[Geysers] John R. Railey -- Request for help (Stephens)

[Paul Strasser]

Lynn:

There weren't any benches at Grand as late as 1980 aside from the Railey
bench - I have photographs that show this long, empty stretch of boardwalk
that was maybe four feet wide.  By 1983 (perhaps earlier by a couple of
years) there were benches, on the BACK side.  The fact that the boardwalk
was widened and benches installed in the early 80s was due to the efforts of
JR Railey, who submitted memos to the NPS with diagrams describing the
problem of crowds, and his proposed solution.

Paul Strasser

-----Original Message-----
From: geysers-bounces at wwc.edu [mailto:geysers-bounces at wwc.edu] On Behalf Of
lynn stephens
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 7:37 PM
To: geysers at wwc.edu
Subject: [Geysers] John R. Railey -- Request for help (Stephens)

Thank you to Tom and Genean Dunn for all the work in putting together the
Sput.  I received the Sput yesterday and noticed that the caption under the
"Warnock" picture incorrectly referenced the "John R. Railey" bench.  John
was a Volunteer in Park for many years and always labeled his reports and
signed them "John R. Railey."

Because his last season was 1988, many of today's gazers may not know much,
if anything, about John.  Today I was doing some research in the file
cabinets here at Old Faithful and located some reports written by John.
I'll be using some of his burst and interval data for comparison purposes in
a short article about some of Grand Geyser's eruption characteristics this
summer.

I also found a report by him labeled "Special Reporton Grand Geyser's
Delayed Eruption Observed on May 26, 1978...".  This report illustrates his
dedication to Grand.  This dedication resulted in attachment of his name to
the wooden bench at Grand.  (As late as 1977 that was the ONLY bench at
Grand!)

Instead of just asking the editors to printa spelling correction in the
October Sput, I'm putting together a "Tribute to John R. Railey, Volunteer
in Park".  I want to include personal recollections of John as well as
reproducing his special report.  I would like to include personal
recollections from any/all of you who knew John.  Please email them to me
(lstephens.eagle at sisna.com) by September 13.  (Sorry for the short deadline,
but I need a couple days to organize them and meet the September 15 Sput
deadline.)

Thanks in advance for your help with this project.
 
 
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