Yellowstone tourists allegedly ruined famous Morning Glory Pool with “lucky coins”

Yellowstone National Park's famous geothermal pool called Morning Glory has reportedly changed color due to the amount of trash thrown into it by visitors.

According to park historians and former employees, the pool's once deep blue waters have been contaminated by coins, trash and rocks that tourists have thrown into it over the years.

“We found tons, probably thousands of coins,” former Yellowstone ranger Jeff Henry told the Wyoming news channel Cowboy State Daily Newspaper“The park's main road used to run right past Morning Glory, which would explain why some of the metal pieces that looked like car parts were thrown to the bottom of the pool.”

According to the publication, the deep parts of the pool are now green and the edges have turned yellow. Since artifacts continued to be thrown into the pool, this color change is also due to the water temperature.

“Hotter pools tend to be bright blue, and cooler pools can be more colorful because bacteria can grow there,” said Mike Poland, lead scientist at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. “Morning Glory dropped in temperature because people were throwing things into it, partially clogging the pipe. The temperature dropped, which allowed different types of bacteria to grow.”

The tradition of throwing things into the pool dates back to 1872, when the park opened, according to Yellowstone National Park historian Alica Murphy. She claims that tourists have always been known to throw objects into the pool in the hope of either getting lucky or triggering a geothermal event.

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“People didn’t understand the pipes and didn’t know how geysers worked,” she said Cowboy State Daily Newspaper. “There were a lot of ideas like, 'If we throw something in this pond, maybe we can make it erupt.'

“I think there was some trial and error and a misunderstanding of the damage they were doing.”

Murphy added: “Wishing wells are a time-honored tradition. Throw a coin into a wishing well and make a wish. There's something about a pool of water that gives people a strange instinct to throw things into it.”

Henry noted, however, that he hasn't seen “nearly as many coins in pools” in recent years as he did at the beginning of his decades-long career.

“In the past, the bottom of the more easily accessible springs was paved with coins, but today it is rare to see anything being thrown into the pools,” he said.

He said he has noticed that many of the pools in Yellowstone Park have seen fewer and fewer coins being thrown in. “I think people are much more respectful now than they were when I first started. That's one way values ​​and behavior have changed over the years,” he added.

According to the National Park Service, Morning Glory Pool was “named in the 1880s for its remarkable resemblance to the flower of the same name.” Because it was a victim of vandalism, much of the debris thrown into it “got stuck in the walls and opening of the spring, reducing water circulation and thus water temperature.”

However, “natural changes may be cooling the water,” with cool temperatures “allowing orange and yellow colored bacteria to thrive.” The average temperature of the pool is 71 degrees Celsius.