Federal budget cuts force Yellowstone Park to curtail Old Faithful eruptions

[tjones]

Love the comments at the end of the article.

smarandr,,chicken.

 

[smarandr]

If we let the free market decide when Old Faithful would erupt, it would run like clockwork.

I'm going to disagree with that; the free market is the problem here. Romney and his buddies with all their corporate welfare haven't been paying their fair share back to the gubment. Now look what happened--they broke Yellowstone. I'm not sure even Chuck Norris can fix this now.

 

[smarandr]

Love the comments at the end of the article.

smarandr,,chicken.

He gave me a rough draft of his post and I was going to share the highlights, but I didn't want to spoil it for everyone--it's truly an epic rant, everyone will be offended.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Back in '66 our fraternity in Bozeman had a letter from Ranger Walker, authorizing us to regulate the Old Faithful eruption in concert with the interstate water compact of 1892 at times when Chuck could not make it up from Texas. The fraternity owned a hand-crank-start 1917 White open top touring bus from Yellowstone. We would load it up with a keg and potato chips and I would drive "Minerva" the bus to the Park. Upon arriving some of the boys would install a steering column with wheel into the ground at the appropriate spot. After the requisite amount of time, the designated caller would bark out, "Let 'er rip!" The boys would turn the wheel and the awesome eruption would begin. The tourists loved it, or so we thought. The wheel would turn counter clockwise as the eruption subsided and the real park ranger approached. We would quickly load up and head for the Geyser Bar & Pizza in West Yellowstone for a celebratory pizza and some adult beverages, thanking Ranger Walker for the public service opportunity.

Some of the above-described information may or may not have been "stretched" in the effort to extend due credit to Chuck Norris. The rest is factual, to the best of my memory of the good old days.

True story:

We took my brand new in-laws to the Park after our wedding in 09. We were at Old Faithful one day and the boardwalk was packed. Tons of folks all over the place. We were situated right in the thick of the action as the Geyser started the show. After the first few minutes where Old Faithful just kind of bubbled up and didn't do much, I spoke up loudly, "Well, that's it. Show's over."

About 50 people stood up and started to walk away.

 

[sweetnectar]

Dang, and I always thought the eruption was tied to the mens urinals in Wall Drug South Dakota flushing....no one flushes those dang things but every once and a while.