DAY 7 -- YELLOWSTONE TRIP 1926

 

Shirley Dobson, Bernice Dryden Dobson, and Lynn Dryden at Old Faithful Geyser

August 2 -- 

Ina notes on the back of the above photo: Vance took this picture of Old Faithful Geyser and got scalded on his face and arms when a light breeze blew the steam on him. He felt the effects the rest of the day. Old Faithful erupts every 60 to 70 minutes, throwing a column of water two feet in diameter from 120 to 170 feet and maintaining it for three minutes. Bernice, Lynn, and Shirley look like they are ready to dodge.

A geyser near Old Faithful

On the morning of August 2, Vance wrote a postcard to his sisters at the farmhouse: We’re at Old Faithful Camp and are just packing to leave. The geysers are wonderful and will see a few more today. The bears didn’t eat Dad, contrary to all expectations. We expect to camp at West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake and go on to the Tetons tomorrow. I hope the fences are standing up.

Old Faithful Inn -- "about 30 rods from the geyser"

And Ina also wrote to the daughters at home: We saw wonders yesterday afternoon and this morning. We went through the Old Faithful Inn. Weather looks stormy. We saw the bears eating and one came almost into camp this A.M. We are having a fine time. Wonderful campground. Got pictures. Love, Momma

On the back of the photo of Old Faithful Inn, Ina quotes from the Haynes' Guidebook: "the most extensive log structure yet devised by man." At the center it's eight stories high.

The above photo is Jupiter Terrace, part of the Mammoth Hot Springs. It's more imposing but not so beautiful as Angel Terrace and not far from it. 

DAY 6 -- YELLOWSTONE TRIP 1926

 

From the Haynes Guide, 1926

August 1, 1926 (Sunday)

On this date, Shirley wrote a postcard from Pond’s Resort, about 40 miles from Yellowstone: We’re just about ready to leave for the Park. It was surely cold last night. We’re getting up so much higher. We had a tire tube fixed in Idaho Falls yesterday morning, and it was nearly 9:30 when we left. Then we didn’t drive as fast as we had before. We sidetracked about an hour and went to see the great Snake River Falls, but it was well worth it. It was wonderful and picturesque. I must stop for lack of room. Wish you were here. I’m surely missing you, Shirley Jean. Love, Shirley

Ina continues: We decided to sleep in a little so got up at 5:30 and were away for the great entrance to the Park.

Western Entrance to Yellowstone National Park

I must tell you a joke on us. We were all looking for Fountain Geyser, which was on our first right. We saw a sign called Fountain Road and turned off within parking of a nearby ranger station. When we came to a small mound and saw steam, we decided it was Fountain Geyser, but Lynn and Earl were well ahead of us, so we chased after them, frantically blowing our horn. I think we chased them at least a mile. Then we all came back to the “geyser.” We tried to get Earle and Lynn to take the car back to the ranger station a quarter of a mile away to ask what time the geyser would erupt, but they wouldn’t, so Shirley and Bernice went and came back laughing. It wasn’t Fountain Geyser at all – only a hot pool.

Mammoth Hot Springs Terrace, postcard

Our drive from here on into the Lower Basin was filled with wonders. Fountain Geyser was a gorgeous pool of hot water a beautiful blue and another of wondrous green and smaller ones around of various shades of blue, green, orange shading to brown, pink, lavender, gray, mauve. It is simply indescribable.

Excelsior Geyser, taken by Vance

This P.M. we saw Excelsior Geyser, Turquoise Pool, and Prismatic Lake, all close together. Turquoise Pool was a heavenly blue such as I’ve never seen before. It’s about 30 feet across. Excelsior Geyser was in a pit with walls, say 25 feet high. It was as big as the house yard, I’d say, and a deep blue and boiling and splashing up in different places. It was shaded to different tints at edge and flowed down over a many-colored bluff into the Firehole River. Prismatic Lake had so many colors – blue, green, gold, orange, bronze, brown, pinks, lavender, wine. No time for more description.

