Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-10-21
Ho, for the National Park.
October 9, 1892.

En-. SrAR:-Having finished my
wandering in the wilds Of Montana,
Wyoming and the National Park, and
reached my native Hills in the "banana
helt," I will explain why I so alb
ruptly ceased the scribbling for the
STAR. Well you see whilst I was
making my evening toilet upon the
shores Of a river whose historical APP
p~ellation is Sinking Water, I mlslaid
my glass optics, and a failure to find
them caused me to make an |! IL
my ~ over my I'M and said this
puts a . to my iottings.
In my last letter to the STAR Of Aug.
81, I enumerated some OF the names
of the wonders Of the National Park.
l will endeavor in as brief manner
as possible to describe some of them,
and the readers car comprehend the
balance as they are nearly all OF the
same nature, with the exception some
aye more powerful and smell louder
than others.
Golden Gate, the date Of my last
letter, is the door to the National
| Park; there seems to be no other out
let or egress for entrance, and like a
sentinel it bars the passage by a huge
narrow gorge Of a perpendicular
shape, hundreds Of feet in depth, A
precipice at the head of this gorge adj
mits Gardner river os 81 its rocky fall,
which precipitates downward a dis
lance Of one hundred feet. Along the
side of this gorge for three-quarters
of a mile the park road runs, lifting it
! $50 feet in mid-air, over which all
travel to and from the park must go.
The situation when passing over, es-
peclally if inclined to nervousness, will
make the cold chills creep along the
spinal fixtures, and feel 3 sort Of
thankfulness when over it. The next
thing we found was a veritable soda
water fountain in the shape Of a cool,
sparkling spring about eleven rods
from the road. A guide board was
nailed to spruce tree in a conspic-
uous place, letting the traveller know
that this was the "Appolonairas
Spring" We stopped, took our tin
cups and wcndcd un the narrow path
through a dense and mighty spruce
forest and helped ourselves to the
delicious. cool and sparkling beverage.
1t takes its name from a soda spring
in Prussia, which is bottled and sent
all over the world and has become IA
nous. 1t has just the right constit-
uency and cannot he duplicated by any
chemist in the world. After having
filled clean up to the chin [ reluct-
antly left and racked my brain ever
after to contrive some method ia
change its location to Hot Springs and
become a corpulent bond holder.
The next station where we took din.
ner was Norris station, a dining and
feeding point. Nothing Of import Is
here except a few mineral springs and
one or two hot springs. From here
we started on the circle around the
park. The first hot looking spot We
nassed was Bias spring. 1t looked
like it might cook a pot Of beam
quick enough for the most impatien'
hungry man. 1t boiled as if it had
very energetic fireman at the furnace
The "Frying Pam about a mile OF $,
beyond, was a curiosity. 1t covered
about an acre Of ground, and the boil
ing springs were so close to eacl
other there was hardly room to pas
between them. 1t was an elegant out
fit to fry spring chickens and eggs TO
hungry office seekers. They were fry
ing and suffering SO that it shook TIL
ground.
The next natural wonder tina
struck " vision as we moved aro1n,
the circle was Roaring Mountain"
: gigantic mountain which seemed to b
internally a bed Of hot steam and lava
with a volume of steam coming fron
its side and ascending high above tn
forest with a rumbling sound. Thu
is the highest volcanic geyser in til
park. i.
Alter some distance We came in sigh
of what looked like Dante's Inferno
and sure enough, when we read i,
, name it was called "Heil's Half Acre
very appropriately named. TIL
earth trembled with the force Of il
convnlslons, and %furiously lashing th
walls Of those awful holes with the
<. foaming, seething liquids, it brougt
hack to my memory some of Ii
dreams of my childhood after hayin
been to church in the evening and Ii
tening to a Methodist preacher de
cribing the place where the nanght
would go when they shufaed off tn
mortal coil.
. But a truce to long paragraph
there are too many to mention.
would expand this article to an indel
nlta length which would wear out a
our patience. Suffice it that l brief
describe the more prominent and VIII
1. I should consider the most wonderf
and mysterious works Of the Infinit
We come to "Old Faithful" and =
have great confidence in him I'VE ha'
placed it there about like we place co
: fdence in the promises Of a candida
before election). We camped Just
short distance from its base. but ke
our weather eye upon 1t (Mr. Short
did especially to see him snort, and
about a half hour someone exclaime
- "there she goes" and We all turn
our eyes toward the magnificent pa