The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-10-20
A RAMBLE OVER UNCLE SANS TERRI
TORY.
NUMBER FOUR.


ceased most of the party bound inward
through the park arrived, but of the fifty
outward bound party alone saw it.
One of the late corners got several very
fine instantaneous pictures of it in fun
play. There were two crevices in the
rock each about a foot wide and possibly
ten long, parallel to each other and only
a couple of feet apart. These were in a
basin about 10 feet in diameter, the rock
from which the stream came being
raised a little above the basin. First
from one side then from the other would
gush the great column of snowy steam
and water; shooting up into numerous
pinnacles of varying heights, leaping
higher and h CHER Twelve times it died
down entirely, and in few seconds
would dart up with renewed activity.
Then it died away and just as l said to
mys If regretfully, that is the end, away
1t shot higher than ever, and many times
this WIS repeated with intervals of nearly
minu Q. The soldier on guard who
came with the party did not know what
to say, for no such display by this geyser
had ever been Known; five minutes was
always its limit. After | left the park
heard that on thai day there was an
earthquake in Mexico; whether that was
the reason for the outbreak or not leave
some one more familiar with such
things to decide; / was very grateful,
however, to whoever or whatever caused
it just then, and only sorry that so many
missed it, particularly a New Jersey
minister who was in stage load that
would travel on Sunday. 70 keep the
day he was forced to remain at the
Fountain hotel while they drove to the
Upper Basin and back; and thus he
failed even to see Old Faithful, which de-
rives its name from its regular outburst
every 65 minutes. The long line of We
hicles soon appeared and picked us up
for the long afternoon ride, which proved
to be by far the most charming of the
trip in the park. The road followed the
canon of the Gibbon river, good sized
stream of clear water, which dashed
along a rocky bed; at one place dropping
over a high precipice, making very
beautiful waterfall. OF this we had
fine view. as the road almost Ovelhung
the chasm. A smooth, well-made road,
down grade all the way for miles, right
on the bank of the dancing stream, now
on one side then on the other, great trees
over-arching the way, now and then
glance of pretty green glade, while far
above us lowered the great gray cliffs, at
times coming 80 close together that they
| almost seemed to meet overhead. No
other part of the park was so pretty, nor
did any other part look like our eastern
country. But, it was too nice to last,
and after an hour or 80, the road turned
abruptly away from the beautiful stream
and began to climb the divide between
the GibbOn river and Fire Hole Creek.up,
up, up, throgh pine forest, the road
deep in volcanic sand, regular ash heap,
dust following us in clouds, and too
many stumps in the road for comfort,
until after a couple of hours of misery,
compared with the lovely drive of the
two previous hours, we came out ON the
top of the ridge and saw ahead the hotel
at the Fountain Geyser. There was,
| however, yet before us long pull
! through the sand, albeit on a descending
grade until thankfully we came down in
to the valley OF the east branch of Fire
Hole Creek. If one has never driven
through a road deep with volcanic sand
he can have no conception of the rasping
exasperating noise the wheels make as
they roll through it,; the sound is enough
to drive one crazy, if long continued.
| Common sand makes the most comforta-
BILE of roads compared with this. Then
the most aggravating part of all is that
there never was the slightest need for the
engineers running the road over the hill;
all they had to do was to keep on down
GibbOD river valley to the junction with
Fire Hole Creek, and then up the valley
of that stream; thus ensuTing splendid
road the entire distance, which would be
only about five miles longer than the
present eace-destroying route, and the
Journey could be made in less time and
far more easily. The trouble is that both
the Interior and War Departments have
jurisdiction in the park; the laying out
of roads being under the auspices of the
latter; and between the two a great deal
of valuable time is lost, as the season is
very short at that high altitude. The
soldiers do not go into the park. until
about the middle of June, and leave the
early part of October, and the roads are
not free enough from snow to be worked
much before the first of July. The great
snowfall melting, produces torrents of
water everywhere; the roads are washed
badly, and when they lie near streams
are washed away altogether, bridges and
ALL and when the absolutely necessary
repairs are made, there is not much time
left for improvements or new roads. The
army engineers in charge waste lots Of
valuable time before they settle down to
work We passed through the park the
week beginning with July 9th, and in
many places much snow still lay by the
roadside, we frequently made snow balls
from the unmelted banks; our driver
showed us where on his previous trip he
had been obliged to turn out of the road in
many places, as the drifts we're too deep
to drive through. Strawberries were
Just in blossom that week The last two
of the days drive of 80 miles, after the
creek was fUrded at the United States
post, was over the flat bottom of what at
some time evidently had been a large
shallow lake, now wide plain white
with alkali. The Fountain hotel. the
second of the four large park hotels, is
built on a knoll just at the edge of the
forest which stretches away from it far
up the mountain side. Like the others
it is comfortable, a large wooden struc-
ture, built only year ago, replacing one
which was destroyed by ire. Each hotel
is looked after through the long dreary
winter by man whom l should think
would die of loneliness, miles away from
all human kind. The hotel is named
from the Fountain geyser which is just
opposite, across what was an arm of the
former lake, aud about a half-mile dis
tant This geyser is on top of great
white formation about 30 feet high and
several hundred long, sloping very grad
ually upward; the path lodging hot
pools, steaming springs, and numberless
streams of warm water, and it bursts