[Geysers] 1901 New York Times article

[TSBryan at aol.com]

The answer to 
 
In a message dated 4/27/2011 7:55:51 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
david.schwarz at alumni.duke.edu writes:

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=F40716FA3F5B11738DDDAF0A94DA4
05B818CF1D3

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.
Well, not likely, but. For one thing, I really like the "about 200  feet 
immediately" description of the location [emphasis mine]. It does  not say 
directly south. So this actually leaves quite a lot of  wiggle-room for there 
to be something. Query the figure of 200 feet. What today  is called Spasm 
has in the past undergone some pretty powerful stuff. 500 feet,  no. But in 
the winter cold......?


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.
 
The Excelsior business is entirely possible. There have  been several 
rather credible reports of Excelsior in the winter and spring of  1901. In his 
"Wonderland Nomenclature," Whittlesey does not cite this New York  Times 
article, but he does have the following: 
"Reports of Excelsior eruptions in 1901 were more substantive.  Once again 
the reporter was long time  Yellowstone observer G.L. Henderson who stated 
in a newspaper article entitled  "In the Game Again--'Hell's Half Acre' is on 
the Rampage Once More" that  Excelsior Geyser played for five hours on 
February 22, 1901._[1]_ (aoldb://mail/write/template.htm#_ftn1)  
Two other newspaper articles published shortly after this make reference  
to Excelsior's alleged 1901 eruptions.  One was published about a week later 
and in it Col. E.C. Waters gave his  opinion that Excelsior "is now in 
action."  The other, published April 11, 1901, simply stated that Excelsior was  
once again active."_[2]_ (aoldb://mail/write/template.htm#_ftn2)  

 
____________________________________

_[1]_ (aoldb://mail/write/template.htm#_ftnref1) Henderson in Livingston 
Post, February 28, 1901.  Henderson did not specify whether the eruption  was 
continuous for five hours or broken into separate eruptions for that time  
period.
 
_[2]_ (aoldb://mail/write/template.htm#_ftnref2) "Col.  Waters' Views", 
Livingston Post,  March 7, 1901.  "Yellowstone Park", Livingston Post, April 
11, 1901. 




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