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Old Postcards and Photos


Plan on doing several posts featuring views of geysers taken from the 1870s to the 1960s. Many of them are taken from postcards.

The first batch features views of large, rare geyser activity from the 1950s and 1960s.

Giant Geyser (Western Photo Sales, Livingston, Mont.) A-105

One of Yellowstone's most spectacular and difficult geysers to catch in play. Erupts at intervals from six to 21 hours for 1 1/2 hours at a time.

A view from the roadway of Giant Geyser, well into an eruption. Most likely from the activity of the early 1950s. Postmark was from 1957.

Giant Geyer, Upper Geyser Basin (Haynes Studios, Bozeman, Mont.) 54K037

Its initial grand bursts, sometimes exceed 200 feet in height, and it erupts for about an hour and a half.

A much nicer photo taken in 1954, based on the ID number. Does not appear to be any activity from the platform vents.

Giant Geyser (Hamilton Stores, YNP) J-1

A spectacular giant located in the Upper Geyser Basin which erupts to height of 200 feet for durations ranging from 45 to 60 minutes. Shown here at the peak of one of her performances.

This is also a giant postcard, triple the area of a normal card. I remember buying it in the early 1980s at the Lower Hamilton's store.

Steamboat Geyser at Norris in YNP (D&G Enterprises, Emblem Wyo.) C-335 Photo by Robert Whitney

Ranks currently as Yellowstone's most powerful geyser. In function, it is a typical cone-type geyser with continuous action. The water phase lasts from 25 to 40 minutes and reaches a height of nearly 400 feet. Rocks are ejected during eruptions from inside the crater.

Surprising to find this. A nice view that is not the standard NPS view. The address of the publisher includes a ZIP code, so this must date from the late 1960s.

Fountain Geyser (Haynes Studios) 51K090

Fountain Geyser in the lower geyser Basin erupts 50 to 75 feet in heightm draining the pool in the foreground with each eruption.

Looks more like Morning Geyser to me. Again, based on the serial number this was taken in 1951.


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GeyserLog 3.3


GeyserLog 3.3 is now available on the iOS AppStore.

This version of the app includes support for the AppleWatch.

The AppleWatch app is not independent, but relies of the iPhone GeyserLog app to talk with the GeyserTimes server. It is intended to be another viewport into the GeyserLog app.

The app's primary screen allows you to choose four of the more common actions: Stopwatch, Recent Activity, Favorites and GrandWait. Double tapping the displayed time will log an Observation to the paired iPhone app, and display that time for a few seconds.

Stopwatch works in sync with the iPhone GeyserLog stopwatch, allowing you to start, stop and pause, on both devices. If you set the feature name on the phone, it will be displayed on the watch.

Recent Activity shows the latest dozen events posted to GeyserTimes. No notes, though.

Favorites shows the latest activity of those features that are shown in the iPhone GeyserLog's Favorites view.

GrandWait allows you to record events and activity without the need for using your iPhone screen in adverse conditions.

There's also a watch-face complication which will take you directly to the watch app, while saving the current time as an Observation. Double tapping on the clock in the primary screen will also save an Observation time, and show it for a few seconds.