Steamboat Geyser, Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone, WY, circa 1937

About this postcard

A column of steam and spray rises from Steamboat Geyser beyond the bare, mineral-stained sinter terraces of Norris Geyser Basin, with a stand of dark conifers on the ridge behind. The printed caption gives the geyser's frequent small bursts as every five minutes to a height of 6 to 20 feet, and records two earlier names, Fissure Geyser and New Crater Geyser. Those minor bursts are Steamboat's ordinary behavior; its rare major eruptions throw water several hundred feet, the tallest of any active geyser. Norris is the hottest and most changeable of Yellowstone's thermal basins. By the 1930s auto tourists were reaching the geyser basins by road, and the Haynes family's Yellowstone photography business, which published this card, had been supplying park views since the 1880s.