News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-10-07
THE EXCELSIOR GEYSER.
Some Facts about the YeIIOwstOne's Most
Terrific Water Volcano.

| terrific WATER Volcano.
The famous Excelsior Geyser, which,
as The press dispatches announce, burst
into active eruption in the Yellowstone
National Park on August 27, Is the most
terrific water volcano in the world 1t
was discovered and made known to the
scientific world by Professor Hayden in
1871. AT that time it was not distinct
ly characterized as geyser, but it at.
| tracted his attention as a marvellously
aclive and sinister looking cauldron of
boiling water, and was so impressive that
he charted it in his reports and made
| particular mention of it both on his
first and second explorations of the Vel
lowstone geyser basin.
The Excelsior or, as it is called in
some OF the governmental reports, Sher-
idan Geyser, is situated on the right or
| westerly bank of the Fire hole River,
about eight miles south of the forks of
the Fire-hole, where they form a June
ton with the Gibbon. 1t is the great
feature of what is known as Helrs Half
Acre, a detached terrace of volcanic
springs, lying between the lower and
upper geyser basins. In each of these
two greater basins there are numerous
active geysers, but at Hell's Half Acre
the Excelsior is the only geyser, the
other thermal pools being simply hot
springs-one of them, however, termed
the Great Prismatic Spring, being of ex-
traordinary size and beauty.
The Excelsior and the Prislnatic are
the two chief objects on the terrace.
When Hayden first saw the Excelsior it
was deep blue cistern, scalding hot
and greatly agitated by the subterranean
heat. Its waters were level with the
floor of the terrace; it had narrow fis-
sure-llke outlet, furrowed by the action
OF the water on the centre of which the
terrace has been formed and through
which its water was discharged into the
Fire hole. 1t was then of diameter of
something like fifty feet. On his sec
ond visit Hayden found that the basin
had been considerably enlarged by the
action of the spring, and that its outlet
channel had grown wider and more ir-
regular. For seven or eight years it was
an object of awe to the few travellers
who found their way through this weird
region.
1t was ON the night of January "a,
1881, however, that the great pool sud
denly and Unexpectedly burst forth as
geyser, with much of the dreadful
roar and subterranean Tumblings of
fiery volcano and with most destructive
energy against it's own walls. The out
burst or explosion occurred after mid
night, and was heard by George W.
Marshall. pioneer who had wandered
into this wilderness of wonders a year
or two before, and had made his camp
at the forks of the Fire hole, where he
lives to this day. 1t was in the dead of
an icebound winter in this Rocky Noun
tain realm, but Marshall says the noise,
the rumblings, the explosions and the
tremblings of the earth that accompanied
the eruption awoke HIM at distance Of
certainly eight miles and appalled, him.
Nevertheless, he surmised what the up
roar portended and early next morning
he rode over to the Half Acre to see
what sort of internal excavation had been
going on during the night. His antici-
patton was verified The Excelsior pool
was then in perfect frenzy aud the de
structon it had wrought was terrible.
The terrace and the opposite bank OF
the river was strewn with masses of
rock, powders, and huge as well as
small masses of the silicious sinter, of
which not only the surface of the bank
but its substratum and even the lower
depths and channels of the great spring
itself were composed. In its terrible
throes the monster had belched volleys
of these from its throat. 1t had thrown
up also perfect deluges of scalding water
that HAD drenched everything for hun
dreds of yards around, had raised the
level of the river a foot and heated its
current for miles.
Thereafter the Excelsior became one
of the marvels of the region, though
comparatively few were fortunate enough
to witness its eruptions, which took
place at irregular intervals of fifteen to
twenty-five days, and lasted about six
or eight hours. These great convulsions,
throwing column of water about two
hundred feet high, tore open the outlet
and made it a deep and ragged channel,
widened the margins of the pool itself
and lowered the surface of the water
about twelve feet to the level of the
lowest point of the outlet. The basin
has now diameter OF two hundred
feet.
General Sheridan was fort nate
enough to see it twice or thrice in erup-
tion while. on tours of military lnspec
ton through the region 1t always at
tracted his most wondering admiration,
and some of his friends called it the
Sheridan Geyser.
In the winter of 1888 it ceased its
eruptlons, and since that time and until
its recent outbreak, as announced in the
brief despatch from Cinnabar, had re-
manned quiescent.