[Geysers] a historical question

[Whittlesey, Lee]

Scott Bryan is right about short, wooden walkways, which do show in some
photos from the 1920s. I was indeed talking about the larger and more
extensive (park-wide) boardwalk projects. More on that in a moment.

Scott also mentions a "wooden, plank-like walkway that extends well out
into the [Porcelain] basin" at Norris. This shows in a Haynes
postcard-photo of Constant Geyser, which dates to 1903-05. These were thin
planks, merely laid onto the ground for people to walk on, and were not
formal boardwalks as such. Tour guide G.L. Henderson suggested in 1884 that
"walks of planks should be laid down to insure safety." I wrote about this
and the Haynes postcard on p. 140 of a book called STORYTELLING IN
YELLOWSTONE (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007).

As for the more extensive boardwalks, I cannot find any evidence that these
large-scale "duck board walk" projects started earlier than 1946. If anyone
finds earlier evidence, I would certainly like to know. But for those of
you who are interested, here is the description from the Superintendent's
"Annual Report" for 1948, pp. 14-15, under the heading of "Prefabricated
Walks":

"The project [which was] started in 1946 of protecting the thermal areas by
the use of prefabricated wooden walks was continued in 1947. During the
summer of 1947 approximately 2,000 feet of these duck board walks were laid
in the park, some 710 feet in the Lower Geyser Basin, 257 feet at Morning
Glory Pool, 505 at Emerald Pool and 668 feet at Castle Geyser. Some
additional 2,000 feet of duck board was prefabricated during the winter and
was laid as soon as weather conditions permitted. It is felt that the
effect of the duck board walk has been well worth the effort and expense.
Observations made after the installation of the walks indicated that the
public was using them more than was at first anticipated. It has been
estimated that the wear on the formations, in the areas where these walks
have been installed, has been reduced some 90 per cent."

Lee Whittlesey
Park Historian




On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 3:27 PM, <TSBryan at aol.com> wrote:

>  No doubt the dates cited by Lee, MA, Rocco, and etc. are correct in
> regards to park-wide projects, but it is clear that wooden walkways existed
> well before the 1940s. These may have been short and restricted to the
> surrounds of individual features, but for a few examples look at Haynes
> photos 22637 (Dragon's Mouth), 11125 and 23463 (Mud Volcano), 16049
> (Morning Glory -- I think that's a walkway on the far side of the pool),
> and perhaps even better a photo from the USGS digital photo file labeled
> "Black Growler 1924" that clearly shows a wooden walkway and bridge
> complete with wooden railing. Lastly, while I can't seem to locate it at
> the moment, someplace there's a picture of Porcelain Basin that shows a
> wooden plank-like walkway that extends well out into the basin; I somehow
> recall the date of 1922 for that one.
>
> Scott Bryan
>
>  In a message dated 6/2/2014 11:17:17 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
> lee_whittlesey at nps.gov writes:
>
> For information on the UGB walkways, see the Geyser Gazer pages on
> Facebook. M.A. Bellingham and I both made some comments there. The first
> formal walkways that I know of at UGB were the asphalt ones, built in (as I
> recall) 1934. Rocco Paperiello has posted some photos of this construction
> from the park's black scrapbooks on his Facebook page.
>
> The park's actual move to wooden boardwalks (what the 1946 Report of the
> Superintendent called "duckwalks") began that year, and continued being
> built during the period 1946-1950 in various places.
>
>
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