Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources

A Chat with a Geophysicist Yellowstone’s Architecture Windows into the Earth Reviewed A Tribute to Aubrey Haines

Volume 8 Number 4 NPS photo

Through a Glass, Darkly?

On the surface of the wild “Wonder- that reflect a motley collection of styles Haines passed from his earthly life, caus- land” that is today called Yellowstone, and eras. ing mourning among many Yellowstone modern Americans have noticeably left Underneath the park teem the unseen, fans. In his NPS career and afterward, their mark, in the buildings they have uncontrollable forces of the earth’s geol- Aubrey pursued the facts behind count- constructed over the last century or more. ogy, only hinted at by the surface mani- less tales and traditions of park history. A historic structure can be especially val- festations of geothermal energy. Many Looking through the windows Aubrey ued—or censured—based on how it re- scientists and visitors long to see and opened onto Yellowstone Park’s “cre- lates to the surrounding human-built and understand what lies beneath Yellow- ation,” some viewers saw light and others natural landscape. Nowadays whenever a stone. Robert B. Smith has worked to saw shadows cast upon a sacred story; new building is proposed in the park, open such a window for the better part of they even tried to close the window. I was extensive discussion precedes (and con- four decades and, in this issue, shares honored to know him, briefly, and hope siderable criticism follows) the chosen some of his journeys of geologic discov- that park managers and others will al- architectural design. In this issue, Rodd ery. Accompanying that discussion is a ways value professionals like him who Wheaton provides readers a window on review of a recent book co-authored by provide new perspectives of Yellowstone, park architecture, as evidenced in park Bob entitled Windows into the Earth. be it of a “dark” past or an explosive hotels, ranger stations, and other facilities This autumn, eminent historian Aubrey future. SCM Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources

Volume 8 Number 4 Fall 2000 Table of Contents

Windows into Yellowstone 2 Since 1959, Bob Smith has studied what he calls the “greater Yellowstone geoecosystem.” He explores the geology of the area (as revealed in his recently published book Windows into the Earth) and discusses his current park research. Interview with Geologist and Geophysicist Robert B. Smith

Architecture of Yellowstone: A Microcosm of 14 American Design Beginning with early pioneers and the U.S. Army, Yellowstone’s architecture has evolved in parallel with styles throughout America. by Rodd L. Wheaton

Book Review 20 Windows into the Earth: The Geologic Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks by Robert B. Smith and Lee J. Siegel. Editor Sue Consolo-Murphy Reviewed by Mike Thompson

Assistant Editor and Design A Tribute to Aubrey Haines 23 Tami Blackford The death of former park historian Aubrey Haines in September is a great personal Kevin Schneider and professional loss for friends of Yellowstone. by Paul Schullery Assistant Editors Mary Ann Franke Alice Wondrak News and Notes 25 New Archeological Finds ¥ New Publications Available ¥ Housing Available for Printing Park Researchers ¥ Thermophilic Algae May Help Cut Greenhouse Emissions ¥ Artcraft, Inc. John Varley Honored for Fisheries Work ¥ Greater Yellowstone Area Parks to Begin Inventory Effort ¥ Errata Bozeman, Montana

Yellowstone Science is published quarterly, and submissions are welcome from all investigators On the cover: Aerial view of a rare conducting formal research in the Yellowstone area. Correspondence should be sent to the eruption of Steamboat Geyser in Norris Editor, Yellowstone Science, Yellowstone Center for Resources, Geyser Basin, July 6, 1984. From P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. Windows into the Earth: The Geologic The opinions expressed in Yellowstone Science are the authors' and may not reflect either National Park Service policy or the views of the Yellowstone Center for Resources. Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton Copyright © 2000, the Yellowstone Association for Natural Science, History & Education. National Parks, by Robert B. Smith and Lee Support for Yellowstone Science is provided by the Yellowstone Association for Natural Science, J. Siegel. History & Education, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to serving the park and its Above: Ionic columns, which were added to visitors. For more information about the Yellowstone Association, including membership, write to the Lake Hotel during its 1922Ð23 neo- P.O. Box 117, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. classicist renovation. NPS photo. Yellowstone Science is printed on recycled paper with a linseed oil-based ink. Windows into Yellowstone An Interview with Geologist and Geophysicist Robert B. Smith

Bob Smith Dr. Robert B. “Bob” Smith has been They also had me assist with surveying associated with Yellowstone geology for lake bathymetry and limnology. We had four decades. Bob is a professor of geol- an old surplus navy boat with a depth ogy and geophysics at the University of bottom sounder on it from which we did Utah. He has conducted research in the seismic profiling of the lake. We also park since 1959 and has operated the lowered water and bottom sampling de- Yellowstone seismic and GPS networks vices down the water column. All the way since 1982. He is a former president of the along, the sounder recorded data from Seismology Section and a fellow of both beneath the lake bed with echoes of rock the American Geophysical Union and the sediments beneath it. “Hey,” I’d look at Geological Society of America. A lively my boss, “what is all this?” He said, speaker who talks about the many con- “Mind your own business. You’re sup- nections of features and resources in what posed to worry about fish, not about rocks.” he calls a greater Yellowstone But I thought it was pretty neat. That was “geoecosystem,” Bob graciously spoke 1956. with senior editor Sue Consolo Murphy in I didn’t finish high school, actually. I 1999 during one of his many trips to the was admitted to college early, but I left park. Windows into the Earth: The Geo- to spawn and be captured for study. that year after the opportunity came for logic Story of Yellowstone and Grand When we were taking graylings, griz- me to work in Yellowstone. I ended up at Teton National Parks is his new book with zlies would come to our cabin because Madison Junction that fall doing stream co-author Lee J. Siegel (Oxford Univer- they could smell fish eggs inside the chemistry and creel censuses, all these sity Press 2000; 240 pages, 69 illustra- building. I was sitting in my bed one things about fishing. Then the Hebgen tions). night, and I heard this roar and pounding Lake earthquake ripped off in 1959, and I on the cabin. After that I slept with a switched into geology. That really got me Yellowstone Science (YS): How did two-bitted ax across my bed the rest of interested. We students went up to the you get interested in geology? the time. I figured they were going to Hebgen Lake area and saw the aftermath Robert Smith (RS): I actually got started come right through the door. of this major earthquake, including fault here in Yellowstone; I worked in 1956 as I then helped map the tributaries of mapping and scarp measurements. a GS-0. I think that’s the truth—maybe it Yellowstone Lake that could support YS: You weren’t here at the time? You was a 1. fish spawn. I did surveys of water chem- didn’t experience the quake? YS: No pay? istry, salinity, and sediment conditions. RS: No. I was just finishing a summer RS: Very little. It was a great year I think I walked every mile of the drain- geology field course in southern Idaho. At because my job was the lowest GS level age that summer. Monday they put a around midnight the ground started shak- they had. I was stationed at Lake working pack on my back and said, “See you ing as we said, “It’s a big earthquake.” It’s for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Friday.” There were no radios, no GPS what really got me interested in this mix- They brought us on in late February; we (Global Positioning Systems), old maps, ture of geophysics—a combination of drove “weasels” across Hayden Valley. nothing, you just went. I would go up physics and geology. I also like the bio- These were the first snowmobiles, these every stream, every tributary. I lived that logical side of things because I started out little army weasels, horrid things. summer at Fern Lake, upper Pelican, doing that in Yellowstone. I went on and There used to be a grayling fish hatch- and we had cabins at Clear Creek, down got degrees in geology, a Ph.D. in geo- ery at Grebe Lake, west of Canyon. My at Trail Creek, and at Peale Island. We physics, and I started doing lots of other first job was to ski in and open up this worked our way around Yellowstone things; I went to pilot training in the Air building and get the water flowing and Lake. That was really a fantastic experi- Force, I put seismographs all over Europe then install fish traps and wait for the fish ence. to snoop on Russian nuclear testing, and

2 Yellowstone Science Figure 1. Space view of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks from satellite images overlaid on digital elevation maps. The 8,000-foot-high Yellowstone caldera was produced by a giant volcanic eruption 630,000 years ago. The caldera occupies a 45-by-30-mile-wide area of central Yellowstone. The Teton fault bounds the east side of the Teton Range and raised the mountains high above Jackson Hole’s valley floor. (Image by E. V. Wingert.)

Figures 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 for this article are from Windows into the Earth: The Geologic Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks by Robert B. Smith and Lee J. Siegel, copyright 2000 by Robert B. Smith and Lee J. Siegel. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.

Figure 2. Path of the Yellowstone hotspot. Yellow ovals show volcanic centers where the hotspot produced one or more caldera eruptions—essentially “ancient Yellowstones”—during the time periods indicated. As North America drifted southwest over the hotspot, the volcanism progressed northeast, beginning in northern Nevada and southeast Oregon 16.5 million years ago and reaching Yellowstone National Park two million years ago. A bow-wave or parabola-shaped zone of mountains (browns and tans) and earthquakes (red dots) surrounds the low elevations (greens) of the seismically quiet Snake River Plain. The greater Yellowstone “geoecosystem” is outlined in blue.

Fall 2000 3 was chosen as the American exchange out across the Yellowstone Plateau say- USGS installed the first permanent seis- scientist to the British Antarctic Survey ing, “This basin has been called by some mographs in 1973. It was also then that and went to the Antarctic—lots of really travelers the vast crater of an ancient we got our first research grants. We put kind of wild things. volcano…” But not many paid attention portable seismographs all over Yellow- YS: You spent a large portion of your to his writings in the sense of the extent of stone and the Tetons. We started our first career working with other folks to ex- the system or the youthfulness of survey at Norris, then studied the Hebgen pand the state of the knowledge from Yellowstone’s volcanism. Lake fault zone near West Yellowstone, what was just vaguely recognized as a In 1922, Professor Jagger at Massachu- Yellowstone Lake, and the Beartooth volcano, a volcanic caldera, in Yellow- setts Institute of Technology rode through Plateau; then we went down and did the stone, to what is now recognized as nearly Yellowstone on horseback on his way to Teton fault. These were part of a long- the largest one in the world. Hawaii, where he founded the Hawaiian term plan to analyze the Quaternary fault RS: The largest active hotspot on the Volcano Observatory. He observed and volcanic history of the region. continents and maybe in the oceans. We Yellowstone’s geology and topography We also built a boat to do seismic geophysically mapped the third dimen- and made a famous statement, “Anyone profiling, bottom-sediment coring, and sion, that is, the subsurface geology with who has spent summers with pack-train heat flow measurements. From this ves- depth, and we studied “extinct” volcanic in a place like Yellowstone comes to sel we ran seismic profiles of Yellow- centers all the way from Boise, Idaho, to know the land to be leaping…The moun- stone Lake and Jackson Lake. The piston Yellowstone. tains are falling all the time and by mil- cores allowed us to determine the com- YS: When you first came to work on lions of tons. Something underground is position and ages of the lake sediments Yellowstone geology, what was the level shoving them up.” He recognized that from which we subsequently determined of knowledge? Yellowstone was a dynamic geologic sys- the first estimates of the past 7,000-year RS: It was somewhat limited, espe- tem. Then after another long hiatus, a history of Yellowstone Lake. Bob cially in terms of understanding the vol- Ph.D. student named Joe Boyd of Harvard Christiansen and his colleagues were also canic and tectonic processes in a plate in the late 1950s mapped and outlined the putting together the volcanic framework tectonic framework. I finished my Ph.D. detail of the Yellowstone caldera. of Yellowstone at the same time, and Bob in 1967 and went to Columbia University But it was in the mid-1960s that a Fournier, also of the USGS, was doing to do post-doctorate research. There I modern and major effort to study his hydrothermal work along with Don went back through all of their old seismic Yellowstone’s volcanic system was initi- White. Our data and ideas all came to- records for western U.S. earthquakes, but ated by the USGS and funded by NASA, gether roughly at the same time in the focused on learning more about the which was training astronauts to go to the early ’70s. Hebgen Lake earthquake. I also went to moon. They were searching for places I wrote a couple of papers in 1974 that the University of California at Berkeley, that had moonish, volcanic rocks—Cra- described the properties of Yellowstone because that was a famous seismological ters of the Moon, deserts. They funded the as a “hotspot.” Remember, plate tecton- institute, and said, “I want all your data on USGS research on geology of Yellow- ics didn’t come into vogue until the late this great earthquake at Hebgen Lake.” stone because it was a big volcanic center. ‘60s, so there was no framework to even We went down in the basement and this In the mid ‘60s, they were doing mapping think about a hotspot until 1972 when a guy said, “They used to be here in boxes.” here and we were starting our first instal- Princeton geologist plotted all the Earth’s Didn’t find one… lations of portable seismographs for earth- volcanic centers and recognized their pat- About a month later a technician called quake studies. That’s when I met up with tern relating to plate motions. me up and he said, “Dr. Smith, there’s a Bob Christiansen of the USGS Volcano YS: Is the hotspot considered to be pile of stuff here under dust and garbage, Hazards Branch. He and I became friends contiguous with the caldera? is this what you want?” It was like finding and close colleagues because our research RS: “Caldera” is a Spanish word for a a gold mine! I now had all the world’s really dovetailed together. I would de- cooking pot called a caldron. When a records for the Hebgen Lake earthquake velop some new information that would large volume of magma is removed from and its aftershocks. I started working fit his ideas and vice versa. The integra- beneath a volcano, the ground subsides with those. This really heightened my tion really paid off. The sum of the two of or collapses into the emptied space, to interest. I started coming up to the Hebgen us was much greater than individuals form a depression called a caldera. They Lake area, putting out seismographs and working alone. Also, Dave Love of the can range in size from a kilometer to tens studying Yellowstone’s fault and volca- USGS, who had mapped in and around of kilometers long, like Yellowstone’s. nic features in the 1960s. Yellowstone, collaborated with me, start- “Hotspot” is a term used to denote an area Mapping of geology in Yellowstone ing on fault and earthquake studies in the of concentrated volcanism on the earth’s was initiated in the 1870s by Ferdinand late ‘60s (Figure 1). surface with a deep mantle source of V. Hayden, the famous naturalist-geolo- YS: You were at the University of Utah magma and heat. As the ascending mol- gist whose pioneering work helped get by then? ten rock migrates through the earth’s Yellowstone named as the first national RS: Yes. I had started doing earth- mantle, some of the magma gets en- park. Hayden made a prophetic statement quake installations and detailed fault trained on the base of the overlying plate, from on top of Mount Washburn looking mapping in Yellowstone about 1967. The while part of the magma leaks upward

