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Fishing Cone

Cone-Shaped Hot Spring on the Lakeshore

Hot Spring in Lower Group, West Thumb Geyser Basin on Yellowstone Lake on West Thumb Geyser Basin Trail in Yellowstone NP, Rocky Mountains near Grant Village, WY

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Fishing Cone is a hot spring on the edge of West Thumb Geyser Basin that is partially submerged in Yellowstone Lake.

Geographic Name Origin

It got its name in the late 1800s from reports of fisherman boiling their fish in the spring.

Two members of the 1870 Washburn Langford Doane Expedition, Hedges an avid fisherman and Trumbull writing about Hedges’ fishing and culinary feat, each penned a few lines romanticizing catching a fish from the lake and then cooking it in a nearby hot spring.

Friday [September] 16 [1870]. Were up very early packed up and built fire in tent to dry it out. W.[Washburn], H.[Hauser], S.[Smith], L.[Langford], F.[Trumbull] and self [Hedges] went on ahead to visit hot springs, rode mostly along the beach - the snow was bad for the horses, distance about five miles- this region of springs is most wonderful- several large bottomless springs of clear greenish hot water. Some send out large streams. Two deep springs at water’s edge, caught a trout that dropped in the spring and before I could get him out he was cooked through - thermometer shows temperature of springs 182 degrees; height of lake by boiling point over eight thousand.

— Journal of Judge Cornelius Hedges, p. 388

A gentleman [Hedges] was fishing from one of the narrow isthmuses or shelves of rock, which divided one of these hot springs from the [Yellowstone] lake, when, in swinging a trout ashore, it accidentally got off the hook and fell into the spring. For a moment it darted about with wonderful rapidity, as if seeking an outlet. Then it came to the top, dead, and literally boiled

— Walter Trumbull “The Washburn Yellowstone Expedition” in Overland Monthly, June 1871, p. 492

Photographs

Fishing Cone in West Thumb Geyser Basin shown in winter, two photographs above.

Kayaking

This hot spring – along with others in the West Thumb area – can be seen up close via kayaking. Kayaks can be put in the lake from the parking area to the southwest of Bluff Point. From there, the kayaker can follow the travertine-lined lakeshore south to Fishing Cone.A kayak permit is required, and can be acquired at the South Entrance, Bridge Bay Ranger Station, or the Grant Village Backcountry Office.

Historical Postcards by Frank J. Haynes

Postcard shown above of “Fish Pot Hot Springs” (Fishing Cone).

Postcard shown above of “Fishing Cone and Yellowstone Lake”

Postcard shown above of “Hot Spring Cone - Yellowstone Park”

Sources

Hedges, Cornelius. “Journal of Judge Cornelius Hedges.” In Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana, 1904 Edition. Vol. 5. Helena, MT: Independent Publishing Company, 1876. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Contributions_to_the_Historical_Society/yt4UAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1.

Reichard, Sean. “Old Yellowstone: History of Larry’s Lunch Station.” Yellowstone Insider, July 18, 2016. https://yellowstoneinsider.com/2016/07/18/old-yellowstone-history-larrys-lunch-station/.

Trumbull, Walter. “The Washburn Yellowstone Expedition.” The Overland Monthly, 1871. California State Library. http://archive.org/details/overlandmonthly06hart.

Whittlesey, L.H. Yellowstone Place Names. Second. Wonderland Publishing Company, 2006.

On the Web

On Wikipedia

Fishing Cone is a geyser in the West Thumb Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. In the earlier part of the 20th century, this cone had eruptions as high as 40 feet (12 m). As the water level in Yellowstone Lake has increased, the cone is now inundated during the spring and the temperatures in the cone have cooled enough that it no longer erupts and is now considered a hot spring.

Classified As

Hot Spring

Waterbody

Yellowstone Lake

Lake