Toilet at a Hot Spring Pool in The Thumb, Yellowstone Lake, Wyo., A

Publication

Toilet at a Hot Spring Pool in The Thumb, Yellowstone Lake, Wyo., A

Description

A TOILET AT A HOT SPRING POOL IN THE THUMB, YELLOWSTONE LAKE, WYO. Even without the attraction of the famous spouting geysers some twenty or more miles away, this lake and surrounding district would deserve its many throngs of visitors for the sake of its beauty in this rare situation, almost a mile and a half higher than the surface of the Blue Gulf of Mexico which its waters will eventually reach by way of their long route through the Yellowstone, the Missouri, and the Mississippi. Its mountain walled basin covers 139 square miles with a coast line of over 100 miles. Along the shore, the waters are seldom more than 20 or 30 feet deep, but there are places where the bed sinks 300 feet deep. In form Yellowstone Lake is very irregular, its arms resemble very much a huge hand with fingers outspread. Because of this fancied resemblance, one section or arm has been termed The Thumb. The place is extraordinary in many ways, but the most striking peculiarity of all is the possibility of such a proceeding as you see now--these Park campers at their toilet. Nature has provided a bath-room with hot and cold water constantly available. This pool, which has built up around itself a cone of geyserite, is fed by a spring of boiling water. Just a few inches away, outside, and very nearly surrounding it, are the cool waters of Yellowstone lake from which this hot pol holds itself aloof. The hot waters of the boiling spring evidently rise from sources absolutely separate from the lake bed--as separate as if they came up through pipes placed by a plumber. Yet geologists say the boiling waters, like those of the lake, come from the rain or snow which has gradually filtered down into rock hollows of terrific heat.