[Geysers] 9/11 geyser memory

[Andrew Hafner]

(MODERATOR: please use discretion. If you feel this is inappopriate, please don't post.)
(TOM AND GENEAN: You may include this in the October issue of the Sput, if you feel it is appropriate.)
 
My memory of 9/11 is:
 
  The summer of 2001 was my second at Old Faithful, where I worked as a porter at the Inn. I had this day off from work, and as I did on most such days that summer, I was going to spend it in the geyser basins.
  It was a clear, bright, quiet and calm morning in Yellowstone, much like it probably was in New York that fateful day. I headed down to "Lower Ham's," a favorite hangout of geyser gazers, for breakfast. The food counter was quiet when I came in, so I found a table, sat down, and placed an order. A short while later, fellow gazer Lotus Baker saw me and asked if she could join me for breakfast. After we exchanged pleasantries, Lotus then proceeded to tell me that two jetliners had struck the World Trade Center, another had struck the Pentagon, and still another was rumored to have hit the Capitol. Incredulous and dumbstruck, I pressed her for more information, but she knew nothing beyond the brief report she had heard and just passed along to me. After that, conversation at the breakfast table, about the usual things such as the day's predicted geyser activity, wasn't so easy. Keep in mind that this was around 0830 (Mountain time), after the twin towers had collapsed.
  Let's roll forward a few hours, to around noontime or shortly before or thereafter. Myself, along with several other geyser gazers, were up on Geyser Hill. Beehive's Indicator had started, and we were stopping passing visitors and giving them the usual "you might as well stick around, something cool is about to happen, we're going to have a major geyser here in the next twenty minutes" spiel. Eventually, about 50 or so people were gathered on the front side of Geyser Hill.
  Well, Beehive did its thing. Now, there had been almost no breeze that morning, so it became obvious to all that this was going to be one of those tall, straight-as-a-poker eruptions of Beehive, you know, the kind that make viewers on the Geyser Hill side crane their necks, the ones that tower over the whole south end of the Upper Basin. What I remember best is that while this eruption was in progress, no one on Geyser Hill said a WORD. Usually, when Beehive's eruption starts, it is met with great enthusiasm from visitors: "Holy mackerel!" "What on Earth!?" "This is way better than Old Faithful!" "Way cool!"....you get the picture. But not this time. All I remember hearing was the heavy water hitting the sinter, with the terrific noise of falling rain, when Beehive's eruption bega, and the jet-engine roar after the water column had reached maximun height. Everyone on the boardwalk was quiet and solemn. I think that many of these people were aware of what had taken place that morning, more than half a continent away. There wasn't even any applause when the eruption concluded, like there so often is. The crowd then dispersed quietly.
  I can remember being in something of a mental fog that day. It wasn't wasn't one of my more focused days of geyser gazing. More than anything else, I felt a sense of sadness over what had happened, and also a sense of anger that something like this could have taken place. The general mindframe around the whole Old Faithful area, among visitors and employees alike, seemed detached and subdued as well. Later that day, the hotel company commandeered an employee's satellite dish, and set up a TV set in the Bear Pit cocktail lounge at the Inn, and kept it there for the next several days. I did not once put foot in that room while it was there. I'm probably better off for not having seen any footage.
  There aren't many people who can claim that they were out watching geysers on that fateful day, but I was one of them. There are no doubt many others who were in Yellowstone on 9/11, and have more vivid or more detailed memories of what transpired that morning. This is simply how I choose to remember it.
 
Andrew Hafner
   
 
  		 	   		  
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