Soda Springs Geyser

On November 30, 1937, drillers boring for hot water for a swimming pool quit for dinner at 315 feet and came back to a column of water roaring about a hundred feet into the air. It was not hot. It was cold water driven up by carbon dioxide, the same gas that fizzes out of springs all over this valley, and for most of the night the town sat in its mist while water ran down Main Street toward the business basements. There was never going to be a pool. The town capped the well instead, fitted a timer, and has let it off every hour on the hour ever since.

The gas drew people long before. The springs were one of the curiosities of the overland trails: trappers called them Beer Springs, emigrants on the way to Fort Hall drank the water and found it raised bread without yeast, and in 1838 the missionary Sarah White Smith compared it to prepared soda water. Most of those springs are gone, drowned by Alexander Reservoir or built over by the town. A few survive, among them Steamboat Spring and Hooper Spring, north of town, where a small park still lets you fill a cup with water the emigrants drank. It tastes strongly of iron.

Geyser Park is in the middle of town on West First South, with a boardwalk over the mineral crust the water has laid down around the vent. Arrive a few minutes before the hour. Watching is free.