{"id":5585,"date":"2012-10-25T02:22:28","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T08:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585"},"modified":"2013-04-23T20:23:40","modified_gmt":"2013-04-24T02:23:40","slug":"million-billion-gallons-of-hot-water-yellowstone-1872","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585","title":{"rendered":"Making use of ‘a million billion gallons of hot water’ in Yellowstone in 1872"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A postcard by historic Yellowstone National Park photographer Frank Haynes shows Grotto Geyser as it appeared in approximately 1913. (click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By M. Mark Miller<\/h3>\n

A group of professionals and businessmen visited the geysers in 1872\u2014long before the era of hot water heaters. The trip was chronicled by Harry Norton, who published the first Yellowstone travel guide in Virginia City in 1873. Norton called one of his companions, who owned telegraph lines between Deer Lodge and Bozeman, \u201cPrince Telegraph.\u201d Here\u2019s Norton\u2019s description of the Prince\u2019s experiments in geyserland.<\/p>\n

Just for the oddity of the idea, some of the party proposed that we should try a cup of geyser tea. Happy thought! A million billion barrels of hot water within easy reach, and nothing to do but put the tea a-drawing! Notwithstanding all that has been said by former tourists, the tea was excellent\u2014and produced no disagreeable effects.<\/p>\n

We afterwards utilized several of the geysers by boiling meat, dirty clothes, beans, coffee, etc., each experiment being attended with satisfaction. For boiled beans, two quarts of “navies” were put in a flour sack, and with a rope, lowered into the steaming crater. In thirty minutes they were perfectly soft and palatable. This is not a first-rate method to make allopathic bean soup, but for a homeopathic dose, it can’t be beat. In this connection, a little incident:<\/p>\n

Prince Telegraph’s wardrobe, like our saddle-seat, was constantly getting out of repair\u2014and as he had failed in trying to sew on a patch with a needle-gun he was obliged to\u00a0procure assistance. He finally compromised affairs by a change of duties: Woodall, an expert, was to sew on the patch while Prince Telegraph washed the dishes\u2014his first attempt probably in a lifetime. Hesitating a moment, a brilliant idea struck him. Fifty or sixty feet distant was a very noisy little geyser. Its aperture was in the centre of a noisy shallow, well-rimmed basin of about two-and-a-half by four feet. The water scarcely ever covered the flat bottom at a greater depth than two inches.<\/p>\n

Pitching the soiled tin ware, knives, forks, towels, etc., into a champagne basket, and with an “Oh, ho! I guess I can’t wash dishes!” the Prince approaching his improvised dishpan, unceremoniously dumped them in to soak while he placidly enjoyed his meerschaum (pipe). Suddenly, and as if resenting the insult to its dignity, the little spouter spit the basin full to overflowing in a second. Setting the contents in a perfect whirl, and the next instant, drawing in its breath, the geyser commenced sucking everything toward the aperture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We at the camp heard an agonizing cry for help, and looking out, beheld the Prince\u2014with hat off and eyes peeled\u2014dancing around his dishpan in a frantic attempt to save the last culinary outfit. It was comical in the extreme. There would be a plunge of the hand in the boiling water, a yell of pain, and out would come a spoon\u2014another plunge and yell, and a tin plate\u2014an “Oh! ah! o-o-o, e-e-e” and a fork. As we arrived, the towel and one tin plate were just going out of sight; while the Prince, gazing at his parboiled hands, was profanely discussing the idea of being “sucked in” by a geyser!<\/p>\n

