WYOMING – Every year, we’re bombarded with stories of curious human behavior in Yellowstone National Park. Bison selfies, baby bison ‘rescues,’ hiking alone in grizzly country, walking on thermal features. The list could go on. Turns out people have been making questionable decisions in the area long before it even became the first national park.
Atlas Obscura this week published a remarkable look back at “The Embarassing History of Crap Thrown Into Yellowstone’s Geysers.”
Apparently in 1877 someone attempted to boil their clothes clean in Old Faithful, soap was kept hotels for putting into the geysers for entertainment, and all sorts of other miscellaneous trash as been introduced. All the dumping and experimenting has permanently changed the plumbing of some thermal features.
And despite tossing stuff into the pools and geysers officially being a criminal act now, people still throw coins, food and trash into the fragile environment.
Read the full, fascinatingly sad story here.