4 Yellowstone Science into the crust, melting surrounding rocks noted “old Yellowstone” volcanic cen- the Yellowstone caldera has all been cov- and creating a shallow heat source. That ters along the Snake River Plain. He ered up. Lisa Morgan and Ken Pierce of magma feeds Yellowstone’s magma dated volcanic rocks, rhyolites, scattered the USGS and Mike Perkins of the Uni- chambers whose tops are located at depths along the floor of the Snake River Can- versity of Utah have detailed the volcanic of about 8 to 10 km and extend to depths yon; the rocks get older and older down history of the Snake River Plain and of about 16 km. the Snake River Plain from Yellowstone. delineated the details of many of its vol- This magma in turn provides But they were buried beneath the young canic centers. Yellowstone’s immense heat flow. It is basalts. Now, the Snake River Plain is a Thus we determined the track of the not so much that Yellowstone’s ground broad topographic depression, and we plate over the hotspot, and from seismic temperatures are high, but it is the flow of reasoned that there had to be mountains data we determined the size and location heat coming out the earth’s surface that is there before. You just don’t blow away of its deep magma system. The magma 30 to 40 times higher than the heat flow- Rocky Mountains. Something destroyed that makes up the spread-out hotspot on ing anywhere else in North America. them. Destruction is a product of explo- the base of the plate is only 3 to 6 percent Yellowstone is like an immense heat ra- sion plus foundering of the mountain melt; the rest is solid rock. By integrating diator. roots back into the magma system. all available data from geophysics, geol- There aren’t a lot of big calderas around. Armstrong showed the progressive age ogy, mapping, and dating, it all started to Toba in the southwest Pacific is an ex- of the volcanic rocks, oldest in south- fall together. ample of a large caldera about the size of western Idaho and northwestern Nevada, YS: And the plate—where Yellow- Yellowstone’s. However, it’s poorly and youngest in Yellowstone. stone currently is—moves relative to this known because it’s so remote. As related Plate tectonics had just hit. So in 1972 hotspot of liquid rock under the Earth’s to the giant eruptions and the calderas I calculated the North American plate’s surface. that occur elsewhere in the world, the interaction with the Pacific plate. I said, RS: You have to think about the frame- Yellowstone caldera is a giant—50 km “Let’s assume that the source of Hawaii work. The mantle is fixed. The magma long by nearly 40 km across. This is the volcanism is fixed deep in the Earth and comes up and interacts with the overlying dimension of the roof that collapsed into compare how Yellowstone relates to Ha- Earth’s plates that are moving. It’s like the magma system. waii.” The model predicted the south- moving your hand across a burning candle. YS: Tell me about mapping the young west motion of the North American plate The flame leaves a line of burns on your Yellowstone caldera and pursuing the at Yellowstone. Its trace, the 800-km hand and, if you leave it there long enough, bigger picture of how it relates to older track of the progressively younger volca- the candle flame burns a hole through volcanic activity across the western U.S. nic centers of the Snake River Plain to- your hand. RS: You can’t just study Yellowstone wards Yellowstone, fit this model of a Beneath southern Idaho, we’ve had a in the context of nothing else. You have plate overriding a magma source anchored candle flame made up of magma burning to do it in terms of how it fits into the deep in the earth, sometimes called a upwards into the plate moving over it, world. I have prepared a map of the plume. Hawaii is over a hotspot beneath starting down in the Boise area 16 million locations of the Yellowstone and the the Pacific plate, and we are over a hotspot years ago. And the plate has moved from Snake River Plain calderas, the older beneath the North American plate. northeast to southwest since then. The calderas along the track of the hotspot Armstrong dated the rocks by potas- youngest rocks are at Yellowstone (Fig- (e.g., the shift in the relative position of sium argon methods and showed that the ure 3). the hotspot as a result of continental drift). oldest were to the southwest and the YS: And so what is cold now, the rock The map also shows how the topography, youngest to the northeast. That gave a that you map, was once a hot piece of earthquakes, and faults were related to plate velocity of 4 1/2 centimeters per rock. the Yellowstone hotspot track. That’s year of movement to the southwest. I RS: There were old Yellowstones all when we first began thinking about the calculated the motion of the North Ameri- the way from Boise up here, but they are overall pattern of the effects of the hotspot can plate, using Hawaii as a reference now inactive, cold and buried beneath on the surrounding area and its evolution, frame, and I added in some extension, basalt. Of course, the surface rocks in but more importantly, how it created the and it fit Armstrong’s data within the Yellowstone cool rapidly after exposure volcanism, earthquakes, and how it tied margin of error. The light went on: the to the Earth’s atmosphere. to the faulting—the energetics of a hotspot volcanic activity at Yellowstone is from YS: And it all became rhyolite, the rock (Figure 2). a fixed Earth’s mantle, and the progres- we often see on the surface of the park? The USGS had mapped most of the sive volcanic ages are just the record of RS: At the Idaho National Engineering pieces of Yellowstone by 1970. And a the plate motion across this source. You Laboratory near Idaho Falls, 15 or so paper on a global hotspot and plume was can’t see old Yellowstone calderas too years ago, they wanted to learn about the published by a professor at Princeton in well in the Snake River Plain because subsurface geology beneath the site. They 1973. I published two papers in 1974 in they got covered by younger basalts. But drilled a deep borehole, and low and which I described the effects of the Yel- you can infer roughly where they are behold, they drilled through surface lowstone hotspot and its volcanism. A because of the ages of the rhyolites that basalts into rocks that we call rhyodacites. professor at Yale, Dick Armstrong, first are mapped. For the same reason, most of These are similar in composition to

Fall 2000 5 Figure 3. A cross section of Yellowstone reveals molten rock under the caldera at depths of about three to eight miles. Heat emitted by the molten rock powers Yellowstone’s geysers and hot springs.

0 5 mm/yr

-5 Regional 5 mm/yr 0 Extension 10 km

Yellowstone Regional extension -5 45˚ -5 National Park 5 direction, ~5 mm/yr 10

0

-5

0 0 5 0 0

-5 -5

0 -5 Figure 4. Crustal deforma- 0 tion of Yellowstone from -10

-5 GPS measurements. Three- -10 -5 0 -5

dimensional GPS station -5 -10 velocities for Yellowstone -10 from 1987Ð95. Arrows show -5 horizontal velocity vectors at -5 0 0 -15 stations; color contours 0 represent vertical velocities. -20 Large arrows indicate 44˚ -5 Vertical Velocity (mm/yr), direction of regional 0 0 extension across the Contours 5 mm/yr Yellowstone volcanic field.

Courtesy Bob Smith, University of Utah, Yellow- stone Hotspot Project. 111˚ 110˚

6 Yellowstone Science Yellowstone’s rhyolites. The rhyolites Thumb to Old Faithful to Madison Junc- of uplift to subsidence, and perhaps an- have been covered by younger basalts tion, and we also went across the old other uplift in our lifetime. In a parallel that you see when you drive south from road, from Nez Perce Creek over the top effort, we studied the most intense earth- Ashton to Idaho Falls to Pocatello. They of Mary Mountain to Hayden Valley. quake swarm in Yellowstone’s recorded are ragged black rocks that make up the That is how we connected the two pro- history and found that the earthquakes surface. The inference then, from these files together. Altogether these measure- occurred at the greatest rate during the and our geophysical data, is that the rhyo- ments revealed that the Yellowstone change from caldera uplift to subsidence lites actually make up a much thicker caldera was rising, like a giant bulging in late 1985 and continued into 1986. So component of the Snake River Plain but stomach of a breathing creature. we have this great correlation of earth- they are buried by the basalts, which are This unprecedented discovery revealed quakes and changes in crustal deforma- just a thin layer at the top. what I called a living caldera. It had risen tion. I then coined the phrase a “living, YS: You moved on, to monitoring the 75 cm—3/4 of a meter over a caldera breathing caldera.” movement of Yellowstone—the breath- that’s 50 kilometers long. It really was YS: Do you have any idea, from your ing of the caldera, so to speak. unprecedented, seeing deformation this work done here or elsewhere, whether RS: We got into crustal deformation. I big, greater than most anywhere within a deformation has anything to do with the recognized from a return visit to the south continent that we knew of with the excep- predictability of volcanic eruptions? end of Yellowstone Lake in the early ‘70s tion of active volcanoes such as Rabual in RS: We’d like to think it does…in that there was something strange going the southwest Pacific and the Phlegrean Hawaii, where they have predicted erup- on here; things didn’t look right. The volcanic field near Mt. Vesuvius vol- tions on the basis of earthquakes, they trees at the shoreline appeared to be inun- cano, Italy. Continued leveling of the can see the correlation of earthquakes dated by rising lake water, and parts of points by Dan Dzurisin of the USGS and related to migrating magmas which even- Peale Island, where I had worked in 1956, our new GPS measurements, however, tually erupt to the surface. But those are were under water. I reasoned that the lake showed a cessation of the caldera uplift, basaltic magmas—they flow much faster, was tilting to the south, inundating its returning to subsidence about 1985 (Fig- they’re not as explosive as Yellowstone’s southern reaches and uplifting its north- ure 4). much more viscous rhyolitic magma and ern parts. This effect would also increase It was at the same time that we received there’s no precedent, no historic example the height of land at the north end of the an NSF grant to employ the new technol- to understand this behavior. lake, rising and expanding the beach be- ogy of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Eruptions in Rabaul, New Guinea, were hind the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center. to study Yellowstone. With this new preceded by uplift and subsidence and We were witnessing the effect of a tilting method we didn’t have to be on roads and unusual periods of seismicity. On the toward the south of a bathtub ring, its were able to go all over the backcountry, other hand, there was no eruption in or shoreline, around Yellowstone Lake. essentially putting a grid of GPS bench- near the Bay of Naples, Italy, during the It was then that I realized that if we did marks across Yellowstone. And we re- period that land rose and subsided several precise measurements of the elevation of observed them every other year, from ‘87 feet, so that at one time some beautiful benchmarks originally established when to ‘95. These measurements revealed that Italian buildings were buried under the roads were built in Yellowstone in 1923 the caldera had indeed reversed motion water. Now they’re back out of the water. and 1934, and we went back and re- and began moving down at about 1.5 cm They came up in the 1950s and ‘60s, observed those marks, we could see if per year, at nearly the same rate as the when the ground did a lot of huffing and they had moved vertically or not. We uplift and over the same uplifted area. puffing—you know, it’s also a caldera. were contracted by the USGS and, with What, is this thing breathing? We were It’s erupted before. And of course, one of their crews, we surveyed and com- all excited about that. In looking at our Vesuvius is nearby with three million pared the data for three summers. Our ‘95 survey data, we noticed things were people living in the area. first year we went across the caldera from starting to bottom out. A couple of GPS We’ve had to envision analog models Canyon to Lake. Our surveyor had the stations around Old Faithful and LeHardy from the basaltic cases as a working model original surveyors’ notes from 1923, and had come back up a little bit. But we for Yellowstone’s rhyolitic eruptions. The he said to me, “There’s something really didn’t have any more money to continue rhyolitic magma would be more viscous wrong here—we’re way off from their our study. Starting in the mid ‘90s, Wayne and retain fluids and gases, causing uplift elevations, I mean, we’re like a foot and Thatcher and Charles Wicks of the USGS and subsidence with changes in pressure. a half off.” used Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Another reasonable model is one with I thought, boy, we’ve done something Radar (InSAR) that suggested the caldera large volumes of hydrothermal fluids un- wrong; we’ve got to go back and redo our began rising in 1994—another major derlying the caldera—the ones that feed survey. No, we were doing even more change in the caldera dynamics, although its geysers, hot springs, fumeroles. These precise surveying than the 1923 surveys. our new continuous GPS data up to sum- more easily running fluids pressurize their Excluding the errors that could have been mer 2000 do not corroborate this uplift chambers, uplifting the ground then drain- in the 1923 survey, we showed that this (Figure 5). ing out its sides, and dropping the whole portion of the Hayden Valley was Nonetheless, we were lucky to have ground—a mechanism that also explains going up. We ran a survey line from West seen a giant caldera change from a period mechanics and numbers of earthquakes

