French fur trappers, hearing a puffing noise, thought they stumbled upon a major waterway. ‘Steamboat, by gar,’ they cried. The source of the puffing was not a major waterway but a natural geyser that shot water 15 feet in the air. The geyser was destroyed in 1908 when the railroad blasted rock to make way for passenger trains. The city still bears the name ‘Steamboat Springs.’