November 2001 Reno Gazette Journal article

From Black Rock Desert Nevada wiki

Wonder caused by humans, enhanced by nature

By Jeff DeLong November 19, 2001, A1 RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

Technically, it's a leaking well.

But ask anyone who's seen it: Fly Geyser, gleaming with otherworldly colors and spouting scalding water into the skies of the Nevada desert around-the-clock, is much more.

"It's nature's sculpture," said Marian Goodell, spokeswoman for the Burning Man festival, which attracts thousands of artists and counterculture adventurers to the nearby desert playa every year. In 1997, Burning Man was held on private ranchland at a site a little more than a mile from Fly Geyser on the former Fly Ranch. Festival organizers provided a bus to shuttle folks to the geyser, where about 800 of them soaked in hot pools and generally enjoyed what Goodell describes as "a very special place to be."

From those desert revelers to sightseers, photographers and geothermal prospectors, Fly Geyser serves as a stunning feature and a curious attraction in the desert scrubland north of Gerlach. While the geyser is now fenced off for liability reasons, its current owner, developer Todd Jaksick, said it is a feature that should remain available for the public to enjoy. "It's so unique. People call it the jewel of the desert," Jaksick said. "It's something the public should be able to visit." Discussions with the Bureau of Land Management to trade the land have fallen through, but the Nature Conservancy has been considering whether to purchase Fly Geyser.

A geothermal gem

Dennis Trexler first visited the place by air in 1978, flying overhead during a research project for the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. Trexler was studying new ways to map potential sources of geothermal energy production, a project largely fueled by the Arab oil embargo and the resulting energy crisis. Fly Geyser was birthed in 1964 when a geothermal company drilled a test well at the site while exploring for potential places to tap steam-generated power. Groundwater in the area was hot - more than 200 degrees - but not hot enough to pursue further development at the time, Trexler said. The well they left behind was never plugged or plugged improperly, allowing superheated groundwater to continually spout from the ground in a showering display of nature's power. Over the years, calcium carbonate deposits caused the gradual growth of so-called "tufa mounds" - piles of porous rock - at the rate of several inches per year.

Most tufa mounds are barren rock, gray in color. Not Fly Geyser. The formation's characteristic bright-red and green colors are caused by the growth of thermophilic algae, a species of algae that flourishes in high temperatures. Trexler's aerial study in the late 1970s focused on the ability to identify potential geothermal resource sites by spotting highly visible patches of the algae from the sky.

"This is unique in that it's maintained its color," Trexler said. "It's like coral. If this thing stopped erupting and the temperature wasn't there, it would be dead. There would be no color." Since 1979, Trexler has visited Fly Geyser about 20 times, now preferring to check it out on foot instead of by airplane. The tufa formations now loom higher than a standing man, with constantly spouting geysers shooting 3 or 4 feet higher than that. To Trexler it's a special place. "It's really created a nice-looking feature, that's for sure," Trexler said. "I would really like to see it become a park if at all possible."

Private property or a future public resource?

It's an idea that's been bandied about before. The Nature Conservancy of Nevada tried to put together a deal that would put Fly Geyser in public hands, but no arrangement could be reached. Part of the problem could be money. John Casey, who owned the geyser and Fly Ranch prior to his death several years ago, once offered to sell the landmark for $1.2 million, according to Marian Goodell. "The last time we knew of anyone inquiring about the property we were told it was $5 million," Goodell said.

The Nature Conservancy has now made the purchase of sensitive land along the Truckee and Carson rivers a top priority and is no longer considering any deals affecting Fly Geyser, said Ame Hellman, the organization's Nevada administrator. "I would say it's not on our radar screen right now," Hellman said.

More recently, the federal Bureau of Land Management explored the possibility of acquiring Fly Geyser through a land exchange, said Les Boni, assistant field manager for the BLM's Winnemucca office. "It is a great piece of land, it really is," Boni said. But after studying the idea, BLM officials have decided against a land swap to acquire Fly Geyser for a couple of different reasons, Boni said. For one, the land is surrounded on several sides by private property, a fact that doesn't fit with the bureau's general criteria for land acquisition. Also, the place is only a few miles west of the Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, some 1.2 million acres of public land given special protective status by Congress last year after lengthy controversy. "There's a lot of public land out there and we just didn't feel it would be in our best interest (to take over Fly Geyser)," Boni said. "It just would be very difficult to manage."

Jaksick is a son of Sam Jaksick, who developed Lakeridge, Montreux and other upscale areas of Reno. The family bought Fly Ranch from the Casey Estate in June 1998, and said there are no immediate plans for the future of Fly Geyser. "Our thoughts for now are to keep it," Jaksick said. "We're not sure what our plans are for it." The Jaksicks and the BLM receive regular inquiries from people interested in visiting Fly Geyser, some from overseas. And while the Jaksicks have fenced and signed the geyser area, they do allow occasional visitors to drop by so long as they ask first. "It is unbelievable," Jaksick said. "I'd say we get five to 10 calls a week from people that want to visit it."

Ultimately, Jaksick said he hopes some arrangement can be reached that will allow people easy access to a feature that stopped him in his tracks the first time he saw it. The last thing he'd want to see, Jaksick said, is for the property to be developed in such as way as to mar its special scenery. "It's just such a rare feature it's something the public should be able to visit," he said. "It is unbelievable. It's so unique. People call it the jewel of the desert."

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