[Geysers] Lakeview, Oregon, "Geyser" Article

[Lynn Stephens]

I haven't been there for several years now, but my experiences at Mickey Hot Springs--there was one feature that was a perpetual spouter when the water table was low and a periodic geyser when water tables were high (i.e., it was wet, snowy, and you worried about whether you could get the vehicles back out to the gravel road!).

 

In late September 1996 an Oregon man was found dead in the main spring (water temperature 117 degrees).  He had gone out to watch the lunar eclipse.  Preliminary reports were that he died of hyperthermia.  When police went to his house they found 74 marijuana plants and about 10 pounds of hallucenigenic mushrooms.  I never did read whether the autopsy indicated drugs were a factor in his death.

 

In the 1950's Oregon had a second man-made hot water geyser--Crump Geyser, located about 30 miles east of Lakeview.  The "geyser" was created by Nevada Thermal Power Company while it was drilling in the area.  When Jens Day and I visited it in the early 1990's it was dormant.  The well head had been surrounded by concrete and a fence.  We talked to a woman who remembered her father dumping a bucket with rocks in it into the well.  The bucket was tied to a rope.  He then rode his horse away from the well, pulling the bucket on a ropout of the well to make it erupt.

 

The Nevada Thermal Power Company websites say that Crump Geyser has been active for several years.  However, I think that is a typographical error since I can't find any other source indicating it has erupted in the past 20 years.

 

Klatham Falls has long used geothermal energy for heating purposes.

 

Who knows whether lowering water tables, natural clogging, or geothermal development is responsible for the declining power of "Old Perpetual".  However, I filed this article away in the "examples of possible negative consequences on geothermal features" file for future reference.


Thanks for providing the link Pat.

 

Lynn Stephens


Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:05:57 -0800
From: riozafiro at gmail.com
To: Geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
CC: 
Subject: [Geysers] Lakeview, Oregon, "Geyser" Article

Here's  link to an article about Oregon's manmade "geyser" in Lakeview, which is apparently no longer spouting. 
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/02/lakeviews_iconic_geyser_seems.html
One interesting thing to note is that I thought Oregon also had a geyser (not manmade) at Mickey Hot Springs.
Pat Snyder 		 	   		  
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