<div dir="ltr">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. <div> <br></div><div>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).</div> <div><br></div><div>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":<br> </div><div><br></div><div>"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."</div> <div><br></div><div>Lee Whittlesey<br>Park Historian </div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 3:27 PM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:TSBryan@aol.com" target="_blank">TSBryan@aol.com</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><u></u> <div style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;FONT-FAMILY:Arial;COLOR:#000000"><font color="#000000" face="Arial"> <div>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.</div> <div> </div> <div>Scott Bryan</div> <div> </div> <div> <div>In a message dated 6/2/2014 11:17:17 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, <a href="mailto:lee_whittlesey@nps.gov" target="_blank">lee_whittlesey@nps.gov</a> writes:</div> <blockquote style="PADDING-LEFT:5px;MARGIN-LEFT:5px;BORDER-LEFT:blue 2px solid"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR:transparent" color="#000000" face="Arial">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. <div><br></div> <div>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.</div></font></blockquote></div></font></div><br>_______________________________________________<br> Geysers mailing list<br> <a href="mailto:Geysers@lists.wallawalla.edu">Geysers@lists.wallawalla.edu</a><br> <a href="https://lists.wallawalla.edu/mailman/listinfo/geysers" target="_blank">https://lists.wallawalla.edu/mailman/listinfo/geysers</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div>