Mary Ann Moss

Mary Ann Moss, 91, passed away July 14, 2024 at her home in New Albany.

She was born August 27, 1932, in New Albany, Indiana to the late Jewett William Borden Sr. and Edith Miller Borden Ward. In 1950 she married James R. Moss and became a homemaker for many years.

She enjoyed cross stitch, reading, hiking, rock collecting, "The View" and "General Hospital". She was a fan of the paintings of the western artist Charles Russell. But her biggest passion was the geysers of Yellowstone National Park.

Each year the family took a vacation to the western United States. In 1963 the family vacation was to Yellowstone to see the bears. While there she fell in love with the geysers.

In 1980 she started traveling to Yellowstone. Every August 17th she would travel solo in her van which had a bed, table and microwave. After driving 1700 miles she would be with her geysers. She would stay there until sometime in late October or early November doing volunteer research as a thermal volunteer for the park geologist. These volunteers were known as geyser gazers.

As a geyser gazer she had many adventures. She hiked into the back country to study remote geyser basins. She saw many eruptions at Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest eruptions reaching 300 - 400 feet.

In 1985 she witnessed a rare eruption of Excelsior Geyser, the first eruption since 1890. The GOSA Transactions published her recount of the eruption. In 1987, even though she had never seen a Giant Geyser eruption, she started studying it and wrote many reports and articles. That same year she witnessed the eruption of Giant's three Purple Pools. At that time they hadn't erupted since 1971.

She rode out onto the 160-degree water of Grand Prismatic Spring in a special hot water boat that had a port hole in the bottom that was used to drop instruments into the depths. She helped map many thermal areas using GPS.

In the fall of 1988 she found herself witnessing the historic fires of Yellowstone. She had managed to obtain a firefighters jacket, an item. necessary to stay in the geyser basin. A reporter tried to get her to let him have the jacket but she refused because she was responsible for returning it. Others were required to evacuate but 7th September 1988 she and two others were working in the Old Faithful Basin. Her job was to be lookout for the fire while the others finished their work. Soon the fire was cresting the ridge and coming toward the historic Old Faithful Inn. A call came over the radio to join the others in a certain parking lot. The fire was causing 80 mile per hour winds and embers fell that were the size of a man’s fist. She told this story often, and always commented the ash and cinders in the air caused her hair to feel like a Brillo pad.

In 1993 She helped put a mini-cam down the vent of Old Faithful between eruptions. Wearing full fire fighters gear, she and the park geologist stood by the steaming geyser vent. Her job was to call out the depth of the camera. The camera got stuck and an eruption was coming. Everyone was worried the camera would shoot out of the geyser like a missile when Old Faithful erupted. Luckily the camera came loose in the nick of time. The film was made into an IMAX Film.

Grand Geyser was her favorite until she saw a rare simultaneous eruption of Splendid and Daisy geysers in 1986. She thought Splendid eruptions were beautiful. She made many lifelong friends among the geyser gazers and always enjoyed sharing the adventures they all had. When interviewed by The Los Angeles Times in 1989 she was quoted "Geysers are just so wonderful. We want everyone to share them.”

She was preceded in death by her parents; daughter, Julie Moss Conrad; brother, Jewett W. Borden Jr.; and great-grandson, Israel Phoenix Chavez.

Survivors include her daughter, Deborah Spurlock; grandson, Seth Spurlock; granddaughters, Sarah Conrad, Hollie Burres (Michael), and Hannah Henderson (Will Hollopeter); great-grandchildren, Jaelyn, Braydon, Isabella, Thomas, Joshua, Axel, and Kora; nephew, Jewett W. Borden III; and her cats, Tippi and Peta.

No services are planned at this time. Newcomer Cremations, Funerals & Receptions (3309 Ballard Lane, New Albany, IN) was entrusted with her care. In lieu of flowers donations may be directed to The Geyser Observation and Study Organization (gosa.org/ donate) or the Junior Ranger Program of Yellowstone Forever (//Yellowstone.org/junior- ranger-program/).

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