Fall 2000 7 that we observed in the 1985 northwest ing it to subside as supporting fluids were domes; if I’d be laying bets, I’d be think- caldera swarm. Above all we are dealing removed. As the caldera is subsiding it’s ing it probably wants to come up in the with a large rhyolitic volcanic system fed got to get rid of the volume at about 0.02 northeast. On the other hand, the geo- by a hotspot. Nowhere else does such a cubic km per year. That means you’re logic mapping shows the oldest post- feature exist on a continent. taking a volume roughly the size of Mam- caldera flows in the northeast, and they YS: So right now we’re in a period of moth—the hot springs terraces, or the get progressively younger toward the uplift again? entire Mammoth developed area, wide Madison Plateau. So if you count on the RS: Perhaps we are back into uplift. and high. Interestingly, that is about the past 150,000 years of volcanic history, That does not necessarily mean a pending rate that magma would need to be in- you’d say the biggest potential is in the volcanic eruption. But remember, we’ve jected into the crust to create the caldera southwest plateau, along the caldera’s had 30 or so smaller but still explosive uplift from 1923 to 1985 and to sustain its southwest rim. eruptions since the last giant eruption high heat flow. But I would look to the geophysical 630,000 years ago, the youngest only And then the earth’s surface started evidence, such as seismic images of 70,000 years ago that occurred on the going down. The earth doesn’t let you magma and of where the earth’s surface Pitchstone Plateau. It was however a gi- push fluid back down in it, so we surmise is moving from GPS measurements, and ant, catastrophic eruption that created the that it is being squeezed out the sides. see if magma or hydrothermal fluids may Yellowstone caldera and blew ash all We’ve hypothesized that caldera fluids, be coming up on the northeast side. We over much of the West. These post-caldera either hydrothermal or magma, could be just don’t know the physics of these flu- eruptions were smaller, but were tens to migrating radially outwards from the ids well enough to predict that. hundreds of times bigger than the Mt. St. caldera along dikes or vertical sheets of YS: You’re talking about the shallow Helens eruptions. And, based on Bob fluid. But Yellowstone’s a big place. The magma under the Mirror Plateau, the Christiansen’s USGS work, they in- stuff could leak out, especially if there is northeast edge of the caldera, and yet the creased in frequency around 125,000 a lot of gas in it, and you may never see hottest spot is under Norris Geyser Basin. years ago. But there have been no volca- them if they are hydrothermal fluids. That RS: Norris Geyser Basin has the hot- nic eruptions for 70,000 years. mechanism is something reverse to up- test water reservoir temperature, but it is We’ve also looked carefully at the align- lift. only probably 1 to 3 km deep. You have ment of Yellowstone’s post-caldera vol- One of the nice things about our obser- to differentiate between temperature and canic vents that line up northwest-south- vations is the synchronicity of the uplift heat. You can have a concentrated blob of east. These are smaller volcanoes, along and subsidence between Hayden Valley hot, hot water that’s 450° to 600° Fahren- with our new earthquake epicenters in the and Old Faithful. They’re 20 miles apart, heit in a geyser reservoir, but it’s an caldera, and they both line up; they’re yet they go up and down together. That isolated body with a high temperature. sitting there parallel one to another. We implies you have a connected plumbing Whereas the area of the caldera, on aver- think the vents are along vertical dikes, if system. A “pipe” from Hayden Valley age, has a higher release of heat per unit you wish. These are active magma sys- must be connected to the Old Faithful area—that’s heat flux. tems just below the surface, and they area at depth. That’s probably the top of YS: Now, describe how you map this create earthquakes, and they create vol- the magma system. So where we mapped magma. How long does it take to do that? canoes. the magma, which is actually a partial And theoretically, can you retake a snap- At the time of the big earthquake swarm melt, that’s the magma chamber. This shot over time? in 1985, we called the situation to the body gives off heat that’s coming up and RS: We use the methodology used in attention of the Park Service. The earth- creating the high heat flux, and it is what’s medicine called CAT or MRI scans to do quakes were coming at a very high rate. heating the groundwater that makes the the same for the Earth, but using earth- This was on the northwest side of the geysers. This system must extend under quake recordings of seismic waves pass- park, just beyond the caldera. It began in most of the caldera. But it shallows under ing through the earth. CAT scans are just October, peaked about the first week of the southeastern corner and the north- a way of sending x-rays into the body, December, and continued through March eastern caldera. And one place where it and they get reflected back from different 1986. We studied the sequence very care- seems to come shallowest, northeast of parts of the body to produce an image of fully. The earthquakes progressed from Sour Creek, is north of the Hot Springs the body. X-rays transmit easily through the caldera outward to the northwest and Basin country, where it looks like there’s soft tissues, but harder material like bones going deeper as the sequence progressed. a connection of these low-velocity magma more easily reflect the rays. You’ve had We interpreted the earthquakes as related bodies above the surface and a shallow CAT scans, right? A radiologist takes his to motion of fluid along a vertical dike, hydrothermal system (Figure 6). little device and puts the gel on your belly propagating fluid to the northwest. YS: Does the shallowness of the magma and moves it around. He’s sending rays in It doesn’t have to be magma to cause necessarily relate to where a next erup- so he gets coverage. Lots of rays go this effect; hydrothermal fluids may have tion might be? through the whole volume and you get been the responsible mechanism. My im- RS: Oh, I think it would. You’ve got good coverage, then they are brought pression is that it could have been water the two main pods in the middle, the together in a computer to create a picture moving outward from the caldera, leav- southeast and northeast beneath the of your internal organs.

8 Yellowstone Science Figure 5. Earthquakes of the Yellowstone- Teton region. Epicenters of earthquakes from 1973 to 1996 are shown by red dots. Most of the quakes were under magnitude 5. The most intense earthquake activity is in the northwest corner of Yellowstone between Norris Geyser Basin and the Hebgen Lake fault. The Teton fault now is seismically quiet. Active faults are shown as black lines and post-caldera volcanic vents as orange stars.

74 0 Saturated and Dome overpressured fracture zone N km 37 Yellowstone caldera boundary Dome 6.8+ Depth (km) 0 8 6.0 Figure 6. The Yellowstone magma Outline of chamber. Cross-section of the granitic body ? Yellowstone caldera from seismic ? images of the P-wave velocity using 5.0 8 Partial melts 16 local earthquake tomography. It Thermally ? reveals the location of magma undisturbed ? chambers beneath Yellowstone. The basement magma chambers are composed of 4.0 partially molten rock containing 10Ð 30 percent melted rocks. Warm color 16 3.4- at depths of 8 to 16 km are hot rocks, 80 40 0 Vp (km/s) blue colors are cold rock (from Miller km and Smith, 1999).

Fall 2000 9 Geologists apply the same method that only the spread of the magma horizon- once? we call tomography—seismologists de- tally, but the depth. Does it vary a lot? RS: Once. We took one snapshot in veloped it before the medical profession RS: Not within the chamber, now, that’s time. did. We use seismic rays that go into the the very-near surface. It seems to be nor- YS: But with this new work you hope earth. When the seismic wave encounters mal down to about 50 miles (80 km). That to do it on repeat intervals? a hot rock, its speed of propagation slows is where magma associated with the real RS: Right. That’s why adding corrobo- down; when it encounters a cold rock, it hotspot begins. We do not know if the rating data from such methods as GPS is speeds up. So if you have enough earth- hotspot magma originates at the core- so important. GPS tells you how fast the quakes in a region, recorded on enough mantle boundary (at 2,700 km deep) or is ground is going up and down or side- seismographs, then you can reconstruct the result of decompression melting or ways, due to magma or hydrothermal the ray paths of where they’re fast and rock at much shallower depths of 100 to fluid migration. This motion must be where they’re slow. That’s what we’ve 200 km deep. Our new experiment should differentiated from the overall global plate done for Yellowstone’s upper 15 km. We discern that model. motions to ascertain how fast the ground made a three-dimensional image of its Regardless, magma is generated in the might be moving as it builds up energy on structure. This is the method that we used earth’s mantle. Part of it leaks through the faults or in its magma chambers. Seismic to prepare the figure of Yellowstone’s overlying lithosphere into the crust, melt- data also tells you the geometry of the magma system. ing surrounding rocks and producing a magma body, so you can actually work We found magma, here 10 to 30 per- melt that resides in upper crustal magma out the dynamics. Because we map pres- cent of melted rock, in a porous space of chambers. This is what feeds Yellow- sures and we can infer from pressures of solid rock at depths as shallow as 8 to 10 stone’s volcanism and enormous heat the magma, we can say how fast it’s km beneath the Earth’s surface. It ex- flow. However, most of the hotspot actually deforming. tends the length of the caldera with a magma is sheared off on the bottom of the We run the Yellowstone seismic and conduit aimed toward the surface at the moving plate spreading out to the south- GPS network. It contains 22 seismic sta- northeast side of the caldera. We do not west beneath the Snake River Plain. We tions—18 in Yellowstone and four out- have data that will provide the same kind imaged that just recently, all the way side the park along the Hebgen Lake of images deeper into the lower crust. But from southern Idaho to Yellowstone, and fault, because they are integral to the with our new NSF project focused on the it’s about 100 km deep. interaction between the caldera and the dynamics and detailed mapping of the You asked an important question be- fault mechanism. The seismic stations Yellowstone hotspot, we hope to probe as fore: do things change with time? Well, continuously transmit data by radio links deep as 1,000 km beneath the surface and geologists say that they do. I proposed an via Mt. Washburn, to Sawtelle Peak, and map the magma conduit all the way from idea to the USGS volcano hazards group. from there on an FAA line to our Salt the hotspot to the surface. If you went to an active volcano and Lake City recording laboratory. We also YS: And you do this taking advantage magma was moving, as the magma came employ satellite telemetry from our co- of the natural seismicity? up it would heat the rocks around it and operative university-USGS Lake station RS: We use the naturally occurring slow down the velocities of the seismic that is sent to Golden, Colorado, then on earthquakes. In 1978Ð1980, we recorded waves traveling through them, so you to Salt Lake City via the Internet. seismic waves generated by explosives could do the tomography in real-time, YS: So when you’re down there in in drill holes along the Snake River Plain like a doctor does. As magma ascends it Utah, and something is happening here in to study the track of the hotspot all the slows down the seismic velocity and cre- Yellowstone, it instantaneously gives you way from Twin Falls to the Beartooth ates earthquakes. After the magma passes, a picture of what’s going on. Plateau. We used our own earthquakes the seismicity ceases and the velocity RS: Yes. If there’s an earthquake, it (we made them very small magnitude). increases as the rock cools. I couldn’t do takes about 10 seconds to calculate the And we also relied upon natural earth- it on hourly scales, but I could do it on magnitude and location. That is broad- quakes. Natural earthquakes pose the daily to monthly intervals and see how cast to me and others via automatic tele- problem that you don’t know exactly the rocks are affected by heat creating phone paging systems and sent to our where they are. So we have to calculate different types of earthquakes and chang- online web site. the location of the earthquake plus the ing the rock velocity. I’m talking about YS: I felt the Borah Peak, Idaho, earth- velocity field. It’s a more difficult math- an active volcano like Hawaii or some of quake when I was at Old Faithful in 1983. ematical problem. But if you have a few the Alaskan or the Aleutian ones. Yel- Why do I recall it took geologists a while places where you’ve got a controlled lowstone would not be so practical be- to figure out exactly where the epicenter source, like an explosion, and you know cause it is just so big and does not have the was? exactly where it is, that helps us calibrate higher extent of rapidly moving magma. RS: Because we didn’t have the fast it. We just put slices through the velocity Remember, this technology is brand new. computers then, nor did we expect such a model, and the low velocities map out the The ideas are brand new. It takes a lot of large quake in central Idaho and did not hydrothermal and magma systems com- computing power. It takes modern and have an array of seismographs there. We pared to colder, higher velocity earth. reliable real-time data. didn’t have the data coming in real time. YS: So your mapping can show not YS: Up until now you just mapped it We have no excuse not to do it now.

