CHEYENNE, Wyo.-
Anyone looking recently at the Internet webcam showing Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park might think the geyser had lost its world-renowned reliability.
But Old Faithful's faithful worldwide can rest assured that the geyser is working–spouting off as usual about every 60-90 minutes.
It's the webcam that's not working.
The webcam shut down in May because the Old Faithful visitors center, where the camera was stationed, is being torn down and replaced.
Since then, the park has received phone calls from as far away as Germany from people who noticed an image dated Aug. 6, 2005, on the webcam, wondering when the site would be operational again.
"We get inquiries from all around the world about the Old Faithful webcam," said Al Nash, a National Park Service spokesman in Yellowstone.
The Park Service is working to restore the webcam, Nash said.
Visitors to the "New Old Faithful WebCam" page on the Internet–the site averaged 209,300 a month over the first four months of this year–will find an old image with a statement explaining that the webcam is temporarily out of service, adding an apology "for any inconvenience and disappointment."
Before the webcam went down, moving trucks occasionally blocked its view as the building was prepared for demolition, and "we got people asking us by e-mail to move the truck," Nash said. "So we recognize that it's popular. And we certainly intend to restore that service."
Plans call for installation of a new camera on the nearby Old Faithful Lodge.
"It's going to be another great, unobstructed view of Old Faithful," Nash said.
The visitors center is being replaced because it can't handle the 2.6 million people who stop at Old Faithful every year to watch it eject 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of boiling water up to 184 feet high. The new $26 million visitor center is expected to open in the fall of 2008.
The Old Faithful webcam is at . The 2005 picture was chosen as a temporary substitute for the real thing because it's considered to be a good image.