Mammoth Paint Pots, by Vance

We went on and camped at Old Faithful campground. We saw the geyser spout, got souvenirs, etc. 

[The family purchased a box of 50 colored postcards which have been enjoyed by the generations over the ensuing century. The black and whites are lackluster but serve as a reminder that they were impressed by the beauty of the Park features. I remember my elementary school teachers talking about the wonders of Yellowstone in the 1950s. Do they still talk about it today? Is it still impressive, or have we ruined it?]

DAY 5 -- YELLOWSTONE TRIP 1926

July 31, 1929 (Saturday)

Ina writes:

We passed through Rigby, Lorenzo, Thornton, and Rexburg, a nice small town where they had parking in the middle of the street. Next was St. Anthony’s Falls where we ate lunch. It developed that Earle was feeling pretty bum with summer flu symptoms. We gave him aspirin and got quinine for him. Vance drove.

There was a fine park here at St. Anthony right by the river and falls – free, with things to amuse the children. The cascades were very pretty, and there was a monument to the World War men – a soldier, all equipped, stepping forward. [This was undoubtedly the “doughboy” statue at Veteran Memorial Park in St. Anthony, dedicated May 30, 1923.]

Ashton was our next place of interest. We stocked up there for the Park, but this was unnecessary for there are places right along where supplies are to be had. The scenery began to be much finer from here on. Robinson River and Warm River join at Warm River Station.

We camped this night at Pond’s Resort in the Targhee National Forest. We had a nice camp to ourselves among the lodgepole pines and had much merriment about bears coming into camp. There was a dance at the Pond place and Lynn and Vance dressed up and went and had a good time.

We had a nice broad, shallow river here. Lynn and Vance got a bath, though no swim.

This P.M. we sidetracked to see the big falls on the Snake, a truly wonderful sight, located about 40 miles from Yellowstone Park. Vance took pictures. Dad had gripes [intestinal upset] from something he ate so didn’t take the half mile walk down to where we could see it. There was a large handsome log hunting lodge there not 40 rods from where we stood – rustic and very nice.

Enlargement of photo above

[Both Ina and Shirley mention a detour to view "the great falls on the Snake.” It seems like this should be Shoshone Falls (called the Niagara of the West), located near Twin Falls, but on Day 4, Ina just says, “We came from Twin Falls to Idaho Falls,” with no mention at that point of viewing waterfalls. Did they think the cascade at Pond’s Lodge was “the great Snake River Falls?”

Online research provided the following: “When your family camped at Pond's Lodge in 1926, Charles Pond had just bought the lease to the resort the previous fall. At that time, a short walk down the trail along the river led to a sharp, natural scenic cascade where the water tumbled through the basalt rock. The reason you won't see that exact, wild natural waterfall today is because the river was altered ten years after your family's visit. In 1936, a small concrete hydroelectric dam was built right on top of that cascade.” This seems to fit Ina’s description and the photos.]

DAY 4 – YELLOWSTONE TRIP 1926

 Ina continues her journal, July 30, 1926:

A big car drove in late, and this A.M. we were treated to the spectacle in real life of what we all suffer from in dreams, i.e., two men trying to dress with people all around them. We made a little better time getting off here, but I soon found I had left the little pin you gave me, Ethel, in the toilet. I felt sick, but at the next town (Burley), I wrote back to the caretaker to send it on home. There was only one car left there, a man and woman, so I think she found it all right. [Hmmm. I wish I knew if she got it back.]

We came from Twin Falls to Idaho Falls, 186 miles, passing through Hansen, Murtaugh, and Declo. At Yale, we ate dinner behind the machine shop – rather unpleasant – but it saved time for Earle was having a tube patched. Here Lynn picked up and took along an oldish man who had walked in 8 miles leaving his family and crippled car on the desert road. 