10 Yellowstone Science YS: Is it a triangulation process? NSF just awarded us a multiple- We’re going to put in all the faults and RS: Exactly. It’s just surveying with year collaborative research grant, let the them rupture at the rate they want seismic waves. But it’s a much tougher “Geodynamics of the Yellowstone to. We’re going to let this thing step problem, because the land surveyor trans- Hotspot,” between the University of Utah through time. Probably in an hour of mits his signals through the air electroni- and the University of Oregon. The objec- computing we can simulate 10,000 years cally. We have to transmit through this tive is to understand how the Yellow- and let things move according to the rates crummy earth. There are fast rocks and stone hotspot works, how magma gets we see today. We can then try and predict slow rocks. The surveyor points his eye at from hotspot to the surface, and how this what’s happening, where the magma is, something and he assumes it’s along a effects the topography as well as how it how big it is. We’re going to try to calcu- straight line. In the earth, it bends. We changes the pressure on its faults. To do late the magma reservoir sizes, the tem- have to calculate all the bends. This new this, we will conduct a GPS and seismic peratures. We’ll get all the physical char- method of tomography allows us to cal- survey of the whole Yellowstone system. acteristics we want out of this body. We’re culate the earthquakes in this very hetero- We’re going to look at the effects of the just doing internal medicine. Same thing. geneous earth. hotspot across a broad region from Casper That tells us how active it is. The Yellow- YS: So, you’re down there in Salt Lake to Boise to Helena to Salt Lake. We’re stone hotspot is a global community— City, and there’s been an earthquake in putting in permanent and portable GPS remember it’s the biggest one on the Yellowstone, and it is “x” magnitude, stations. There’s a permanent GPS sta- continents. It’s affected 20 percent of the and here’s the epicenter. What does the tion right over here at the baseball field in northwestern U.S. in its 16-million-year GPS network add? Mammoth. They are also at Lake Junc- history. It’s a big feature. It’s much big- RS: The Yellowstone GPS network is tion and Old Faithful. And we’ve in- ger than the National Park Service. made up of receivers over benchmarks on stalled two in the backcountry in coop- YS: Tell your story about Peale Island. the ground. They continuously record eration with the USGS, one in the lower RS: In the summer of 1956, we had transit times of radio waves from GPS Hayden Valley and one on the Sour Creek fish-research stations at Chipmunk and satellites. It transmits these data back to Dome. We’re going to have about a dozen Grouse creeks. I lived at the cabin on that our lab in the same way as the seismic eventually, just like the seismic network. island in the South Arm of Yellowstone data. Every thousandth of a second the We will operate this network in continu- Lake. One incident I remember is that as seismographs are all transmitting data. ous recording, just like our seismograph we ran out of food—we had a few pounds We sample the GPS every 15 seconds. network. of cheddar cheese and nothing else; we This type of recording provides an accu- Also in 2000, we’re going to bring in were eating fish and cheese. We were racy at the centimeter level. about 80 portable seismographs and place catching about 1,000 fish a day in the fish All these data are dumped into fully them around the Yellowstone hotspot traps. We were so sick of eating fish. I dedicated computers that calculate the from as far away as 200 miles on a 30- never wanted to see another one. coordinate of that benchmark on the sur- mile grid. Then we will do tomography of I said to my partner, “This is enough. face. We compare the coordinates of the the much deeper earth, just like we did it I’m through with this.” So we took our point with time to see how fast it is for the crust of Yellowstone, and we will little boat over to the shore, then walked moving. Now, the majority of the earth’s be able to resolve the source and depth of west in the melting snow and muddy motion isn’t associated with earthquakes; the Yellowstone hotspot. ground. It must have been in early June. only about 1 percent or less of the earth’s I feel like I’m just an earth internist We hiked about 14 miles to Heart Lake. motion is released as the energy in earth- doctor who’s running his CAT scan—I We were really post-holing in the snow. quakes. Earthquakes are just the creaking just do it a little bit slower. We’re going We thought a grizzly bear would chew us and groaning. But the earth is moving to record all the earthquakes, record all up. And we finally worked our way to the across the hotspot continuously. The rest the GPS, find out what the structure is to road over by Shoshone Lake. Someone of the motion, we call aseismic motion. It depths of about 1,000 miles. Then we will picked us up and took us back to Lake. reflects the slowly deforming earth that add in the data on fault movements and There our boss said, “Here, take some moves more like silly putty, it is plastic. information on Yellowstone’s magma food and get back to work.” Plastically it’s not going to create earth- systems and determine from computer I’ve been back at Peale Island several quakes, but it is what records the slow models what to expect on the Earth’s times since. I went back with Ken Diem motions of earth’s processes—such as surface, and perhaps what to expect in the [of the University of Wyoming] in about magma movement, bending the rock be- future. So we’ll really be able to define 1974, and he said, “Hey, we can’t park fore an earthquake, or uplifting the ground the form of the hotspot. We will use the our boat at the dock.” Well, the boat dock over magma. We subtract out the amount GPS to measure the ground motion, how was partly under water. And many of the of movement related to earthquakes and fast it’s moving over a big region, not just trees around the south shore looked like get the total amount of deformation that’s Yellowstone park. Then we will put all they were being inundated. I reasoned due purely to the plasticity, the volcanic these new observations together with Yel- that the only way to do that is to “tilt the mechanism. We can measure both uplift lowstone volcanic history in a mathemati- bathtub back.” That’s why at Fishing and horizontal movement with GPS to cal model and create a mathematical im- Bridge you have this emergent beach all accuracies of millimeters now. age of the hotspot. the way over to Storm Point; it’s an

Fall 2000 11 emergent beach in oceanographic terms. It’s a beach that’s rising because the up- Estimated ashfall thicknesses lift of the Yellowstone caldera is centered from giant volcanic eruption to the north, and that process of uplift and 10 subsidence has no doubt been going on 1 Area of observed 3 ash fallout 0.3 Estimated ashfall for thousands of years. The net effect is 0.1 thickness from small volcanic uplift of the Sour Creek Dome and the eruption surrounding area, producing the dam- 1 ming of Lake Yellowstone at Le Hardy rapids. 0.3 YS: In the short-term, you don’t expect to see the beach disappear and the dock 0.1 come back up? 0.03 RS: No, I do not. That’s the other thing 20 about Yellowstone—the caldera is a 18 pimple on the overall deformation of the 15 Giant, cataclysmic eruption entire Yellowstone Plateau. The caldera 12 9 Small eruption

itself is moving up and down, but the Estimated ash 6 thickness (feet) whole region up to 300 miles wide has 3 0 been uplifted 500 meters. The Yellow- 0 125 250 375 500 Downwind distance (miles) stone Plateau goes well beyond the bound- ary of Yellowstone Park—it goes out for Figure 7. Depths of volcanic ash that could be deposited by future caldera 200 kilometers or more; it encompasses eruptions (gray) and by smaller eruptions (white oval) at Yellowstone. Prevailing winds would determine actual ashfall patterns. Contour lines show ash depths in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. feet. (Michael Perkins.) That’s a whole region of uplifted topog- raphy that probably wouldn’t be there if the hotspot wasn’t there. So you have the broad uplift of the hotspot that’s very fireworks.” very low, in a human time frame. The slow, and it’s different from this little YS: In your book you get into questions public has got more important things to pimple that goes up and down. of emergency preparedness. worry about, like getting creamed on the YS: What is the relative rate of seismic- RS: We point out the need for pre- road or having the stock market fall. But ity compared to other places in the coun- paredness planning in the sense of the the agencies ought to take, I think, a much try? awareness of its potential volcanic and longer-term view, that says we realize RS: Very high. Yellowstone seismic- earthquake hazards. I have suggested there’s a much lower probability, but ity, including the Hebgen Lake earth- people prepare emergency response plans when it does happen it can be catastrophic, quake, is certainly the highest in the Rocky accordingly. beyond things you’ve even thought about. Mountains in historic time. If you calcu- YS: Is that based on projected trends of YS: This long-term uplift wouldn’t nec- late the amount of energy per square an increasing rate of seismicity? essarily be associated with a greater like- kilometer, it’s higher than anywhere else RS: No. We’re saying that all the agen- lihood of a more serious event? in the lower 48 states except the San cies, the Park Service, Forest Service, the RS: We just don’t know. The Yellow- Andreas fault and related faults in Cali- surrounding communities, should be stone deformation field is a situation like fornia. Certainly within the interior of the aware of potential geologic disasters that that of a blind man coming up to the continent it has the highest rate of energy can happen in time frames that they’re elephant. He’s never seen an elephant use. responsible for and should be planning before. He touches this thing and he feels YS: And yet, the rate of “felt” earth- for. Most people in emergency manage- it breathing and he says, “What is this? Is quakes varies quite a bit from year to ment deal with a 24-hour clock or, at best, it an organism? Is it a tree that’s mov- year? about a year ahead, as far as budgets are ing?” We (the scientific community) have RS: It varies, but when it’s active there estimated. But remember, we have had never seen an eruption or a major earth- are a lot of felt earthquakes. the largest historic earthquake in the In- quake inside of a caldera in historic time. YS: How many did we have in 1998, termountain West, the magnitude 7.5 So we cannot say what to expect, but we for example? Hebgen Lake earthquake that killed 28 in can wisely estimate its effect by extrapo- RS: I think there were 11 or so. But 1959. This gives us an idea of what to lating observations from other volcanoes back in 1985, there were 30 or more expect in the future. and earthquakes and using the geologic earthquakes over magnitude 3.5. In 1995, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Man- record to estimate the rates of occurrence. they were being felt pretty routinely. agement Agency) considers both short These data, along with real-time seismic When we had the swarm on July 3rd, I and long-term effects. The volcanic or and GPS observations, will provide us thought, “Wow, July 4th is going to be real the earthquake threat for Yellowstone is with a good working model and ideas of

