Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-24
Different Times for Eruption, But at
Regular Intervals.
THREE OF THE MOST CURIOUS
"Old Faithful" the "Paint Pot
and the Mud Volcano Most In
teresting to the Tourist.
BY WILLIAM Z. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence Of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.

the Paint Pot and the Mud Volcano
are the most curious of the gaysers in
the Yellowstone, but all of them are
wonderful, and each one is different from
the others. Each has It's own individual
ity. Each has different formation and
looks differently, has different time for
disturbance and a different interval Tor
rest although several of the groups work
In a sort of partnership and secret
understanding, which causes them to be
sympathetic and act in unison.
Joe Ping, the Swiss head porter Of the
Old Faithful Inn, who has been in the
basin for nineteen years and knows all
the geysers intimately, says that they
are the most regular and consistent of
all animate objects; that they are all
governed by laws which they obey faith
fully but he asserts that nobody has
ever been able to determine accurately
the reasons for their existence or decide
why they act as they do. Joe says there
was an international convention of sew
enty-five scientists here in 1897. They
remained several days and fused over
the geysers night and day, and every
one had a different theory about them.
but, as a matter of fact. they did not
know SO much when they went away as
they did when they came. because their
observations upset all the conclusions
they had formed from reading, and left
them entirely in the air. Joe says the
only way to find out the real facts about
the geysers Is TO climb down into the
middle of the earth and interview the
chief engineer.
What is known as the Paint Pot has a
distinct individuality. 1t is situated near
the Fountain Hotel, where Gen. Howard
camped when he was chasing the Nez
Perces Indians through the park in 1877
1t is a great boiling spring. perhaps
twenty feet in diameter, filled with a
liquid OF beautiful gray color. about
the consistency of calsomine or thin
paint.
1t boils with great violence, and as the
steam puffs it up here and there the
| thick mass is formed into fantastic fig
ures which Immediately dissolve in the
air and sink back into the fountain only
to be formed anew by other puffs of
steam. There are several other springs
| filled with similar liquid, but none is
so hot or SO active as this. Incessant
| duced the material of which 1t is COM
posed to the very finest particles posi-
Die, which feel like velvet when they are
pressed between the fingers.
The mud volcano. located at the side
Of the road between Yellowstone lake
and Yellowstone falls. spouts up liquid
similar to that found in the Paint Pot
sometimes throwing a column five or six
feet from the level of the spring. The
color is different from that of the Paint
Pot. and indeed all of the so-called mud
geysers differe in color. according to the
amount of oxide of iron and other min
erals among their ingredients. The din
ing room of the hotel at Fountain Spring
was calcimined with liquid from the
Paint Pot. and after several years it still
remains In perfect condition.
Drawn Into Bottomless Pit.
There is popularity about the Paint
Pot which is not observed in other
springs. Objects thrown into it will never
be seen again. They are drawn down
into the bowels Of the earth to remain
forever. In other springs they reappear
shortly after they are thrown in. The
Handkerchief Spring is so called because
is you throw a handkerchief in the water
1t will disappear for few moments only
and then reappear upon the surface of
the water, where 1t can be drawn out
with a stick. II you throw a handker-
chief into the crater of Old Faithful
while that geyser is in action, it will be
drawn under the water for a few mo-
ments and then be thrown up with the
spout sometimes to a height Of a hun
dred or a hundred and fifty feet This
used to be favorite amusement of yis-
itors for many years. but it has been
forbidden of late because of the danger.
Two or three people had narrow escapes
while trying to recover their handker-
chiefs
No attempt has ever been made to util-
lie the contents of the Paint Pot or other
mud geysers. because the government
does not encourage such things It is
the policy of the Interior Department to
keep the park for amusement and to pro-
hibit any practical use of it's great natu-
raj curtosi les. There Is group of mud
geysers similar to these in Montana.
which have supplied the Indians with
paint as long as their traditions run
back. A veteran frontiersman known as
Major thompson shipped several sample
barrels east many years ago. The chem
lists a.s. said It was good paint. but the
money can be made out of them in that
way.
Old Faithful, as everybody knows, or
ought to know, is one of the most ex-
traordinary natural curiosities ever dis
covered. 1t Is a pool of scalding hot
water. twenty by twenty-five feet in size,
occupying the center of a mound about
twelve feet high formed by chemicals
crater. With an average interval Of
sixty-five minutes-sometimes six.y-two
sometimes seventy, but never more than
that-day and night. winter and summer,
for untold ages. 1t has thrown a column
of water 80 feet high and about go. 900
gallons in measurement for space of
from three 10 five minutes. The column
Is very regular and measures between five
and six feet in diameter 1t falls back
into the crater and upon the rim of the
cone which surrounds it, and then Old
Faithful remains silent, only emitting a
narrow column of steam for little more
than an hour, when the eruption is re-
peated.
The uniform and regular action of this
fountain makes it the most wond .rful OF
all natural curiosities in the park, the
most perfect as well as the most famous
and beautiful of all fountains, natural or
artificial. in all the world. The SYM
metry of the column of water thrown
from it's crater is as exact as the periods |
Of the eruption, but when the wind is
Seen by Searchlight.
Every evening at the inn one of the |
bellboys with a megarhone shouts: AT |
tention, please. In twenty minutes
will be turned on Old Faith |
full and all who wish to see the wonderful
prismatic effects should go to the farther
side of the geyser"-and they are won
derful. The rays of light penetrating the
solid mass of water and columns of
steam by which 1t is enveloped makes
scribed The show lasts about five min
utes and when it is over the spectators
return to the lobby of the hotel, where
a big dishpan full of popcorn is passed
around for their benefit
Some Of the other geysers play with
more or less regularity. The Riverside
and the Daisy are the most regular. The
hours, varying from twenty to sixty min
utes. and for fifteen minutes will throw
q column of water almost as large as
that which comes from Old Faithful
from 100 to 100 feet. The Riverside is
one of the largest geysers in the park.
and Is situated on the immediate shore |
of the Firehole river. which often over |
nj q q