This afternoon, Bernice’s old duster was lost off the running board box. We thought sure that Dad [coming behind in Lynn's car] would see it and pick it up, but later we halted and when he and Lynn came up, he said, “Ha! That’s what we passed back there.” He seemed quite pleased to have identified the object. Well, we were glad that Bernice didn’t care so much.

We went through sage country. Our next place of interest was American Falls, so choked by a gigantic dam as to be spoiled. The great dam was worth seeing but the town most uninteresting. It had been moved some distance from the former site and the trees were all very young.

Pocatello was our next point and is quite a place, but we were not interested. Here Dad and I got tinted glasses. We passed Fort Hall and Blackfoot. It was not so hot. The country was pretty and the roads good, though they are having a lot done to them and Earle got another flat tire. Road work is hard on tires. We passed through Firth, then Shelley, then into Idaho Falls, which is a nice big town.

We were in a public camp at 25 cents per car. There seemed to be hundreds of cars there, but we got off to ourselves where there was no table. A girl came over and told us we could have theirs since they were through, but it was a doubtful comfort for it was too high and small.

After we were in bed, a car rolled in, and the woman said all she wanted was to go to sleep and didn’t care if she ever woke up again. The man said she’d better jump over the falls and get out of her misery. In the A.M., we found three cars had pulled in close to us. The rough man had to hold up a quilt while his wife dressed.

We are still 124 miles from the Park. Having a good time.

[I think Mike and I are truly the reincarnation of Jack and Ina. We've lost cameras, phones, charging cords, a pajama top, a swimsuit, and whole suitcases. On his last motorcycle excursion, Mike lost his iPhone. Recently, Clint found our old Nikon AW100 – misplaced years ago – in our kayak. We lose something with most every trip.]

DAY 3 -- YELLOWSTONE TRIP 1926

 

July 29, 1926

We had the usual breakfast with everybody feeling fine. We were soon in desert country proper looking like old times so much that I begged for two good pictures and got them, I hope. [Well, she got one anyway.]

We saw our first live jack rabbit, but the highway is dotted with dead ones. It got very hot in the P.M. on the desert. We passed through New Plymouth, Middleton, Caldwell, Nampa, Meridian, Boise, Regina, Sunnyside, Cleft, Mountain Home. At Caldwell, Shirley exchanged her glasses for a lavender-tinted pair which she liked better.

Caldwell is in the Boise Valley and nice. Middleton is small. Nampa – fine. The valley was lovely but we seemed to be dodging out occasionally into desert country. In the suburbs of Boise, Earle had to tinker with the car so we ate lunch on the side of the road in the shade of big trees. We had bought some minced ham, relish spread, pork and beans, lettuce and mayonnaise. We passed through Boise about noon and managed to see the capital building. Boise is beautiful with wide streets and shade trees.

We drove out at 12:20 and were in for our hottest P.M. Finally we came to Sunnyside – a service station and small store. We went in and drank some kind of bottled cool drink which was very refreshing, but we looked nothing like the ads you see of people drinking Coca Cola. [In 1926, Coke's tagline was "refresh yourself."]

I found I could pin my duster to the frame so as to shut out the sun pretty well, but oh, Girls! My hair!!! I tried to keep it on by wrapping with auto veil but the veil would slip off and hair go all directions. Well, the heat was fierce, but we grimly endured and presently came to Mountain Home. We passed through Cleft, but it was too small to notice. Mountain Home was a nice little place, and here we decided to come by Pocatello instead of the shorter, harder route. We passed through Hammett, but I have no recollection of it.

The next place was Glenns Ferry. Here dad purchased the hamburger which proved bad and forgot the butter.

This P.M., we passed what is called the Thousand Springs Ranch on the Snake. From a bluff across the river numerous waterfalls descended apparently coming out of a rimrock. We were not on the desert all P.M. but occasionally dropped into the river valley. Then it was nice – big trees and green fields.