12 Yellowstone Science the expectations about precursory earth the questions such as: Do you have built- extend for hundreds of miles. What do activity. in road escape? What about when some- you do with 10 feet of snow? Imagine When we first discovered the uplift, thing happens in the middle of Yellow- turning it into ash—it ain’t going to melt! people said, “Oh, boy, Yellowstone’s in stone and all the roads/canyons are closed? YS: Even in Salt Lake you’d get a foot uplift and if it keeps uplifting it’s gonna How likely are accompanying landslides? of ash. blow away.” I’m very careful, and I How vulnerable are medical facilities? RS: A foot. Imagine a foot down in thought, well, we don’t know. We saw a Are outside groups prepared to assist? those clogged freeways. 10-year period of uplift, subsidence, and What are you going to do with 30,000 YS: Why won’t any of you even specu- uplift. We’ve seen a complete cycle of people on Sunday night during a busy late on the next giant earthquake or volca- something. We don’t know what the some- summer season? nic eruption? thing is yet. YS: When you say a “tiny” eruption, RS: Because we don’t have a basis for YS: You’ve said there was a 0.01 per- you’re not really talking little, are you? their understanding yet. This whole sci- cent chance on an annual basis of either a RS: I’m talking the size of a Mt. St. ence is so new, remember I’m the blind volcanic eruption or a 7.5 earthquake. Helens eruption at the smallest, to maybe man coming up to the elephant. I finally RS: The actual probability is even lower an eruption 1,000 times bigger. Or per- figured out that the elephant is alive. I’ve than that. I was calculating the ground haps it may be a phreatic or a pure steam kind of got its dimensions. I walked from motion. People want us to predict things. eruption. These do not have magma; one side to the other. And I’ve probably Well, we can’t predict things, we can phreatic eruptions are hot water and steam figured out it’s an elephant. But I don’t predict the effects of things. And the eruptions that, for example, blew out Mary know if it’s standing up ready to fall on effect of things that is most easy to predict Bay and Indian Pond on the north side of me, or if it’s laying down breathing, or if is how the ground is going to move. So I Yellowstone Lake. it’s a rogue or what. I don’t know if it’s predict the ground motion by predicting YS: If we were to have even one of trained or if it’s wild. So, we’re just the acceleration of the ground. I can’t those little eruptions, would we have no- learning. Yellowstone and rhyolitic vol- predict when the fault’s going to go off. tice in terms of hours? Weeks? Years? canism and the relationship to big earth- But I can predict that if the fault goes off RS: I think we’d have notice in terms quakes are so unique that we don’t have it’s going to shake the ground over here a of weeks, if they’re rhyolite. Perhaps a basis of experience to build on. certain amount. Volcano prediction here shorter for basalt or phreatic eruptions, YS: Someday, when the hotspot is un- is so far in its infancy no one knows what with a context of a modern seismic array, der Billings or wherever, Red Lodge, to predict. If you look at Hawaii, you can modern GPS, and bringing in the what’s Yellowstone going to look like see that preceding so many eruptions the geochemists who can study the chemis- then? ground was slowly moving. There they try of the fluids. The USGS was doing RS: I would guess first it’ll look like have nice, runny basalts. And they have a chemical monitoring here, and they Island Park: lower elevation, much less lot of seismographs. They can actually stopped it because of budget cuts. But a hydrothermal activity, no geysers. It’ll see the earthquakes coming up with the combination of monitoring would prob- die away. Then it’ll look like Ashton, magma and the ground rising. When the ably give you reasonable lead-time, on Idaho. Then you’ll start growing potatoes seismologists see anything unusual or the order of days, weeks, months, be- on it! See how the topography of the starting to change, they radio the scien- cause these things are slow. They’re big; Snake River Plain falls away to the south- tists working in the field to get them out. they’re catastrophic in the sense that west? The hotspot has raised the ground And they get people out. You can’t do they’re this gooey stuff. They build up so up here; it’s moving north, but behind it that in a rhyolite system because the much pressure that when they finally go the land is collapsing in, creating a lower motion is far too slow. they’re really explosive. elevation and a depression. That fills in YS: In terms of emergency prepared- YS: If it were one of the big ones, with basalts. And the basalts then pro- ness, then, you can’t really tell us what’s wouldn’t the scale of it be so large that duce the soils and the soils produce pota- going to happen. one could argue that you couldn’t be toes. RS: We can tell you what will probably prepared anyway? You’d have to evacu- YS: Where do the basalts come from? happen in a time frame of, at best, days, ate the entire western U.S. It’s the end of RS: The basalts are derived from the but mostly in months to years. We can the world as we know it (Figure 7). hotspot. They are the last thing that comes give you a deterministic view—a sce- RS: You’re right. If it was a cata- out of it. They’re going to be more like nario of the worst thing to expect. strophic caldera-forming eruption, yeah, Hawaii eruptions. They’ll be exciting and YS: And how soon in advance of an like, who cares? Well, it would certainly they’ll be on television, but they’re not event do you think you could do that? create a globally significant change. going to kill a lot of people. RS: Oh, I could give you a scenario You’d have pyroclastic flows from the YS: We don’t have to quite worry about today—here’s what could happen with a volcanic vents destroying and cooking moving the Old Faithful Visitor Center big eruption, a little eruption, and a tiny everything in their way for tens of miles yet. eruption. And I could say, “Give these from the volcano. In the surrounding area, RS: No, it’ll move itself eventually. ideas to the emergency management folks you’d have 10 to 20 feet of ashfall that You’ve got to get a new one anyway. and plan around these scenarios.” I ask could decrease in thickness but could

Fall 2000 13 Architecture of Yellowstone A Microcosm of American Design by Rodd L. Wheaton

The idea of Yellowstone lands. The army’s effort be- National Park—the preser- gan from the newly estab- vation of exotic wilderness— lished Camp Sheridan, con- was a noble experiment in structed below Capitol Hill 1872. Preserving nature and at the base of the lower ter- then interpreting it to the park races at Mammoth Hot visitors over the last 125 years Springs. has manifested itself in many Beyond management management strategies. The difficulties, the search for an few employees hired by the architectural style had be- Department of the Interior, gun. The Northern Pacific then the U.S. Army cavalry- Railroad, which spanned men, and, after 1916, the Montana, reached Cinnabar rangers of the National Park with a spur line by Septem- Service needed shelter; ber 1883. The direct result of hence, the need for architec- this event was the introduc- ture. Whether for the pur- tion of new architectural pose of administration, em- styles to Yellowstone Na- ployee housing, mainte- tional Park. The park’s pio- nance, or visitor accommo- neer era faded with the ad- dation, the architecture of vent of the Queen Anne style Yellowstone has proven that that had rapidly reached its construction in the wilder- zenith in Montana mining ness can be as exotic as the The burled logs of Old Faithful’s Lower Hamilton Store epitomize the communities such as Helena landscape itself and as var- Stick style. NPS photo. and Butte. In Yellowstone ied as the whims of those in the style spread throughout charge. Indeed, the architecture of became painfully obvious that a govern- the park and found its culmination in the America’s first national park continues mental presence was needed to match National Hotel, constructed in 1882 and to be as experimental as the park idea. that of the first concessioner and also to 1883 at Mammoth. The Queen Anne style, Many factors contributed to handle vandals and poachers in the new often co-mingled with the Eastlake style, Yellowstone’s search for an architectural park. Designed to serve as a lookout point also manifested itself in an early version theme. In 1872, the park was remote and from which the park administration could of the Lake Hotel in 1889. It used strips of the choice of building materials was gen- protect itself from the (real or imagined) wood for decorative purposes, and is also erally limited to using what was readily threat of attack by local American Indian seen in the much later Tower Junction available—logs. James McCartney, who tribes, it is no coincidence that the block- residence, originally built in 1926 as a was encamped in the park just prior to its house was built on the highest point of road camp dormitory. At Fort Yellow- designation, built his earliest visitor ac- ground above the Mammoth Terraces, stone, the successor to Camp Sheridan, commodation, McCartney’s Hotel, in the and that it had a pioneer defensiveness the U.S. Army also was experimenting true pioneer spirit. This structure was design. Norris’ struggle to manage the with the Queen Anne style in the devel- soon equaled by the construction of park during this era led directly to the opment of new structures such as the Philetus Norris’ so called “Blockhouse,” U.S. Army taking over management to Officers’ Row duplexes. Here the style is built atop Capitol Hill in 1878 when it battle the insurgents and usurpers of park characterized less by an animated and

14 Yellowstone Science From Pioneer-Rustic to Classic Structures

The eclecticism of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century was reflected in the search for an appropriate architectural style in the park. Standard American late-nineteenth century con- ventions such as have been described thus far could easily be adapted to the rustic wilderness, as was demonstrated by the Old Faithful Inn. However, the architectural design conventions of America after the great World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chi- cago also suggested the power of classi- cism in all of its variant forms, derived from eighteenth century American Geor- The Shingle-style Old Faithful Inn combines Adirondack rusticity with Queen Anne gian architecture. The neo-classicist Co- animation. NPS photo. lonial Revival was reflected in the re- modeling of the Lake Hotel in 1922 and 1923, when three Ionic porticoes were turreted skyline than by steeply pitched environment. At this early date the park added to the facade. This classicism, com- roofs and eyebrow dormer windows. The concessioners were searching for an ar- plete with its egg-and-dart moldings, porch bracketing and the steep roof of the chitectural theme that would, in the 1920s clearly expressed the American ideal of now-demolished Haynes House at Mam- and 1930s, be extended into the post- subjugation of nature in the style of Greece moth also carried the style into the early Stick style of vertical and diagonal log and Rome, rather than the blending with twentieth century. applications, such as were seen in the nature. Reamer, ever the resourceful ar- Elsewhere in the country, nearly hand- now-demolished Old Faithful Cafeteria chitect, also designed the new wing for in-hand with the Queen Anne, the archi- and in the surviving Lake Yellowstone the National Hotel—now the main wing tectural style of the Richardsonian Ro- fish hatchery structures. of the Mammoth Hotel—in the Neo-clas- manesque symbolized power and domi- When the structural form is hidden sical style by applying columnar orders nance through stone masonry. It wasn’t behind shingled surfaces, we have the to window frames and cornices. until 1903 that this style entered Yellow- Shingle style, and Yellowstone boasts The U.S. Army, taking its cue from the stone, with the construction of the one of the most original Shingle style concessioner’s structures and respond- Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance to buildings in the United States. The Old ing to the fact that Fort Yellowstone was the park. Possibly designed by resident Faithful Inn, designed by Robert C. the second-most-visited military post in “wonder boy” architect of the park, Rob- Reamer and constructed during the win- the United States, embarked on its own ert C. Reamer (of whom we shall soon ter of 1903Ð1904, took the Shingle style expansion program of upgrading their read more), and by U.S. Engineer Hiram to a new height—nearly 100 feet to the facilities. Of a pure Colonial Revival Chittenden, the structure announced the ridge. It wrapped the structure in a veneer Style, the Commissary Building (today park with an adaptation of a triumphal of elegant shingle patterns and applied called the Canteen, housing offices and a arch—symbolizing the triumph over the East Coast Adirondacks-style rusticity. federal credit union), built in 1905, has a natural environment. In addition, Reamer, while certainly un- templed facade with a major fan-lighted Like the two earlier eclectic styles of der the influence of the Queen Anne entranceway, all derived from classical the 1880s and 1890s, the aptly named style, provided an animated skyline by detailing. Similar design inspiration en- Stick style represented the idea that di- cleverly contorting a basically symmetri- tered into the detailing of the Bachelor agonal bracing can be construed as archi- cal building with crazy quilt detailing. Officers’ Quarters of 1909 (now the tectural ornament. One of the earliest Similar emphasis on shingled wall sur- Albright Visitor Center) and the Cavalry forms is the use of burls and gnarled poles faces for a rustic atmosphere is experi- Barracks also of 1909 (the current park and logs for diagonal bracing on the Lower enced at the Lake Store, begun in 1919. headquarters building). These stone ma- Hamilton Store at Old Faithful. The build- The formality of the octagonal towered sonry structures are redolent in their airs ing, constructed in 1894 and rusticated in structure is barely masked by the use of of classicism and hence suggest the au- the 1920s, represents the epitome of the shingles and a stone masonry fireplace thority of government. Stick style masquerading as rustic in an shaft to provide an air of rusticity. On a more local scale, and at a more early attempt to blend it with the natural intimate level, the Colonial Cottage, a

