The Gumper, Lactose Spring And Puff 'N Stuff Geyser — Yellowstone’s More Obscure Places

There are hundreds of notable features in Yellowstone National Park, and nearly all of them have been named in recognition of their grandeur, appearance, behavior, or some prominent and mythical figures of history.

Many Yellowstone names are legendary, like Old Faithful and Steamboat Geysers. Others range from obscure, humorous, bizarre, and – at least in one case – a misspelling that stuck.

Lee Whittlesey, a former Yellowstone ranger turned historian and author, extensively researched every notable name in the park in his now out-of-print 1988 book “Yellowstone Place Names.” These are some of the unique and entertaining histories behind the names of Yellowstone.

Zipper Creek

A small stream that flows behind the Old Faithful Inn to the Firehole River has been known as Myriad Creek since 1956. However, it had many colloquial names since the 1880s, including Little Creek, Crystal Creek and Laundry Creek.

Zipper Creek, another colloquial name, referred to how the creek flowed near the area where park employees and concessionaires did laundry from the 1920s to the 1930s. Jeff Henry, a lifelong Yellowstone employee and enthusiast, heard a different origin for the name.

“Zipper Creek runs past the site of an old pub for park employees,” he said. “I don't know this for a fact, but the name came from people stepping outside the pub to pee. The zippers came down at Zipper Creek.”

David Condon, Yellowstone’s chief naturalist in 1956, ended the confusion by definitively naming the small stream Myriad Creek (since none of the other names ever made it onto the map). But old habits die hard, according to Henry.

“In employee circles at Old Faithful, nobody refers to Myriad Creek,” he said. “It’s almost always Zipper Creek.”

Mantrap Cone

Located in the Lower Group of the West Thumb Geyser Basin, Mantrap Cone was first known as Pier Spring because of a boat dock that once stood in the nearby Yellowstone Lake in 1886.

Naturalist John F. McMillian rechristened the thermal feature Mantrap Cove in 1946. The reason? Fishermen kept getting burned after stepping into it.

Once burned, twice shy? Guess not.

Riddle Lake And Solution Creek

Riddle me this ...

Riddle Lake is 3 miles south of the West Thumb Geyser Basin. It was first surveyed during the legendary Hayden Survey of 1871, which led to the establishment of Yellowstone as the nation’s and the world’s first national park the following year.

Frank Bradley, one of the surveyors on the expedition, described “Lake Riddle” as “a fugitive name, located at several places but nowhere permanently.”

This was a reference to the legend of “Lake Biddle.” An 1806 map of the Lewis and Clark expedition (created by historian Nicholas Biddle) described “a mythical lake in the mountains” that flowed into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

After half a century of confusion, Bradley decided to solve Biddle’s “unsolvable riddle” by mapping Riddle Lake near Yellowstone Lake. Problem solved, right?

Not quite. Riddle Lake still exists where Bradley marked it, but it doesn’t flow into both oceans because it is not along the Continental Divide. Instead, a stream connecting it to Yellowstone Lake, subsequently named Solution Creek, flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

The “Lake Biddle” riddle was solved several miles south in Bridger-Teton National Forest. Two Ocean Creek is the only body of water that flows into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

So, Bradley didn’t solve the Biddle riddle but did find Riddle Lake and Solution Creek, even if that creek didn’t lead to the solution anyone was looking for.

Pequito Geyser

Pequito Geyser is a small geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin near the now-dormant Pinwheel Geyser. The “Little One” was named by naturalist Rom Pittenger, who witnessed a 10-foot eruption of the feature in 1976.

One minor problem: the Spanish word for “little one” is paquito. The geyser got its name from a misspelling in Pittenger’s field journal and has remained uncorrected for nearly 50 years.

The Gumper

Located near Sour Lake and Moose Pool, The Gumper is a 70-foot mud pot that gumps.

The Gumper got its name from a naming contest after the mudpot suddenly gumped into existence in 1974. Park naturalists attribute the name to the “gumping” action of mud thumping and churning within it, making it a rare onomatopoeic name in Yellowstone.

The Gumper continues to gump to this day. It’s near Mud Volcano, but there’s no established trail leading to it, so it’s probably best to avoid seeing The Gumper.

Proposition Creek

The story goes that U.S. Army soldiers were stationed at the base of Pitchstone Plateau, south of the Old Faithful Geyser Basin, in 1896. George Anderson, Yellowstone’s acting superintendent from 1891 to 1897, had the same proposition whenever he arrived at the camp.

