Fading glory of Yellow stone Park ~ luck coins spoilt ...

The Yellowstone River,  is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 692 miles (1,114 km) long, in the western United States.  In 1871, eleven years after his failed first effort, Ferdinand V. Hayden was finally able to make another attempt to explore the region. With government sponsorship, Hayden returned to Yellowstone region with a second, larger expedition, the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871. His report helped to convince the U.S. Congress to withdraw this region from public auction.  In Mar 1872,  President Ulysses S. Grant signed The Act of Dedication  law that created Yellowstone National Park.

When the train moves slowly nearer Rajahmundry over river Godavari – people would throw coins as offerings in to the river.  This is quite a familiar scene in Krishna bridge, Rameswaram cantilever bridge and in many other places over waters considered sacred.  In a visit to the Golden temple, near Vellore observed that the waters surrounding the main temple precincts had their floors covered with coins put as offerings.  One can also find visiting cards inserted on the walls and other crevices of many temples. 

Hayden and his 1871 party recognized that Yellowstone was a priceless treasure, which would become rarer with time. He wished for others to see and experience it as well. Eventually the railroads and, some time after that, the automobile would make that possible.  Yellowstone National Park  is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho.  Yellowstone, widely held to be the first national park in the world,  is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular features in the park.  Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened.

The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States.  In Sept. 14, there was news that the Park has plans to reduce its bison population this winter by as many as 900 head, or a fifth of the herd, by killing off those animals that stray from the park in what would be the largest such culling in seven years !  The plan was unveiled a day after conservationists filed a legal petition demanding the Obama administration end annual culling exercises that have resulted in thousands of Yellowstone bison being shipped off to American Indian tribes for slaughter during the past decade.  In recent years, wayward bison have been removed through a combination of special round-ups and hunting.  That would leave the size of  last pure-bred band of free-ranging bison,  to 4,000 animals from an estimated 4,900.  Months later, now,  Managers of Yellowstone National Park bison said Monday they are considering changes to policies that have seen thousands of purebred buffalo from the nation's last wild herd bison killed since 2000 to stem transmission of a disease to cattle. Montana cattlemen fear wandering bison exposed to brucellosis, a disease first brought to the park by domestic livestock, will infect their cows, causing them to abort their young and endangering the state's brucellosis-free status. Government and tribal managers are considering six alternative management options submitted by agencies including the state of Montana and the National Park Service.

This is no post on culling but on the ‘luck coins’ now blamed for permanently destroying Yellowstone hot spring turning it Green.  It may look like a stunning rainbow of colour, but the psychedelic hue of this hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, is a result of years of unintended vandalism by visitors, reports MailOnline. 

Once a brilliant shade of blue, the Morning Glory pool's appearance has altered dramatically since the 1950s, thanks to an accumulation of coins, rubbish and natural debris. The pool has been dubbed the Fading Glory, due to the transformation from its original colour to the yellowy-green hue it has today.  The popular tourist attraction sees three million visitors flock to gaze at its psychedelic waters in Wyoming, USA. The site first gained popularity in the 1940s when a million tourists would visit the site.  The fierce colours are influenced by how light interacts with the water’s depth, with yellow and orange colours in the shallows and green in the deep waters.  The rainbow hot spring has been clogged up with debris, which block the heat vents, and affecting the water circulation in the pool. 

The first photo is of 1940 and the one above is  recent looks

It is estimated that the destruction of the hot spring has been building up for decades.  Research by Montana State University and Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany helped to create a model that could depict the hot spring's colours from over a century ago, when it was less frequented by visitors. Now nearly three million tourists flock to Yellowstone National Park, compared to the one million in the 1940s, which has led to the build-up of debris in the pool.  As the underwater vents started to get clogged up, water circulation was affected, decreasing the temperature of the waters and causing a migration of the orange-coloured bacteria towards the centre.

Adam Hoffman from Science Friday said: 'Pigments produced by swaths of those microbes—called microbial mats—are responsible, at least in part, for the brilliant yellows, greens, and oranges that now tinge Morning Glory and other thermal pools in Yellowstone.'  The pool received its name in 1883 from Mrs McGowan, who was the wife of Assistant Park Superintendent, Charles McGowan. As a nod to its then crystal blue colour, she named it after the blue flower, Morning Glory.   Unless some subterranean shift happens where more hot water can again flow to the surface, Morning Glory will never be fully blue again !!  The pool has warning signs around it, in an attempt to reduce further vandalism to its waters. It has been dubbed Fading Glory, now bearing little resemblance to the bright blue flowers which gave it its name.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

17^th Mar 2015.