Fall 2000 15 derivative of the classical style seen in the urbanization of cities across the west, also is well represented in the develop- ment of the park’s architecture. The U.S. Commissioner’s residence (still today occupied by the resident park magistrate) represents an example in stone masonry to match nearby Fort Yellowstone. In the backcountry, the U.S. Army built the Bechler River Soldier Station complex of 1910 in this style. Well beyond the bounds of the central offices, classicism prevailed over the flora and fauna. Like the rest of the nation, the park lurched forward, searching for an archi- tectural style and exploring any number of Academic styles—those attempting to suggest the triumphs of other civiliza- tions. The U.S. Army, not content with just imitating the architecture of democ- racy, evidently felt in 1913 that not only The Arts and Crafts movement is reflected in the logs and stone masonry of Old Faithful’s was the Gothic style appropriate for a Upper Hamilton Store. NPS photo. religious edifice, the post chapel, but that it would also help Fort Yellowstone equal its architectural rival, West Point. The chapel set the tone into the early twenti- wonder: Was the exposed half timbering Prairie style in the construction of the eth century for additional architectural meant to be English Rustic? As examples Canyon Hotel in 1910. The same hori- stylistic adventures. of other early American architecture with zontal design elements spread over the European antecedents, one could refer to structure as it sprawled up the hillside on Experimenting with International the William Nichols House at Mammoth the site of the current horse stables. It Styles (south of the current gas station) as Dutch enclosed magnificent interior spaces that Colonial with its gambrel roof. made much use of the geometry of the As early as 1903 the U.S. Engineer’s structural elements spanning enormous Office, designed by the Minnesota twin Back to Nature spaces. Sadly, the demolition of this build- cities architectural firm Reed and Stemm, ing (it was sold for salvage in 1959 but was designed in a vaguely Chinese style. While America searched for an archi- accidentally burned in 1960) is one of the Indeed, the upward curve of the green tile tectural theme, one style was emerging great architectural losses in Yellowstone roof eaves has caused the building ever that lent itself exceptionally well to National Park. since to be referred to as the “Pagoda.” Yellowstone’s environment, simply be- One of the interesting adjuncts of early Later, Reamer set a French tone with the cause nature was the inspiration. The first twentieth century architecture which took inclusion of a Mansard roof on the west inkling of nature as a value in architec- nature as an inspiration was the Arts and wing of the Old Faithful Inn in 1927. This tural design came with the work of Frank Crafts movement that swept the industri- provided a decided incongruity on his Lloyd Wright. His early works in and alized world. In Yellowstone, this ideal landmark building. France again entered around Chicago were referred to as the of handmade or “back-to-nature” is ex- the Yellowstone scene with the construc- Prairie style because of their response to emplified in the 1908 construction of the tion in 1939 of the United States Post the flat, horizontal qualities of the prairie. Norris Soldier Station, designed by none Office at Mammoth. The French style Wright’s masterpiece, the Robie House other than Robert Reamer. Reamer chose was tempered only by the inclusion of of 1907, was surely an inspiration for the local material, logs, but inventively sculptural elements representing pieces Robert Reamer’s Harry Child’s residence, massed them into a bungalow-like struc- of the local environment (such as the built in 1908 at Mammoth. All of the ture that served the Army’s backcountry bears that flank the front porch). horizontal design elements of a Wrightian patrol efforts. This bungalow form, an The international search for an appro- structure are evidenced in the Child’s offshoot of the Arts and Crafts style, was priate style extended to England. With Residence (also called the Executive also the design inspiration for Reamer’s the construction of the half-timbered 1936 House); all that is missing is the prairie. Mammoth Hotel Cottages, built in 1938. Mammoth apartment building, a Works Reamer was so enraptured by this new In 1929, Reamer designed the Upper Progress Administration project, one can design inspiration that he employed the Hamilton Store in the Old Faithful area.

16 Yellowstone Science This building reflects the ideals of the helped define the Park Service’s six prin- ministration and the Civilian Conserva- Arts and Crafts movement, particularly ciples of what rustic buildings should be tion Corps. Notable examples in Yellow- in the elegant handling of the stone ma- in a rustic environment.1 One principle is stone emulated the six principles in de- sonry piers of the porticoes. It is interest- that buildings should be in harmony with sign and provided the introduction of a ing to speculate on the design origins of the natural surroundings and should be unifying theme beyond park headquar- this building when the record indicates secondary to the landscape rather than ters at Mammoth. By 1931, interpreta- that a Spanish-style store was originally primary, as in a city or town. Two, all tion of various sites along the Grand designed for this site. However, then- buildings in any one area should be in Loop Road were supported by elegant Superintendent Horace Albright objected harmony—that is, similar materials kiosks such as the one that still exists at and requested a concrete log building should be used in the design, roof slopes Obsidian Cliff. Ranger stations, includ- patterned after the Awahnee Hotel in should be about the same, and type of ing the 1922 structure at West Yellow- Yosemite, which was designed by Gil- roof should be similar. Three, horizontal stone, used locally obtained materials bert Stanley Underwood, who had also lines should predominate in National Park (logs) to integrate buildings with their designed the 1927 stone masonry and log Service buildings, rather that vertical, surroundings. Structures such as the elevations of the Old Faithful Lodge. which is found more in cities. Maier’s Northeast Entrance Station, designed by The Arts and Crafts style of the design for Madison Museum, also built in the NPS Branch of Plans and Design in concessioner buildings was further en- 1929, reflects principle number four: it is 1935, eloquently evoked a sense of entry hanced with the introduction of another advisable to avoid rigid, straight lines into a special natural area. The log work residence at Mammoth in 1927 that uti- when possible, creating the feeling that of this structure was equaled in a master lized shingles and heavy timbers. Simul- the work was executed by pioneer crafts- stroke by the buttressed crowning of the taneously, the National Park Service was men. This applies to log ends, ironwork, adjacent residence, built in 1936. Care- beginning to realize that there just might hardware, and other design aspects. The fully chisel-pointed as a suggestion of be a theme drifting in the wind when Dan construction of Lake Museum near Fish- pioneer work, the projecting crowns Hull designed the 1922 community build- ing Bridge in 1930Ð31 exemplified the sweep to the roof eaves. Logs can have ing at Lake Yellowstone. This octagonal fifth principle: stone work, log work, and elegance, too. log structure with its projecting wings not heavy timber work should be in scale, only pushed the envelope in environmen- providing a well-balanced design. And, Going Modern tal design, but also offered an interesting six, in some cases it is necessary to make beginning to the idea of interpretation in the stone work and log work a little over- While the Arts and Crafts style flour- the park by attracting the visitors to fire- size so that large rock outcroppings and ished and mellowed into Parkitecture side chats around the central fireplace. large trees do not dwarf the buildings, away from headquarters, new buildings, This idea of rustic buildings for a national giving the impression of underscale. at Mammoth in particular, got a new park had been akindle for several years Maier’s designs set the tone for the look. Modernism arrived direct from the when the National Park Service designed, 1930s decade of the Works Progress Ad- centers of Art Deco and Art Moderne, in 1923, a standard log ranger station that was to find its way to several parks, including Yellowstone at the Fishing Bridge area. It represented the style of Neo-Rustic Revival, which was based on the concept of hearth and home.

The Rise of “Parkitecture”

All of these new rustic ideas were com- bined in the works of Herbert Maier, who designed four museums that were fi- nanced by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Foundation. In addition to providing in- terpretation at key locations, the muse- ums, three of which remain, launched the style which is now referred to as “Parkitecture.” Maier’s brilliant Norris Museum, which serves as the gateway to the Porcelain Geyser Basin, set the pace in the use of stone masonry and log con- The Norris Museum exemplifies “Parkitecture,” and helped define ideals of rusticity in the struction. Built in 1929, this museum national parks. NPS photo.

Fall 2000 17 prompted some refurbishing by 1950, but mostly it demonstrated how woefully in- adequate the park facilities were to meet travelers’ needs. Visitors had changed in the interim. They drove their own cars, demanded more interpretation of re- sources, and sought better accommoda- tions. Yellowstone, like most of the na- tional parks, was ill-prepared for the sec- ond half of the twentieth century. To meet the needs of a new public, the Mis- sion 66 program for new construction was initiated in 1956 to remedy deficien- cies in park facilities by 1966. The new program was unabashedly responsive to modernism in order to “fast track” the massive construction effort. In Yellowstone this new modernism The Canyon Visitor Center was built in the Modern style during the Mission 66 period. led directly to the construction of devel- NPS photo. oped areas such as at Bridge Bay which, in a modern sense, took on a contempo- rary look of a fishing village. The visitor center at Canyon employed slump block particularly where there was a ready ac- advent of World War II. as a new, vaguely rustic building material cess to terracotta, which lent itself easily The war years halted construction that defined a stylistic progression to a to the use of fluting, chevrons, and geo- throughout the nation. Yellowstone was watered-down version of the Miesian style metric shapes. Everything was soon “up- no exception; gasoline was rationed, the based on the ideas of architect Mies van to-date” at Mammoth with the recon- hotels closed until the end of war, trains der Rohe. A new visitor center replaced struction of the fire-damaged hulk of the were commandeered for military rather Herbert Maier’s old Rustic-style visitor old National Hotel. The remains of the than passenger use, and the overall effect center at Old Faithful. Its Expressionis- hotel were redesigned in the Art Deco was a decline in tourism and mainte- tic-style roof structure floats over a For- style in 1936 by the Yellowstone master nance. Even after the war, interest in malist-style facade. In an effort to blend of all styles, Robert C. Reamer. Reamer reopening the facilities lagged. tortured modernism into a compatible clad the hotel structure in stucco, fluted The rise of a new touring public whole, the architect clad the surfaces columns, and cast-composition rosette blocks. The new style was fully expressed by foliate iron work. At Gardiner, near the north entrance to the park, the concessioner built ware- houses in an adaptation of the Art Moderne style, a streamlined version of Art Deco. The warehouses, designed by Link and Haire of Helena, Montana, ex- pressed the solidity of the style in con- crete. Conversely, the Moderne style is represented in frame construction at the 1928Ð29 Haynes headquarters building (today’s Hamilton Nature Store) at Mam- moth, designed by Fred Willson of Bozeman, Montana. Here, planes of shin- gling without ornament echoed the new styles of modernism. This was in stark contrast to the development of rustic buildings in the heart of the park that were the glory of the WPA-CCC days, Postmodernism came to Yellowstone with the Grant Village development (dining room all of which came to an end with the pictured). NPS photo.

18 Yellowstone Science with shingles in homage to Old Faithful Inn and produced a building caught in a time warp. The struggle for a new park style continued through the Mission 66 building boom only to go dormant when the money ran out by the end of the 1960s. By the mid-1970s the park’s older ho- tels were derelict and the situation launched a new era of upgrading the facilities. A new park architecture emerged that set the stage for a few early attempts at design compatibility, though some now seem heavy handed, such as the boldly expressed modern style stair towers on the Old Faithful Inn. Perhaps one can now view these as a Deconstructionist style when viewed in contrast to the earlier structure. The search The new Old Faithful Snow Lodge is typical of 1990s neo-traditionalism. NPS photo. for a compatible modern style spilled over into the design of the modular Mam- moth dormitory adjacent to Mammoth Hotel. Here the modern style is masked by gabled roofs and rough-sawn siding independently contracted cultural re- America as a whole, the richness of the used to “relate” a large sprawling build- source professionals and architects. This fabric that characterizes the architecture ing to a park environment. rehabilitation movement has given rise to at once unites the park with the rest of the Subsequently, the Post-Modern style the last architectural style of the twenti- country and also makes it a very special moved into the park through the architec- eth century: Neo-Traditionalist—the place. ture of Spenser and Associates of Palo mark of the 1990s. The Park Service has Alto, California, with the design of new followed suit and taken a further step Rodd L. Wheaton is Assistant Regional visitor facilities at Grant Village. The with the construction of new log build- Director for Cultural Resources and Part- dining room building is characterized by ings at various areas in the park to capture nerships for the Intermountain Region of a massive roof, multi-mullioned windows, a style of Neo-Rustic Revival. Buildings the National Park Service. He holds a and shingling. The registration building such as the South Entrance Ranger Sta- Bachelor of Architecture degree from the was designed in a more sculptural form, tion exemplify this trend of attempting to University of Idaho and a Master of Ar- but the architects continued to masquer- recapture a unique park experience. At chitectural History degree from the Uni- ade the buildings as traditional rustic strategic points, park management has versity of Virginia, and has worked with with the use of shingle cladding. An idea made a statement that Yellowstone is a the architecture of Yellowstone since serv- of natural buildings in a natural environ- special place with special architecture. ing as regional historical architect in ment was once again in the germinating This idea is best illustrated by the con- 1974. The Old Faithful Inn is one of his stage. These buildings are grand state- struction of the new Old Faithful Snow favorite buildings in the Intermountain ments in the Yellowstone search for a Lodge, designed by A & E Architects of Region. He is currently involved in the style, but unfortunately fell short in uni- Billings, Montana. In combining the best preservation of modern architecture rep- fying the building collection of Grant of Old Faithful Inn and Old Faithful resenting the Mission 66 era throughout Village. Lodge, the architects have clearly ex- the region, and is stationed in Denver, pressed the idea that any new building in Colorado. Back to the Future Yellowstone should be subordinate to its historic neighbors, as infill within a his- NOTES The park and its concessioners’ toric district. The new Snow Lodge stands struggles for architectural identity fo- out in this context, yet is surely to some- 1 Thomas C. Vint, “Report on the cused on marketing their own history. As day join the ranks of its exalted neighbors Building Program from Allotments of a consequence, since the early 1980s, the as a National Historic Landmark. the Public Works Administration,” park hotel facilities have been and are The Snow Lodge demonstrates that the National Park Service Western being rehabilitated following the trends twentieth century struggle for a Yellow- Division, 1933Ð1937, compiled by of the country, incorporating input from stone style has been brought to a conclu- Edward A. Nickel, pp. 12Ð13. the NPS, its concessioner partners, and sion. There is no one park style but, like

Fall 2000 19 Windows into the Earth: The Geologic Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks by Robert B. Smith and Lee J. Siegel