Read more stories like this one excerpted from\u00a0Wonderland Illustrated or, Horseback Rides\u00a0Through the Yellowstone National Park <\/em>by Harry J. Norton\u00a0in M. Mark Miller’s\u00a0Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of professionals and businessmen visited the geysers in 1872\u2014long before the era of hot water heaters. The trip was chronicled by Harry Norton, who published the first Yellowstone travel guide in Virginia City in 1873. Norton called one of his companions, who owned telegraph lines between Deer Lodge and Bozeman, \u201cPrince Telegraph.\u201d Here\u2019s Norton\u2019s description of the Prince\u2019s experiments in geyserland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":5931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[950,447,10,949],"tags":[831,351,832,147,504],"yoast_head":"\nMaking use of 'a million billion gallons of hot water' in Yellowstone in 1872 - Yellowstone Gate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Early Yellowstone Park travel writer Harry Norton tells a humorous tale of a park trip when a visitor tries to wash dishes in a geyser\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making use of 'a million billion gallons of hot water' in Yellowstone in 1872 - Yellowstone Gate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Early Yellowstone Park travel writer Harry Norton tells a humorous tale of a park trip when a visitor tries to wash dishes in a geyser\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Yellowstone Gate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-25T08:22:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-24T02:23:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/grotto-postcard2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"597\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"M. Mark Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"M. Mark Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"M. Mark Miller\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d6277d35fc7c561dd1090bf5ce76c138\"},\"headline\":\"Making use of ‘a million billion gallons of hot water’ in Yellowstone in 1872\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-25T08:22:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-24T02:23:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585\"},\"wordCount\":606,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/grotto-postcard2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"adventures in yellowstone\",\"geysers\",\"Harry Norton\",\"history\",\"yellowstone history\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Geology\",\"History\",\"People\",\"Science & Nature\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585\",\"name\":\"Making use of 'a million billion gallons of hot water' in Yellowstone in 1872 - Yellowstone Gate\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/grotto-postcard2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-25T08:22:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-24T02:23:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"Early Yellowstone Park travel writer Harry Norton tells a humorous tale of a park trip when a visitor tries to wash dishes in a geyser\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/grotto-postcard2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/grotto-postcard2.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":597,\"caption\":\"A postcard by historic Yellowstone National Park photographer Frank Haynes shows Grotto Geyser as it appeared in approximately 1913. (click to enlarge)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Making use of ‘a million billion gallons of hot water’ in Yellowstone in 1872\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/\",\"name\":\"Yellowstone Gate\",\"description\":\"Yellowstone and Grand Teton community news & inside views\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Yellowstone Gate\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/yellowstone-gate-logo-horiz.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/yellowstone-gate-logo-horiz.png\",\"width\":764,\"height\":152,\"caption\":\"Yellowstone Gate\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d6277d35fc7c561dd1090bf5ce76c138\",\"name\":\"M. Mark Miller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd90c998723982878e13de0f1585b425?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd90c998723982878e13de0f1585b425?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"M. Mark Miller\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/mmarkmiller.wordpress.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?author=36\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Making use of 'a million billion gallons of hot water' in Yellowstone in 1872 - Yellowstone Gate","description":"Early Yellowstone Park travel writer Harry Norton tells a humorous tale of a park trip when a visitor tries to wash dishes in a geyser","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Making use of 'a million billion gallons of hot water' in Yellowstone in 1872 - Yellowstone Gate","og_description":"Early Yellowstone Park travel writer Harry Norton tells a humorous tale of a park trip when a visitor tries to wash dishes in a geyser","og_url":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585","og_site_name":"Yellowstone Gate","article_published_time":"2012-10-25T08:22:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-04-24T02:23:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":597,"url":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/grotto-postcard2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"M. Mark Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"M. Mark Miller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585"},"author":{"name":"M. Mark Miller","@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d6277d35fc7c561dd1090bf5ce76c138"},"headline":"Making use of ‘a million billion gallons of hot water’ in Yellowstone in 1872","datePublished":"2012-10-25T08:22:28+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-24T02:23:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585"},"wordCount":606,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/grotto-postcard2.jpg","keywords":["adventures in yellowstone","geysers","Harry Norton","history","yellowstone history"],"articleSection":["Geology","History","People","Science & Nature"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585","url":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585","name":"Making use of 'a million billion gallons of hot water' in Yellowstone in 1872 - Yellowstone Gate","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/grotto-postcard2.jpg","datePublished":"2012-10-25T08:22:28+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-24T02:23:40+00:00","description":"Early Yellowstone Park travel writer Harry Norton tells a humorous tale of a park trip when a visitor tries to wash dishes in a geyser","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/grotto-postcard2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/grotto-postcard2.jpg","width":900,"height":597,"caption":"A postcard by historic Yellowstone National Park photographer Frank Haynes shows Grotto Geyser as it appeared in approximately 1913. (click to enlarge)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=5585#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Making use of ‘a million billion gallons of hot water’ in Yellowstone in 1872"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/","name":"Yellowstone Gate","description":"Yellowstone and Grand Teton community news & inside views","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#organization","name":"Yellowstone Gate","url":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/yellowstone-gate-logo-horiz.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/yellowstone-gate-logo-horiz.png","width":764,"height":152,"caption":"Yellowstone Gate"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d6277d35fc7c561dd1090bf5ce76c138","name":"M. Mark Miller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd90c998723982878e13de0f1585b425?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd90c998723982878e13de0f1585b425?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"M. Mark Miller"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/mmarkmiller.wordpress.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?author=36"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/grotto-postcard2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5585"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}