We passed through Bliss, Hagerman, and Buhl and then began to watch for Twin Falls. Here we had our first experience of auto camps – a little kitchen with oil range, good toilets, even a tub and clothesline. There were shade trees, too. We boiled potatoes and expected a feed, but the sausage was bad, no butter, and Lynn didn’t like boiled potatoes, so we were sort of grouchy but got to laughing and I thought of the corned beef hash and insisted on Lynn finishing the relish spread. Dad had bought doughnuts and so with tea and jam, we made out. I found a cinnamon roll in a bag and was voted lucky.

After supper, the menfolk all went to hunt a bath and swim and ice cream, and the girls took the chance to write in the little cookhouse. When the men came back, they were minus the bath and swim but had ice cream and cookies. We ate it out of cups and were the worse for doing so. Then we collected wash pans, etc., and went to the toilet room for a sketchy sponge bath and after that we bathed our underwear and hose and hung them on the tent ropes and benches.

We made 200 miles this day – mostly desert country but part of the time through the Boise valley and along the Snake River. It was awfully hot. We made 25 to 50 miles per hour. We ate lunch in the suburbs of Boise.

DAY 2 -- YELLOWSTONE TRIP

From left: Shirley, Bernice, Earle, Jack, and Ina. Photo by Vance

July 28, 1926 -- Ina continues:

We had one hilarious time arranging our beds last night. From the front of the tent, we were Lynn, Vance, Earle, Bernice, Shirley, and self. Dad slept on a cot. We soon found we had too much covers, and first one and then another sat up to make adjustments. We were not quiet before 11:30. Then a dog came along and growled over a bone, then two dogs started fighting. Shirley began to snore, then Lynn started off, and Bernice began to giggle. The bed was hard with a gentle rise just where our hips came, and we thought the night endless, but all felt quite good on rising at 4:30. 

Vance took a picture of the sun touching the hill and one of us at breakfast. We had bacon, eggs, toast, coffee, jelly, and Himalayan jam.

We got off at 7:45. Until a few miles past Pollock, we had the old road. Then we found them working on the highway.

We struck the Little Salmon at Riggins. It was very beautiful, growing more wooded and picturesque toward the summit and broadening into meadows which looked to me nearly ½ mile wide in places. The river curved and flowed slowly and with low wooded mountains surrounding was wonderfully beautiful. We were surprised to find little ranches in pockets along the river or on benches. Some looked dreadfully burned out, while some had irrigating ditches and gardens. We passed a place or two with lovely green lawns!

Just before reaching New Meadows, we passed a beautiful field of grain being cut. They seem to raise hay mostly. New Meadows is small but up and coming in quite a large valley. In fact, from there, the landscape began to be southern Idaho. A distant range of timbered mountains made it seem more natural.

We didn’t strike any more surfaced highway until after we left Cambridge, but the roads are wide and smooth and look almost as though surfaced. The country is rough and sagebrushy. I got out and got some and will put in a piece of the leaves for you to smell.

It was awful hot at Cambridge and the country round depressing. Our next town was Midvale – small. Then on to Weiser, which is a nice town, but we couldn’t get lettuce there and no hamburger, which caused us to be disgruntly. We ate lunch 1000 feet from the Starky Hot Springs Hotel – bread, butter, cheese, jam, cookies, hardtack.

Continuing on, we passed through Payette. We had our first glimpse of the Snake River near here. We pulled in on the Payette River to camp but found poison oak, flies, and mosquitoes so pulled out again and drove 4 ½ miles beyond Fruitland and camped at a farm where they had things to sell. It was a free camp and they even allowed us to drive in on the nice lawn but we wouldn’t. We pitched the tent there, though, and made us a fine bed. Everybody was grouchy over our trouble finding a camp, but we had a good supper of fried potatoes, bacon, bread and butter, tea, fresh tomatoes, and cantaloupe. When supper was nearly ready, a kitten walked onto the table and dragged off two slices of bread. We all laughed, but Earle said we wouldn't be laughing tomorrow night.

