is as
described now, but who knows after a century?  Another possibility is
today's Heart Spring, which fits in size and could plausibly have been
cooler then.

>probably ten feet across one way and
>fifteen the other, but exactly like a heart split open. It is a little
>spring and the coloring is of an orange shade, at the edge, turning to
>almost white in the center of the pool. The Ant Hill [what feature is
this?] 

Arrowhead Spring?  

>is the next one we are shown, which is a raised formation
>surrounding a little pool two or three feet across, and it is from the
>formation of the sides of this pool it gets its name, it being a mass of
>little holes, just such as ants go in and out in their hills on cooler and
>dryer territory. Once more we turn and again find ourselves on the bank of
>the river. Here we see the Bee Hive, one of the curious and very pretty
>geysers, rising with a dome-shaped formation from the very bottom of the
>river; it certainly looks like a gigantic Bee Hive. Here, too, is the
>Chimney, also rising from the very edge of the water to a height of ten or
>twelve feet, round and tapering, for all the world like a chimney; and the
>likeness is further increased by the roll of steam which constantly curls
>up from the opening on top. It is full of hot water, and is constantly
>overflowing, the waste trickling down its sides into the river at its base.
>Here, too, near the edge of the river, we are shown the Bottomless Well
>[what feature is this?], having a mound-like formation about three or four
>feet high enclosing a pool some six or eight feet in diameter. This pool is
>full of black looking water from which the usual cloud of steam is
>constantly rising, though there is no visible commotion on the surface of
>the water; we are told that this well has been sounded to a depth of 2,000
>feet without touching bottom, and while they did not say so, they might as
>well have added that at that point the lead melted from their sinker, so
>that they could not get anything to go down further.

The sequence is odd, especially if I am correct about "Broken Heart" being
Heart Spring and Anthill being Arrowhead Spring.  Those fit, if the sequence
is correct and they wind up at Beehive.  But how did Chimney (if it is
indeed today's Chimney Geyser) get there?  If they indeed went downstream
from Beehive to Chimney Geyser, maybe Bottomless Well is Crested Pool
(wasn't it called Castle's Well at one point?).  Or even farther downstream
and on the consistent side of the river, Limekiln, which more closely
resembles the description.

If the description is of features on or near Geyser Hill around Beehive,
"Bottomless Well" could be Cascade Geyser, but it is hard to see how they
would walk to it.  I can't think of any other features along the river with
a raised rim close to Beehive.  

Or, in keeping with the subsequent description, they could be looking at
Beehive in the distance from near Castle, and "Bottomless Well" could be
Sprinkler Geyser, or the hot spring in the bend of the river near where the
old Soldier Station was.  That spring is on the east side of the river and
is today visible from the boardwalk near the woods past Liberty Pool.  That
also fits with the sequence of the description.

[Here the writer describes party members' expressions of wonder to their
guide.]

>Again turning from the river and once more turning our faces toward the
>thick grove of pines which forms the southern boundary of the basin, we
>proceed up the side toward other wonders. The next curiosity we are shown,
>in this land of boiling water and steam, was a cold spring, curious only on
>account of the intense heat of the water in the springs all around it [what
>feature is this? Perhaps a cold spring in the woods between Liberty Pool
>and North Goggles Geyser? He drinks from it and describes it as alkaline
>and tepid, and then describes tasting water from several of the hot
?springs.]

That makes sense to me.

>A little farther on we were shown the Watch and Chain [what feature is
>this?]; 

Pendant Spring?

>no ordinary Waterbury, tin or even silver watch, but a gold one of
>immense proportions, though so perfect in its formation, that we could not
>but wonder at it as we admired it. This consists of a perfectly round pool
>about ten feet in diameter, with a smaller pool, also perfectly round about
>two and one half or three feet in diameter on one side of and connected
>with the larger pool, a perfect watch in shape and appearance, while
>strangest of all is the chain, which is the outlet from the smaller of the
>two rings or pools, and which traced its way down over the hillside in a
>crooked irregular way, for all the world like a watch chain which has been
>laid down on a table or stand. So much for the shape. But the coloring of
>this double pool is the crowning glory of it all, for the color of the
>formation around the edge of these pools and extending as far as the eye
>can penetrate the depths is a rich orange or golden yellow, while the
>crooked trail of the stream forming the chain is also a rich golden yellow,
>forming in all one of the most striking formations in the Basin. The
>Spectacles [probably Goggles Spring] near by is a formation for which the
>visitor must draw largely on his imagination to see the resemblance, but
>people seem to think they can not only see the spectacles, but also the
>eyes behind them...This brings us to a group of interesting geysers--the
>Lion, Lioness, and Cubs--[he describes them]. Near this cluster we were
>shown the Devil's Ear [Ear Spring]...The Beach [Spring] and Quaker [Doublet
>Pool] are two interesting and curious pools...

>[Here the writer gives a long description of Sponge Geyser.]

>Turning from the Sponge, we are shown the Owl's Eyes [what feature is
>this?], 

Two holes along the fracture between Plate Geyser (which wasn't there 100
years ago) and Boardwalk Geyser?

>two little pools, perfectly round, about three or four feet in
>diameter and very like an immense pair of eyes. The Topaz Pool is a beauty,
>being a comparatively quiet little lake, probably thirty or forty feet
>across [!], of the daintiest shade of pale blue imaginable, for all the
>world like an immense tub into which a very small portion of indigo has
>been dropped. The beauty of this pool is in the coloring of the water. Near
>by is the Tea Kettle, a boiling spring some three feet in diameter, with an
>elevated rim [long description].

>[Here the writer spends considerable space describing Vault Geyser and
>Giantess Geyser pools.]

>The Sapphire Pool [what feature is this? Infant Geyser?] 

Sounds more like Dragon Spring to me.

>is close to the
>Giantess, and is a pool very similar to that just described, the beautiful
>coloring of the water being its chief charm. The Lobster Pool [what feature
>is this? Mottled Pool?] 

That is about the only candidate, unless it was Infant Geyser, which does
have some reddish coloration in the formation.

>is a curious fellow, shaped like a lobster with a
>mass of green and red formation [that] completes the illusion and proclaims
>the appropriateness of the name. Near the Lobster is the Pea-Nut, a little
>brown fellow, for all the world like a broken-backed pea-nut, one section
>of the pool being about four feet long, while the other is probably three,
>the connecting link being narrower than the pools proper; here, too, the
>color adds to the appropriateness of the name. But the pool of the most
>exquisite beauty is a little fellow called the Butterfly...[long
>description, which continues with visits to Black Sand Basin and Biscuit
>Basin]

[Dellett's party, incidentally, saw an eruption of Giant Geyser and spent
several newspaper columns describing it, ending with this summation of its
intervals in 1901: "I will state that the Giant was at one time fairly
regular in his eruptions, but for several years the almost daily eruptions
have ceased, until this year the eruption we saw was [only] the third of
the season, and one of them was in the night; in fact most of the recent
eruptions have been in the night, so we may consider ourselves very
fortunate that we saw it..."]