The Oskaloosa herald., 1908-03-19
JOE WRIGHTS LETTER
Characteristic Descriptions Of yell
low Stone Park.

/ dipped by pen in the ink and it
dried, and | repeated this perform
ance quite q number of times.
reared myself back in my chair, cock
ed my feet up on the stand, and as
smoked, thinks to myself, How VIII
/ commence this ietter?" Possibly
you can realize better what ! am up
against when say that the worlds
most famous artists who have witness
ed the sights OF the Yellowstone shake
their. heads, turn upon their heels and
walk away, saying, 1t can't be paint
ed" When our most learned men and
poets cannot find language to convey
to your minds description of the
Yellowstone, and then to think OF a
fiy-up.the-creek like myself going to
tell you all about it. It's absurd, but
here she goes, if | fail ever SO much.
Did you ever hear that expression Fly
up the creek? / have, lots of times.
Well, that's the first sight ! saw in
the Yellowstone, was fly-up-the-creek
just a peculiar looking little bird
that does nothing but fly up the creek.
Our first day i'll the park at 10 a. m.
brought us into what is called the
Lower Fire Hole Basin, and in the dis
triet is the Fountain Hotel, an i'm
mense building that will accommodate
hundreds OF people A little further
up IS the Mammoth Paint Pot, and the
Fountain Geyser. 1t is called the
Fountain because of the vast amount
of water it throws out during each
eruption, which occurs about every
four hours and to the height of about
twenty or thirty feet. The crater is
about thirty feet in diameter and the
water flows down over acres of gey-
serite formation and finally into the
Fire Hole River. Watching this gey-
ser was our first sight. Then next
comes the Paint Pots. This mud
caldron measures about forty by fifty
feet. Remember this is mud, not
paint, and it has a kind of a mud rim,
and in the center this hot mud is in
a constant state of agitation. Say
did you ever watch your mother make
a pot of corn meal mush, and when it
was almost done it would bubble up
and make a noise little like ''plop!
plopL" Well, you just imagine a pot
of mush forty by fifty feet and each
one of those bubbles that go "plop!
plop" being O different color, some OF
them brown and right close beside il
is one red, all of a different color.
] wrote the first letter and got this
far on the second one, and the cal
boy called me to go to Caliente, Ne
vada, that is $50 miles from Salt Lake
450 miles from Los Angeles, ant
about 400 miles in any other direction
from any place else. ! am brakint
on the S. p, l.. A. & S. L.. which
stands for Small Pay. Lost Ambition
the time, and all l have to do is play
get my paraphernalia, which con
sists of a red light, some torpedoes
and fuses, and go down through the
canon and build fire alongside thu
track and stay there all night ant
keep company with the coyotes, wilt
cats and bears. There is lots of biz
game in these parts, but the largest
saw was rat. | was sitting by m,
fire by big rock and rat jumped IL
my lap. | was just as badly scared a
il it had been bear. Well it nigh
have been Teddy bear, but l an
sure it was rat,
Well, to go on with my story. Al
ter seeing the Paint Pots we go OF
down to the Excelsior Geyser. 1t i
right at the west bank of the Fir
Hole River. 1t is about 200 by 30
feet, almost round, the outer edge i
perpendicular and very irregular. !
is about thirty feet to the water an
the steam is so dense that you cal
only see the water at times when tn
wind blows the steam away. Thi
geyser has not had an eruption sine
1883. You can see large rocks severa
hundred feet away that came from
the geyser. That's why this part i
called the Devils Half Acre. Thi
geyser throws more water than al
the other geysers put to gether. Yol
can imagine it is pretty fierce, as
will raise the Fire Hole River severa
inches. This is history, from the eS
plorer Mr.. Norris, in whose honor thi
district was named, called the Norri
Basin
Just south from the Excelsior |
Prismatic Lake. II is about 800 b
400 feet, almost round. This is
beautiful lake, the water of the deeI
est blue. changing TO green and tin
of yellow and red toward the cute
edge The water is 140 degrees Faf
renheit. Standing with your back t
the sun and looking across this lake
the steam arising against all thes
colors, it is many times more beaut
ful than the rainbow.
That peculiar smell of the park wa
unusually strong in these parts.
did not mind it so much, but it wa
quito dlsagreeable to some ] neve
smelled anything like it. One tim
when ! was boy going to school. ii
the physiology class one day we ma
for one subject, ventilation. TIL
teacher for example said. "Wha
would be the condition of sleepin
room where several people wer
sleeping without ventilation and yo
w0,lId enter the room from the fresl