After supper we all felt better. Earle and I then made the beds. Right here, let me say that Earle and Lynn are official packers, unpackers, tent pitchers and strikers. Dad is the official fire builder and water getter. Vance officiates at fire, Bernice at dishwashing, and Shirley sets table and packs up grocery box, grub box, and lunch box. I am majordomo by common, though unexpressed, consent. Of course, we all work at other things.

We are 53 miles from Boise and 500 miles from Yellowstone Park.

[At Cambridge, Ina reports that Vance said it was “hotter than hot.” I think Vance likely made a stronger comparison, don’t you?]  KW

DAY 1 – YELLOWSTONE TRIP

Car on left is Lynn's; car on right, Earle's.

In 2008, when I was fairly new to blogging, I posted a 20-part series regarding Ina’s trip to Yellowstone National Park in 1926. In this centennial year, I decided to expand on those posts. Some will be quite long, others rather short.

As always, my main character is my grandmother, Ina. She kept a travel journal, so the words are mostly hers. However, other voices chime in from time to time. Born in 1870, Ina was 55 in 1926 and already old-fashioned for the times. It comes out in her manner of speaking.

Our travelers had barely left home when Ina began to write a journal in the form of a letter to daughters Ethel and Myrtle at the farmhouse.

Dear Girls,

Shall write my first to you while Earle and the boys mend a flat tire. We stopped to gaze at some wonderful bluffs, and Earle discovered a flat and a nail hole. To begin, you must understand our keen delight in being off for Yellowstone. The breeze was coldly keen, and Vance soon pulled on a sweater and Bernice pulled up her collar.

Salmon River Hill -- photo by Vance

We noted that at least half the fall grain was in the shock or being shocked. We saw a threshing machine this side of Russell and several combines closer to Nezperce. The grain looks wonderful. Just at the Catholic Church, Earle stopped because the engine began to sputter but only for a minute. Then we proceeded on to Nezperce. We put in 35 minutes there. Bernice got a dandy pair of lined britches in brown mixture ($3.00). Dad got two new shirts and a pair of regular pants ($2.00), but he had to take blue in shirts. We couldn’t get lettuce so got bananas. I got this tablet and 10 cents worth of gum.

View from summit, White Bird Hill, N&S Hwy (postcard)

The engine “bogged” to Craigmont. Then Earle got it looked after, and we were there nearly an hour. We were all starving by that time and drove out for a ways and stopped where some big locust trees hung out over the road. We set the box on a bank and proceeded to fill up. Everybody enjoyed the creamed cheese and noted that the salad dressing was fine. We got two big heads of lettuce in Cottonwood but also ate the corned beef hash and thought it good. But oh – the flies were terrible! We were near a barnyard and some nice young dominicks came out to eat our crumbs.

Box Canyon, Salmon River, N&S Hwy (postcard)

We got to Grangeville in due time and left there at 2:00 p.m. We got paper towels and some postcard views. We soon crossed the mountain and dropped down into the Salmon River canyon – 3,000 feet in 12 miles. The highway is very scenic, a good deal like Lewiston and Uniontown, but the canyon itself is magnificent. The river is beautiful – green mostly. White Bird is 18 miles from Grangeville – a dilapidated little town. From there to New Meadows is 72 miles and the road is fine though not graveled.

Salmon River Hills, photo by Vance

We are all feeling fine. It was pretty hot for a while along this rim, but a cool wind is blowing now. I’m getting hungry. We thought we would make Cambridge, but Dad says we will more likely make Pollock. We see many cars loaded much as ours are. I have already thought of many ways to shift the load and contrive more convenience.

Had a blow-out after this and had to camp at Riggins. Had lots of fun. Made 127 miles. For supper we had fried potatoes, bacon, coffee, and the remains of our butter and strawberry jelly.