The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-06-14
YELLOWSTONE PARK.
A Section Where the Most Wonderful
Freaks of Nature Are Msssed.

A Section Where the Most Wonderful
Freaks of Nature Are Missed.
In any other country than our owl
the opportunities of finding such {
section of land. where all the most
wonderful attractions of nature are
massed. would have been impossible.
The first real information of Won.
derland, with its geysers, its volcanic
formations, its rushing waters. it:
canyons, came in 1868. Before that,
save the vague stories of the trappers
there was nothing known of the Vel
lowstone region. These adventurous
hunters had told the truth, but they
were not believed.
Captain De Lacy's report. written by
a competent officer at once attracted
attention. In 1871 DR.. Hayden went
to the Yellowstone region, studied ii
in detail, and presented careful sum.
mary of his explorations to Congress.
Above all, DR.. Hayden urged that the
whole section should be set apart by
Congress '.for the benefit and enjoy
ment of the people," and this wise
measure was carried out in 1872.
The Yellowstone National Park lies
in the northwestern corner of Wyo
ming, with small portions of it extend
ing into Idaho and Montana. Its
length is 50 miles. width IS. It con
tains 1915 square miles, or 2, 228, OOC
acres. The lowest level, at Gardiner
river, is $500 feet, the highest, Elec-
trio Peak, in the Gallatin range. being
11,155 feet above the sea. The aver,
age elevation of the plateau is from
1900 to $500 feet. The summer days
are hot, the nights always cool. In the
winter the climate is arctic. Here the
past changes of this planet, its present
disturbances, are visible. The forces
within this globe of ours never are at
rest. If through the tunnels of vol
canoes Nature finds her safety-valves,
in the Yellowstone Park the geysers
are her lesser escape pipes.
Around what is called the Upper
Basin is the Beehive, with it's cluster
of geysers. One, known as the Grand,
throws jet of water % feet in diane
ter to a height of 250 feet, and this
superb water-spOIt has a duration of
not less than twenty minutes. There
is another famous geyser called Old
Faithful. Geysers are more or less
capricious as to their eruptions, and
are disappointing to those who expect
that Nature carries a stop-watch in her
pocket. Old Faithful is, however, the
most methodical of geysers. Out of
the cavern beneath him he draws up
the water and shoots it into the air at
regular intervals of every fifty seven
minutes.
Paint Pots are small basins about
three feet wide, where the escaping
steam finds an exit. and they hold in
agitation compounds of siliceous clays,
which are pink, brown, blue, and gray.
The Pulpit Terraces are a series OF
singularly beautiful stalacite basins,
containing water charged with car
bOnic acid, which holds in solution
carbonate of lime. AS the surplus
water trickles over them lime is de-
posted by evaporation as a solid crust.
Liberty Cap owes its peculiar shape to
the well-knOwn action of one of nat
ure's solvents.
There are many extinct geysers, but
when they ceased to spout no one can
tell. There is nothing normal about
the Yellowstone Park. because it is a
center of volcanic activity. tits Won
derland, and in Wonderland, as far as
the staid matter-of-fact contours of the
earth go, there can be nothing which
is rigid.
Mount Evarts owes its name to a
MIR. Evarts who was one of the ex-
ploration party that visited the geyser
basins in 1869. Mr.. Evarts, when near
the head of the lake, was lost, and only
joined his party after suffering great
hardships. Not far from Mount Evarts
are the Mammoth Hot Springs, which
cover an area of three square miles.
Here are terraces glittering in all
colors. Certain portions of the yell
lowstone country are known as ''bad
lands" Wherever volcanic action of
recent date has destroyed the fer
tility of the soil, this name is given.
With its superb lakes, rushing rivers,
waterfalls, its canyons and geysers,
this Yellowstone National Park is one
of the wonders of the world -Har-
per's Bazaar.