In the 1850s a hunter discovered the steam vents and bubbling hot springs located in the Mayacamas Mountain range, which straddles the boundaries of three counties: Sonoma, Napa and Lake. It is said he thought he had found the “Gates to Hades” and christened the area “The Geysers.”

Though the name has persisted through the years, the natural phenomena occurring in the area are actually fumaroles, not geysers.

A hot spring that boils off all its water before the water reaches the surface is called a fumarole, or steam vent. Alternately, a geyser is a natural hot spring that intermittently ejects a column of water and steam into the air, such as Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.

Imagine, if the error had not been made all those years ago, today we might have the Fumarole Recharge Project, a town named Fumaroleville and a winery called Fumarole Peak.