“You furnish the water,” Anderson said to the soldiers, “and I’ll furnish the whiskey.”

Eager to be furnished with whiskey, the soldiers obliged Anderson’s proposition by collecting water from the nearby creek. When they proposed naming the creek after the proposition, it stuck.

Anderson and many others drank to that.

Lactose Spring

Surprisingly, naming Yellowstone features after food isn’t prevalent. Some exceptions include the Tomato Soup Pool near the Midway Geyser Basin, the Chocolate Pots along the Firehole River, and Lactose Spring in the Upper Geyser Basin.

Naturalists encountered Lactose Spring in 1959. The 1878 Hayden Survey called the hot spring “Spring #10,” while park visitors called it White Geyser.

The naturalists must have decided that Spring #10 was boring, and they knew the name White Geyser was already taken by another hot spring in Yellowstone. So, they milked their creativity until the spring’s milky-white water inspired them, thus Lactose Spring.

Ironically, lactose is one of the carbohydrates fermented by Caldicellulosiruptor obsidiansis, a thermophilic bacterium found in Yellowstone’s Obsidian Pool. Scientists studying this bacterium believe it has the potential to convert switchgrass into ethanol when genetically modified.

That’s got nothing to do with Lactose Spring, which everyone, not just the lactose-intolerant, should avoid. It isn’t inherently more dangerous than any other Yellowstone hot spring, but the fact that it is a Yellowstone hot spring makes it dangerous enough.

Paycheck Pass

The gap between the Heart Lake and the Grand Loop Road southwest of Yellowstone Lake got its name from Yellowstone rangers. According to Whittlesey, that’s the route rangers stationed at Heart Lake would take to return to “civilization,” reach the main road, and receive their paychecks.

There was much rejoicing along the trek through Paycheck Pass, although it’s more a piece of ranger lore than a recognized name for the geographical gap.

Puff ’n Stuff Geyser

Geologist Rick Hutchinson is one of the most revered scientists to have ever studied Yellowstone. Among his numerous achievements and discoveries was “the Little Dipper,” a boat he designed to withstand the heat of Grand Prismatic Spring so he could float onto the water to collect samples and conduct research.

When Hutchinson located a previously unknown geyser making a lot of noise in Norris Geyer Basin’s Back Basin, he recorded it as “H and S Puff and Stuff.” The “H” stood for heat and the “S” for steam, both emanating from the feature when he spotted it.

Yellowstone shortened the name to Puff ’n Stuff Geyser, perhaps to distance themselves from Sid and Marty Krofft’s television series “H.R. Pufnstuf.” It undoubtedly humored Hutchinson enough to cheekily name a geyser after it.

The cancelled life-sized puppet program is more consistently entertaining than the active thermal feature. Puff n’ Stuff has a lot more bark than bite. It constantly vents steam noisily but erupts infrequently, sending water less than 10 feet into the air.

Puff ’n Stuff Geyser is easily accessible along the Norris Geyser Basin Trail, south of Steamboat Geyser. “H.R. Pufnstuf” is accessible on several streaming services.

Cedric Shoals

One name that doesn’t appear in Whittlesey’s book is Cedric Shoals. That’s because it’s another name of local lore, bestowed upon the east side of Yellowstone Lake by Jeff Henry.

“My first job in Yellowstone was being a fishing guide on Yellowstone Lake in the 1970s,” he said. “I came up with Cedric Shoals for a shoaly area with good fishing, but it’s so shallow that you’re in danger of running around with a boat.”

Henry said he named it for his friend and fellow fishing guide Cedric, who frequented the area whenever he needed a peaceful place to get over a hangover.

“There was a buoy at that spot to warn boaters of the shallow water,” he said. “Ceric would pick up the buoy and put it in his boat, essentially using it as an anchor. Then, he would go sleep off his hangover and leave his dudes to fish on their own.”

What started as an in-joke for Henry and his friends became another long-enduring name along the eastern shore of Yellowstone Lake. Henry knows several fishing guides who still refer to that area as Cedric Shoals.

“That name is still in popular use, although most of today's park visitors and fishing guides probably don't know the name originated with me,” he said.

Maybe Cedric Shoals will make it into the next edition of Whittlesey’s “Yellowstone Place Names.” Henry’s got a connection on the inside.

“Lee is one of my best friends,” he said. “He knows more about this stuff than anyone.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.