Portlander Killed After Falling in Hot Spring at Yellowstone

A Portland native slipped into one of Yellowstone National Park's hottest, most volatile hot springs on Tuesday.

By Russell Hausfeld

Scenic Yellowstone National Park—full of hundred-foot, exploding geysers, boiling pools of water and toxic gases—has claimed a Portlander's life.

A 23-year-old from Portland, Colin Nathaniel Scott, slipped into a hot spring Tuesday, June 7, after veering off the designated boardwalk in the Norris Geyser Basin. Today they gave up attempts to recover Scott's body.

A park spokeswoman, Charissa Reid, told the Associated Press that the attempts to recover the body were futile due to the high temperature and acidic nature of the spring—one of the hottest and most volatile spots in the park.

Including Scott's, there have been 22 hot springs-related deaths reported at Yellowstone since 1890.

Kenneth Sims, a University of Wyoming professor and member of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, told AP that most of the deaths are due to "scofflaws" dipping off the beaten path when nobody is looking.

"It's sort of dumb, if I could be so blunt, to walk off the boardwalks not knowing what you're doing," Sims said.

Scott's death is the first at Yellowstone in 16 years.

Willamette Week

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.