Dennis Reupert, age 11, Milwaukee, Wis.~
How did Yellowstone Park get its name?
Yellowstone National Park could have been named for any color in the rainbow, or all of them. The puddles of water on the limestone terraces of Hot Mammoth Hot Springs are red, blue, grey and taffy colored, Morning Glory Pool is a vivid blue color. Paint Pot and Brilliant Pool are as gaudy as their names. These delicate tints are painted by tiny animals and algae who enjoy life in warm spring water. There are cool green waterfalls in Yellowstone and Obsidian Cliff is a mountain of black glass. All this breathtaking beauty is surpassed by the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Rivers Or so the people thought who named the scenic wonderland from these majestic cliffs of yellow stone,
The continental divide weaves_through_the tall peaks of this area northwest Wyoming. At its feet, in the center of the huge park is Yellowstone Lakes Twenty miles of calm water rest on a high plateau among the Rockies, The Yellowstone river meanders from the northern end of this mountain lake. Suddenly it tumbles in two magnificent green waterfalls, It has cut a deep gorge into the rocks of the ancient plateau.
The bare cliffs, 1120 feet high, reveal the nature of the rocky plateau. Basically, the rock is golden yellow, Crests, shoulders and boulders are tinted with taffy colors of brown, mauve, orange and red. This is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone river, Far below, at the foot of the yellow cliffs, runs the busy river. White ospreys dip and swoop above and between the yellow walls. No wonder the park, so full of beauties, was named for this majestic spectacle carved through yellow stones.
The rocks we are told, is rhyolites, a lava form of granite. Grains of quartz and a form of basalt are frozen into a mass of fine glassy crystals. The rock is very acid and reacts with oxygen in the air. The delicate tints in the canyon are caused by oxydation.
The massive plateau of rhyolite was formed in volcanic fury, As they grew, the Rockies grew, the Rockies caused tremendous upheavals in the earths crust. Millions of years ago, this corner of North America was a region of seething volcanic activity. Molten lava poured forth and covered the ground. The surface was often encrusted with a new layer before it could cool.
Much of the lava was granite rock heated to melting point. It spilled forth from below ground millions of years ago. Some cooled into hard layers of rhyolite hundreds of feet thick. The yellow rocky foundation was set some 30 million years ago. Rain, snow, springs and streams joined their waters to fill a mountain lake on the plateau of rhyolite.
A river flowed from the northern exit and began to dig itself a channel in the yellow stone. The channel became a canyon, The river that carved the canyon still winds north east by the Yellowstone range of Rocky Mountains through Montana. After a journey of 600 miles it joins the mighty Missouri in North Dakota.