[Geysers] 1901 New York Times article

[David Schwarz]

   Is it fair to say that the following article is completely devoid
of anything resembling a legitimate fact?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40716FA3F5B11738DDDAF0A94DA405B818CF1D3

   The article, published Feb. 26, 1901 claims that on Feb. 18, 1901 a
geyser "200 feet south" of Fountain erupted from a 5-foot vent in a
solid column to a height of 500 feet for 90 minutes, and then briefly
at intervals of two hours.  200 feet south of Fountain is in the
island of trees inside the current boardwalk.

   The article adds as an afterthought that Excelsior erupted for 5
hours on Washington's birthday (Feb. 22), flooding the Firehole and
scalding fish up to two miles downstream.

   I'm just wondering whether anything unusual actually happened or
the whole thing was just a fabrication of snow-addled residents.

David