Colter's Hell is an area of

fumarole A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or another rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...

s and hot springs on the Shoshone River near Cody in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

. The thermal area covers about at the mouth of the Shoshone's canyon. Its thermal activity has declined since its description by

mountain man A mountain man is an Geographical exploration, explorer who lives in the wilderness and makes his living from hunting, fishing and trapping. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s ...

John Colter John Colter (c.1770–1775 – May 7, 1812 or November 22, 1813) was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806). Though party to one of the more famous expeditions in history, Colter is best remembered for explorations he made ...

, who parted from the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

prior to its conclusion, and passed through the region in the winter of 1807–1808. Colter's account of the features on what was then called the Stinkingwater River has subsequently been confused with the much more extensive and powerful geysers in

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...

, which Colter may not have actually visited. Other early descriptions of Colter's Hell date back to the trapper

Joseph Meek Joseph Lafayette Meek (February 9, 1810 – June 20, 1875) was an American pioneer, mountain man, law enforcement official, and politician in the Oregon Country and later Oregon Territory of the United States. A trapper involved in the fur tr ...

in the year of 1830, as well as to

Plenty Coups Plenty Coups (Crow language, Crow: ''Alaxchíia Ahú'', "many achievements"; c. 1848 – 1932) was the principal chief of the Crow Tribe and a visionary leader. He allied the Crow with the whites when the war for the West was being fought becaus ...

(Alaxchíia Ahú), a principal chief of the Crow people, who camped with his tribe at the thermal area in 1840. Meek had seen geyser basin in Yellowstone and described Colter's Hell in similar terms, implying that there were active geysers at his visit. Today, the area consists of hot springs and steam vents. Several extinct geyser or hot spring cones stand up to high on the riverbank. Other hot springs were located near the confluence of the north and south forks of the Shoshone, now drowned under the reservoir created by Buffalo Bill Dam. The notion that Colter's Hell referred to one of the geyser basins of Yellowstone first appeared in Hiram M. Chittenden's 1895 book ''Yellowstone National Park.'' However, Chittenden went on to describe a "tar spring" on the Stinkingwater as well under the same name. Chittenden's speculation contradicts the earliest published description of the site, in

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He wrote the short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy ...

's account of Captain Benjamin L.E. Bonneville's journals, of Bonneville's scouts' visit to the location in 1833, the same year that another of Bonneville's survey parties discovered the geyser basins of Yellowstone along the

Firehole River The Firehole River is located in northwestern Wyoming, and is one of the two major tributaries of the Madison River. It flows north approximately from its source in Madison Lake on the Continental Divide to join the Gibbon River at Madison Ju ...

. Colter's Hell is just to the north of

US 14 U.S. Route 14 or U.S. Highway 14 (US 14), an east–west route, is one of the original United States Numbered Highways of 1926. It is about long. It is roughly parallel to Interstate 90 (I-90). The highway's eastern termi ...

- 16- 20 on the west side of Cody. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1973.

References

External links

National Park Service on the naming and location of Colter's HellWyoming State Historic Preservation Office article
{{NRHP in Park County, Wyoming Landmarks in Wyoming Geothermal features of Park County, Wyoming Rocky Mountains Hot springs of Wyoming Natural features on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming Landforms of Park County, Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Park County, Wyoming Fumaroles