Explorers on Horses near Geyser

Three men and their horses, checking out a geyser in Yellowstone, circa 1915.  No idea which geyser it is.

Soda Springs, Idaho

Soda Springs, Idaho has made a name for itself by turning a small natural hot spring in the area into a full fledged, albeit man made, geyser. Some inspired entrepreneurs tried to market soda water (under the brand name Idan-ha) by drilling for carbon dioxide from a spring near town, kegging the gas, and carbonating local water in the bottle. This turned out to be a bad idea, as the gas was impregnated with a sulfur smell, which made any water all but unbearable.

Said entrepreneurs then decided to make the best of a bad situation, and to turn their fledgling seltzer company into a hot springs bath house. Expanding their drill hole, they hit hot water which shot out of the bore a la There Will Be Blood. Once they contained their gusher, the town now had a fully functional geyser that they could throw on at the turn of a valve. The joke in Yellowstone is that tourists ask where the pump house is for Old Faithful. Here, it is located several feet from the pipe that emits the geyser water every hour, on the hour.

Completion of the Teton Valley Railroad - 1913

By 1913, the Union Pacific railroad had completed a line from Aston, Idaho to Victor, five years after offering the first "Yellowstone Special" on June 11. 1908. The rail dead-ended in Victor, and steam trains were turned around there on a wye (a triangle shaped junction that allowed a trail to back up and turn around.) Passengers heading to Jackson, Wyoming then took a carriage, or later, a bus, over the Teton pass, which by then was still a difficult, though not impossible, journey. The photo above shows the inaugural train - UP #684 - with a second engine and at least 6 passenger cars, probably somewhere between Driggs and Victor. The photo below, given the position of the boxcar with people standing on it in both photos, is probably taken on the top of a car on the track, either before or after the first train rolled through. The population shown in the photo below most likely represents the sum total of residents in the Driggs/Victor corridor.
More information about the UP Victor line (circa 1965) here.

A Man Standing Near Lake Yellowstone

This picture was taken near Fishing Cone, in the West Thumb Geyser Basin near Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park. Approximately here:



This area is unique in that geysers and hotspots are on and in the lake. A story from the 1870 Washburn Expedition tells of a man trout fishing near one particular cone in the water, and the fish got off the line, flipped into the thermal vent, and boiled itself. No work on how sulfur infused lake trout tastes.

This photo was probably taken in the mid to late 1910's to early 1920's. During that time, the West Thumb area was a popular tourist destination in the Yellowstone area. Arriving on stagecoach from the Old Faithful Lodge (still a great building), travelers could depart nearby on a steamboat that would take them to the northern end of the lake.

Also, Lake Yellowstone looks like a hunched-over backpacker. West Thumb should be called Hiker's Head.