Book review by Mike Thompson

Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, park. He was instrumental in setting up appreciate. 2000, 242 pages, $29.95 portable seismometers throughout In the first chapter, the authors begin Yellowstone’s backcountry regions and with the Hebgen Lake earthquake of 1959. Recently, while instructing beginning had instigated the resurveying of the After discussing some survivor stories of students in chemistry in the Geology park’s elevation benchmarks in 1984. the quake, they quickly move on to the Room at the Portland Community Col- This lead to the discovery that the park geologic events of that night of terror: lege, Sylvania, campus, I noticed that the had been uplifted about three feet since ruptures along the Hebgen and Red Can- geology instructor had numerous articles 1927. This result was so unexpected that yon faults, the large vertical displace- pertaining to hot spots, volcanism, and the initial reference marker had to be ments (scarps) that occurred, the huge Yellowstone pinned to the wall. Having changed because the uplift was so perva- Madison Canyon landslide that dammed worked on the collection, analysis, and sive that almost the entire park was af- the river to make Quake Lake, and other interpretation of Yellowstone’s thermal fected. Smith is an important, knowl- events occurring that night. The authors fluids for over 20 years, I inquired about edgeable, and influential Yellowstone also discuss the effects inside Yellow- the possibility of teaching a summer ses- research scientist. stone National Park, both to visitors, roads, sion class on Yellowstone. I envisioned a I had heard rumors sometime ago that and facilities and to subterranean paths of two-week lecture class followed by a Smith was writing a book on Yellow- water flow for geysers and hot springs— two-week field trip. It was an easy sell to stone, and I expected a monograph on both active and dormant—that reacted the geology instructor. But I needed a Yellowstone and Smith’s science in the immediately to the earthquake stimuli. textbook. park. Fortunately for all those who dearly After reading over the references, I am Almost simultaneously, I received a love Yellowstone, Windows into the Earth somewhat surprised that the authors did request from Yellowstone Science to re- is not such a book. This book is valuable not cite U.S. Geological Survey Profes- view Smith and Siegel’s new book, Win- to all, from the curious park visitor to the sional Paper 4351 on the Hebgen Lake dows into the Earth. I am familiar with experienced park researcher. It is well earthquake. I am perplexed about why some of Smith’s work in and about the written and easy to read, understand, and this important resource was overlooked.

20 Yellowstone Science In the second chapter, the authors dis- tium.3 This has been interpreted by Mile Hole trail. As the glaciers retreated cuss both oceanic and continental hot Fournier and others (op. cit.) to mean that and melted, the melt water increased the spots. Importantly, they describe how the the source of the deep water is higher than flow of the Yellowstone River and, con- Yellowstone hotspot originated, migrated, the present elevation of the thermal ba- sequently, the rate of erosions of the and differs from the more typical oceanic sins and must be older than the atmo- hydrothermally altered canyon. (The al- hotspot. Also detailed are other hot spots spheric nuclear testing that occurred in tered material erodes more easily than of the solar system, showing that hotspots the mid-twentieth century. Smith and volcanic rock.) This erosion continues are not limited to Earth. I especially en- Siegel, page 73, imply that rain and snow- today. But the area was glaciated; the joyed the discussions pertaining to the melt are the source of the thermal water. large U-shaped valleys of the Yellow- origin of the Yellowstone hotspot, Chapter five discusses the spectacular stone River below the Grand Canyon of whether or not the Columbia River basalts rise of the Teton Range and the geologic the Yellowstone bear evidence of that. are part of it, and the track of the hotspot development of Jackson Hole. Of course, Chapter seven pertains to possible fu- over time. the Teton region is dependent on the 13 ture earthquake and volcanic events. The Chapter three concerns the three million-year-old Teton fault. The authors hazards of a fourth, caldera-forming vol- calderas that formed in the Yellowstone discuss the historical progress of this canic eruption seem remote for now. region. The emphasis is placed on the fault and present evidence that it may be Because the interval between the first and third, most recent caldera, created ap- more than 30 million years old. This second was 0.7 million years and the proximately 630 million years ago. In- whole region is being influenced by the interval between the second and third is cluded in this chapter are discussions and thinning and stretching of the Basin and currently 0.63 million years, it may be diagrams about caldera collapse as the Range Province, which gives rise to the another 0.1 million years before the next eruptions proceeded. Additionally, the north-south trending faults, valleys, and eruption. However, “smaller” eruptions authors discuss post-caldera eruptions— mountains. are harder to predict. For comparison, the resurgent domes and lava flows inside Chapter six discusses the effects of tremendous volcanic explosion that cre- the caldera. They end with a description glaciations on the entire region. The Yel- ated the Crater Lake, Oregon, caldera of steam and water explosions (hydro- lowstone region, sitting higher than the was just slightly larger than the one that thermal eruptions) and examples of such Teton region, apparently was the source created the West Thumb caldera. Yet the features. of large regional glaciers; however, they West Thumb caldera is a “smaller” erup- If chapter three is concerned with were not part of the continental glaciers tion. For earthquakes, the situation is caldera formation and eruptions, then further north. These large glaciers arose different. Based on average recurrence chapter four is about heat flow and the and flowed south from Yellowstone, fill- intervals, the Teton fault is overdue for a two major mechanisms for transferring ing Jackson Hole with glacial debris. significant tremor. As the authors indi- heat from rock to water and how it is Numerous alpine glaciers in the Teton cate, trying to determine the probability eventually released at the surface in the Range also transported more glacial de- of such events is difficult at best. Using form of fumaroles, geysers, and hot bris into the valley. Such debris created the geologic record to ascertain the fre- springs. In other words, this chapter is the abundant moraines which formed quency of such events may be mislead- about the thermal features of Yellow- lakes along the west side of Jackson Hole. ing, especially if the events were clus- stone. The authors briefly describe what These glaciers also cut the U-shaped val- tered in the past. In trying to predict makes fumaroles, acidic hot springs and leys that allow access into the Teton significant earthquakes, I am reminded mud pots, and neutral hot springs and Range. Not only did the glaciers cut the of the Parkfield experiment along the San geysers. The subsurface plumbing for U-shaped valleys of both Yellowstone Andreas fault. Based on recurrence inter- such systems is also explained as it was and Grand Teton national parks, but in vals, an earthquake having a magnitude inferred from previous borehole investi- Jackson Hole the glacial debris may also of about 6 was predicted to occur there gations in the park. have filled the valley some 10,000 or between 1987 and 1992. However, as of This is one chapter with which I have more feet. The retreating glaciers also left the year 2000 such an earthquake has not some concerns, the first of which is rela- terminal and lateral moraines which in- occurred—but it will. Earthquake pre- tively minor. To my knowledge, the deep- fluenced the valley’s topography, hydrol- dictions are a qualitative, not a quantita- est borehole in the park is the 1,081-foot ogy, pond and lake development, and tive science. deep “Y-12” at Norris Geyser Basin;2 it is drainage of streams and rivers. The last two chapters describe geo- not “almost 1,500 feet,” as the authors It’s interesting to note that although logic tours through both parks. In chapter state at the top of page 68. The other these large glaciers originated in Yellow- eight, the authors suggest beginning the pertains to recharge of the hydrothermal stone, the Grand Canyon of the Yellow- tour at Jackson, Wyoming. The tour pro- system. Isotopic measurements of deute- stone was neither affected nor sculpted ceeds north into Grand Teton National rium, oxygen-18, and tritium all indicate by ice; rather, it was just filled with ice. Park and loops west to Jenny Lake. I was that the deeper hydrothermal water is That the canyon filled with ice during the impressed by the authors’ selection of isotopically “lighter” than surrounding last glaciations is evident from the glacial viewpoints, usually off the heavily trav- meteoric water and is depleted in tri- erratic boulder at the head of the Seven eled highway. The photos from some of

Fall 2000 21 The northwest rim of the Yellowstone caldera north of Madison Junction. The steep south-facing rim formed when the caldera floor (foreground) sank downward during the most recent giant eruption 630,000 years ago. Mount Holmes, a 10,336-foot peak (background), is part of the Gallatin Range, the southern end of which was destroyed by Yellowstone’s first caldera-forming eruption two million years ago. From Windows into the Earth: The Geologic Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, by Robert B. Smith and Lee. J. Siegel.

them are simply spectacular. They also in West Yellowstone, one can continue Mike Thompson is currently an instruc- conveniently note optional stops and with the optional tour to the Hebgen Lake tor of chemistry at Portland Community viewpoints between major stops on the fault viewpoints, start with them at the College and an adjunct instructor of or- tour. beginning of the next day, or skip them ganic chemistry at Warner Pacific Col- The Madison River canyon slide of entirely. Whether or not the Hebgen Lake lege, both located in Portland, Oregon. 1959 was not the only deadly slide in the fault is visited, the Yellowstone tour con- He previously was a chemist for the USGS Yellowstone region. Another even larger tinues by traveling to Norris Geyser Ba- before retiring in 1995. He worked closely landslide happened in Gros Ventre Can- sin, from there north to Mammoth Hot with R. O. Fournier and R. A. Hutchinson yon in 1925. The stop overlooking the Springs, east towards Tower Junction collecting and analyzing thermal fluids Gros Ventre slide—where the mountain and Tower Falls, then south over from all the various hot springs and gey- slid and built a natural dam of the Gros Dunraven Pass to Canyon and on to Fish- ser basins, both major and minor, in Ventre River, which subsequently failed ing Bridge, and finally east to Lake Butte Yellowstone National Park. He has also and flooded the town of Kelly, killing six to end the tour. authored or co-authored numerous re- people—made me wonder why the au- At the beginning of this review, I re- search reports on the chemistry and in- thors did not focus more on the fact that lated how I was attempting to “sell” a terpretation of the park’s thermal waters. landslides are potential hazards in the Yellowstone field class. This book pro- region. According to the authors, the vides me and any other Yellowstone field NOTES earthquakes that caused the Gros Ventre instructor with a perfect geologic text slide were a series of small, insignificant that includes not only important refer- 1 U.S. Geological Survey. 1964. The tremors, not a single-event major earth- ences but also Internet resources. I have Hebgen Lake, Montana, earthquake of quake such as happened in the Madison no hesitation recommending this book to August 17, 1959: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 435. U.S. River Canyon. Also, it would have been all serious Yellowstone researchers and Government Printing Office. helpful if the pronunciation of “Gros to any park visitors interested in learning Ventre” were placed earlier in the book. about the geology of Yellowstone and 2 White, D.E., R.O. Fournier, L.J.P. Continuing north from Grand Teton Grand Teton national parks. The lan- Muffler, and A.H. Truesdell. 1975. National Park into Yellowstone National guage is somewhat technical, but the Physical results of research drilling in Park brings one to the South Entrance authors write clearly and define geologic thermal areas of Yellowstone National and the beginning of chapter nine. The terms. They carefully guide the reader Park, Wyoming: U.S. Geological first stop, at West Thumb Geyser Basin, through the geologic processes of hotspot Survey Professional Paper 892, 54Ð57. is located at the intersection of the South volcanism, basin and range geology, Yel- U.S. Government Printing Office. Entrance Road and Grand Loop Road. lowstone volcanism, and massive re- 3 Fournier, R. O., R.L. Christiansen, R.A. From West Thumb Geyser Basin the tour gional glaciations. They also assess fu- Hutchinson, and K.L. Pierce. 1994. proceeds west to the Upper Geyser Basin ture earthquake, volcanic, and other geo- Yellowstone National Park field trip: (Old Faithful), Midway and Lower gey- logic hazards. Each chapter can stand Volcanic, hydrothermal, and glacial ser basins, and Firehole Canyon loop alone so that one can either jump all over activity in the Yellowstone region: U.S. road before continuing on to West Yel- the book, reading only the most pertinent Geological Survey Bulletin 2099, 4. lowstone, Montana, where the first day’s parts, or read it straight through. This U.S. Government Printing Office. tour ends. Depending on time of arrival book is a treasure. Get it!

