*** Source: Thompson, Robert A., Historical and descriptive sketch of Sonoma County, California. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co., 1877, 122 pgs. Notice: This data is donated to the Public Domain by TAG, 2004, and may be copied freely by anyone to anywhere. *** ---page 36--- burnt, and through its whole length issue whirring steam-jets and boiling wa- ter, some of which is black as ink. Standing in the middle of this discord of harsh sounds, and enveloped in a sulphurous vapor, it requires no great stretch of fancy to imagine one has passed from the accustomed order and beauty of nature to the threshold of chaos. The first known white man that visited these springs was Wm. B. Elliott, in April, 1847, though they were known to the Indians prior to that time. There is a steam spring known as the Indian Sweat-bath, where those of the tribe af- flicted with rheumatism were brought and laid upon a scaffold immediately over the spring, and steamed until cured, or death carried them to the hunting grounds of the Great Spirit, where the twisting pangs of rheumatism are un- known. The first house at the Geyers was built by M. Levy on a beautiful flat just west of the springs. Upon this flat the fearless hunter Elliott, the discoverer of the Geyers, and his son killed a grizzly bear who was inclined to dispute the right of the white man to explore the mysteries of the Devil's caņon. The house which Levy built upon this flat was known as the Old Homestead, and is remarkable for a wild grape-vine on its site, measuring twelve inches in diameter. In 1854 Major Ewing erected a cloth house where the present hotel stands. Levy, finding it a more eligible situtation than his own, consolidated his interest with Major Ewing's. After this a saw-mill was brought in, and a part of the hotel now in use was built. The late Colonel A. C. Godwin, then a merchant in Geyersville, became an owner in the property soon after it was settled. Colonel Godwin was a man of winning manners, and a personal magnatism that attracted all who knew him. Together with him, and another dear friend, deceased, the writer, on his first visit, in 1857, explored the wonders of Geyser caņon. After a lapse of years we revisited the same scene with a guide; the associations and surround- ings recalled to memory the first owner of the Geysers, and brought forcibly to mind the beautiful words of the poet: "Many a year is in its grave Since I crossed this restless wave; And the evening, fair as ever, Shines on ruin, rock, and river, Then on this same stream beside Stood two comrades, old and tried; Take O! stranger thrice thy fee, Take--I give it willingly, For invisible to thee, Spirits twain have walked with me." The first route to the springs was through Knight's valley to the foot of the mountain, in stages, then on horse-back by a narrow trail over the mountain. W. McDonald, still a resident of Knight's valley, acted as a guide. Levy kept the hotel during Mr. Godwin's ownership; he was succeeded by Major Ewing, and Major Ewing by H. Utting. After Mr. Utting the place changed hands nearly every year, and the hotel was kept successively by Coe & Baxter, Clark Foss, and F. H. Coe. In 1866 it was rented by Major Shafer, who kept it *** end ***