22 Yellowstone Science NPS photo Aubrey Haines August 30, 1914 Ð September 10, 2000

by Paul Schullery

Colorado Associated Uni- Nebraska Press, 1972); and The Valley of versity Press and the Yel- the Upper Yellowstone: An Exploration lowstone Library and Mu- of the Headwaters of the Yellowstone seum Association), pub- River in the Year 1869 (Norman: Univer- lished in 1977. Yellowstone sity of Oklahoma Press, 1965). His terms archivist Lee Whittlesey and of duty at Mount Rainier and Big Hole I agreed long ago that by Battlefield resulted in two more mile- any objective measure, this stones, Mountain Fever: Historic Con- must be the most important quests of Rainier (Portland: Oregon His- book, on any subject, ever torical Society, 1962), and Elusive Vic- published about the park. tory: the Battle of the Big Hole (West But had he only written his Glacier: Glacier Natural History Asso- 1974 documentary history, ciation, 1991). After his retirement, On September 10, 2000, Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park: Its Explora- Aubrey was commissioned by the NPS to lost one of its most devoted and important tion and Establishment (Washington: U.S. produce an inventory of historic sites friends with the passing of Aubrey Haines, Government Printing Office, 1974), his along the Oregon Trail. This resulted in a historian. Those many who knew him reputation as a great Yellowstone scholar limited-circulation, unpublished NPS re- will remember him not merely for his could not be contested. Of course, Aubrey port in 1973. More important, the work unique and extraordinary knowledge of produced much more than these two clas- eventually grew into Historic Sites along the park’s history and lore, but also for his sics. Another essential Yellowstone title the Oregon Trail (Gerald, Missouri: The unfailing generosity in sharing a lifetime’s is Yellowstone Place Names: Mirrors of Patrice Press, 1981), a massive and typi- hard-earned wisdom. History (Niwot: University Press of Colo- cally thorough volume, liberally illus- Aubrey Leon Haines was born on Au- rado, 1996). Smaller works included A trated with photographs by Aubrey’s son gust 30, 1914, in Portland, Oregon. He History of The Yellowstone National Park Calvin. began his National Park Service (NPS) Chapel (1913Ð1963) (Yellowstone Na- Between the book projects, Aubrey career in the mid-1930s as a seasonal fire tional Park: Superintendent’s Church seemed never to stop churning out shorter lookout in Mount Rainier National Park. Committee, 1963), which honored and works. There were professional papers, On December 8, 1938, he became a per- celebrated the history of the building reports, book and encyclopedia chapters, manent ranger in Yellowstone, where he where, on April 14, 1946, he and Wilma journal articles, and an almost uncount- later also held the position of assistant (the dedication to her in one of his books able number of shorter in-house works, park engineer, and finally, in the early read, “She is the light of my life”) were covering a wide range of western histori- 1960s, park historian. By the time he married; and The Bannock Indian Trail cal topics. The best thing that can happen retired in 1969, he had also served stints (Yellowstone National Park: Yellowstone to a modern researcher wanting informa- at Mount Rainier and Big Hole National Library and Museum Association, 1964). tion on some minor Yellowstone history Battlefield. Through his Park Service ca- Aubrey also edited or resurrected three topic is to cruise the many shelf-feet of reer and after, it seemed he never missed essential early accounts of the Yellow- historian’s files in the archives and find an opportunity to turn the time he spent at stone region: Osborne Russell: Journal that Aubrey once wrote one of his con- any location into distinguished scholar- of a Trapper (Portland: Oregon Histori- cise, thoroughly-researched letters to ship. cal Society, 1955); Nathaniel Langford’s some inquiring citizen on that very sub- As a published historian, Aubrey pro- The Discovery of Yellowstone National ject. There are also at least three book- duced a series of scholarly milestones. Park, Journal of the Washburn Expedi- length works that were completed, or Perhaps the best known is his already- tion to the Yellowstone and Firehole River nearly so, at the time of his death; his classic The Yellowstone Story (Boulder: in the Year 1870 (Lincoln: University of family intends to see these things through,

Fall 2000 23 so we will be reading new works from made important finds in the mod- Aubrey for quite a while. ern equivalents of washrooms and The books and articles are, of course, closets, reaching farther and far- only the most visible part of Aubrey’s ther from the park for materials at contribution, and it could be argued that the same time as they struggled to even they are not the most important part. make park staff aware of what a His work creating the Yellowstone ar- wonderful documentary treasure chives in the 1960s may have meant even they were generating in their day- more. This was not some sedentary ad- to-day work. But all of this is built ministrative task of merely sorting through on the foundation Aubrey pro- a lot of old boxes and putting them in new vided. boxes with nice labels. It was a heroic In the 1950s and 1960s, while white-collar guerilla action against a care- researching Yellowstone, Aubrey less and willfully unconcerned bureau- investigated and discredited the cracy. By the 1960s, the NPS had earned park’s “creation myth,” in which a horrible reputation among archivists members of the Washburn Expe- nationwide for its almost violent disre- dition had supposedly cooked up gard for the raw materials of its own the idea of creating Yellowstone history. Here is a brief excerpt from National Park while sitting around Aubrey’s entertaining and frightening a campfire at Madison Junction in description of the process by which he September, 1870. Aubrey’s work put the archives together: in clarifying the park’s origins and The bulk of the boxed incoming dismantling this beloved legend correspondence was found in the first- angered some powerful forces in Aubrey and Wilma Haines. NPS photo. floor washroom of the old Adminis- and beyond the NPS. Among those tration Office (across the Esplanade- with a heartfelt, if uncritical, af- stone bldg. with green tile roof). fection for this simple (almost simple- Chief Historian Bob Utley, rallied around There, the boxes were stored on a minded) story was former NPS director him to shield him from the worst anger of high shelf above the john. It is my Horace Albright, then still a powerful the “old guard” in the agency. understanding that former Supt. opinion maker in American conserva- Aubrey gave us an example of how Edmund B. Rogers had the boxes tion. Lee Whittlesey and I have just com- history should be done, and how the past placed there after he had snatched pleted a book on the campfire myth and should be honored, but he was also a them back from the Mammoth dump its effect on the NPS, so I won’t go into brave symbol of how history, and there- where they were to be burned. Sev- the story here except to say that the out- fore Yellowstone itself, must be faced eral boxes show scorching and I have rage was so strong you would have thought squarely, despite its flaws and ours, de- always wondered if some did go up in Aubrey had assassinated Santa Claus and spite the perils of admitting our own smoke. A few boxes, and some of the used his funeral pyre to roast the Easter troubled past. In that, even more than in large ledgers, were in a little storage Bunny for lunch. As odd as it may seem the wonderful tales his books told and the shed-a frame structure which used to today that grownups could get so worked bottomless well of historical riches they stand behind the Paint Shop. We up and vicious over the scholarly recon- revealed, he was an inspiration we must called it the “red shed” and it was a sideration of national park history, they always honor. storage for junk belonging to the natu- did. And they were mean about it; the last Aubrey is survived by his wife Wilma, ralists: a place of dust, cobwebs, and years of Aubrey’s career with the NPS and his sons Alan Aubrey Haines and mouse droppings. The roof leaked were effectively ruined by opponents of Calvin Leo Haines and their families. He quite generously and some of the the truth he had revealed. was preceded in death by his daughter, records stored there had been wet- But three decades later, the episode Betsy Aurelia Haines Johanesen. Gifts in ted. There was another cache in the became just another proof of what a fine, Aubrey’s memory may be given to the basement of the Museum bldg., in a gentle soul Aubrey was at heart. Looking Saguaro Christian Church Aubrey Haines storeroom (now gone) known as the back on those troubled years from the late Fund (8302 East Broadway, Tucson, AZ “rock room” because its purpose was 1990s, Aubrey displayed a characteristic 85710) or to your local hospice program. to hold geological specimens. Sol- goodhearted generosity, preferring to em- dier Station logs, and the various phasize that it all turned out okay. As he record books from entrances and saw it, his books were eventually pub- Paul Schullery himself is a widely pub- some ranger station logs were there. lished and his views prevailed. He even lished author and historian. These re- And, of course, the collection has grown enjoyed fond memories of how not only marks were adapted in part from a shorter hugely since Aubrey retired, as a succes- Yellowstone’s leadership but also the article prepared for “Montana, the Maga- sion of park historians and others have other historians in the NPS, including zine of Western History.”

24 Yellowstone Science NEWS¬es New Archeological Finds obtained while they last by calling (307) 200,000 tons or more of algae each year. 344-2203; all three reports are also avail- The researchers have received permis- Two exciting new archeological dis- able in pdf format on the park’s website at sion to collect small algae samples from coveries were made in the park this sum- http://www.nps.gov/yell/publications. the park, but eventually hope to create mer. The first is the identification of new technology that can use any abundant sources of stone used by prehistoric people Housing Available for Researchers type of algae in the world. to manufacture tools. It had been as- sumed that the agates/chalcedonies and Yellowstone Ecosystem Studies Varley Honored for Fisheries Work cherts in Lamar and Yellowstone river (Y.E.S.), a non-profit research and edu- sites were coming from sources north of cation organization headquartered in On October 2, 2000, at the Wild Trout the park such as Pine Creek. But arche- Bozeman, Montana, has developed a full- VII conference at Old Faithful, YCR Di- ologists found veins of these materials in time field station in Silver Gate, Mon- rector John Varley was presented with the Hellroaring valley and in Hellroaring tana, just outside the northeast entrance the Conservation Award of the Federa- Creek gravels inside the park. Discarded to the park. They are actively looking for tion of Fly Fishers for his lifetime achieve- materials and modified cobbles indicate researchers who need housing. The facil- ments in the field of fisheries manage- that prehistoric people worked these lo- ity has a total of 12 rentable units, most ment. The presentation emphasized cations; some of the gold chert is identi- with kitchens, and several units are avail- John’s many contributions to the world- cal to that in Pine Creek cobbles. Re- able for the fall/winter/spring season. The wide development and popularization of searchers hope to use such information to cabins can house up to three persons each special regulations as a tool for managing model the movements and travel routes at very reasonable rates. A meeting room, fishing harvest while maintaining healthy of early park users. storage area, and computer work areas wild fish populations as part of ecologi- A second discovery came from re-ex- are available as well. Interested parties cal communities. John is regarded as one amining a site first recorded in 1958, but may contact Science Director Bob of the modern pioneers of special regula- which had not been revisited since. An Crabtree at (406) 587-7758 or email: tions management in the world of trout. archeology professor and eight students [email protected]. from Wichita State University examined Greater Yellowstone Area Parks to a site called Osprey Beach, which was Thermophilic Algae May Help Cut Begin Inventory Effort eroding into Yellowstone Lake. Working Greenhouse Emissions with archeologists from the Museum of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national the Rockies, they unearthed evidence that Using blue-green algae collected from parks and Bighorn Canyon National Rec- the site was used by prehistoric people Yellowstone hot springs, researchers at reation Area will soon benefit from a from a culture known as the Cody Com- Ohio University hope to eventually de- servicewide initiative to improve baseline plex some 9,400Ð10,000 years ago. These velop cleaner, cheaper ways to remove inventories of natural resources. The three people were bison hunters on the plains, carbon dioxide from coal-fired power parks, combined as the greater Yellow- although there is no evidence yet of that plants. The U.S. Department of Energy stone network, submitted a plan to com- activity in the park. Intact deposits from has provided a $1.07 million grant to plete priority inventory work for verte- this and other sites may reveal much study how algae and sunlight absorb car- brates and vascular plants in the region. about early people, plants, and animals in bon dioxide after coal is burned. An inventory coordinator will be hired post-glacial Yellowstone. Initially, researchers will use algae from and, though stationed in Yellowstone, the park because its natural environ- will oversee projects in all three parks, New Publications Available ment—the near-boiling extreme condi- including efforts to improve baseline tions found in hot springs—is similar to knowledge of exotic and native plant Several new reports are available this the climate of a coal-fired power plant. distributions, reptiles, bats, and fishes in fall from the Yellowstone Center for Re- Researchers plan to emit sunlight into a alpine lakes. The network expects to re- sources. One is a 36-page, full-color re- bioreactor, helping the algae to photo- ceive approximately $700,000 for projects port on Wetland Resources of Yellow- synthesize using the carbon dioxide in to be completed in three to four years. stone National Park by Chuck Elliott of the reactor for fuel. As the algae grow, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and they fall to the bottom of the reactor Errata Mary Hektner of Yellowstone National where they could be harvested for other Park. Also available are the Yellowstone uses, such as fertilizer, soil stablizers, or In the last issue, Yellowstone Science 8 Wolf Project Annual Report, 1999 by a hydrogen source. David Bayless, the (3), we printed a photo of the Canyon Douglas Smith, Kerry Murphy, and Debra project’s lead researcher, estimates that a Visitor Center with a caption stating that Guernsey, and the 1999 Yellowstone Bird typical power plant could process 20 per- it is eligible for the National Register. It is Report by Terry McEneaney. Printed cent of its carbon dioxide emissions us- a portion of Canyon Village that is now copies of any of these reports may be ing this technology, while producing eligible. We regret the error.

Fall 2000 25