John Warren Richardson's camping trip through the Colorado Rockies in 1898. Read the full document here (Routt Co. section begins on page 12)
Here is a snippet to whet your whistle! "Morning dawned clear and cold, water freezing in our tent. We found ourselves six miles from Steamboat Springs, the road leading through the beautiful Bear River Valley with its wide smooth fields of oats, wheat, and hay, bordered on each side by mountains bare of timber. Steamboat Springs is a lively little place, the center of trade for a wide section of country, with a bank and two or three good stores. After laying in a stock of provisions and articles which we needed before departing from civilization, we visited the springs which have given the place its name. The largest one that we saw, came bubbling up through a ledge of rocks in the bank of the river. One of them, puffing and gurgling at intervals of two or three seconds, making a noise like a small steamboat, probably accounts for the name of Steamboat Springs. The water in most of the springs is strongly impregnated with Sulphur, quite disagreeable to drink, and the odor of the gas continually arising from them is noticeable for a considerable distance. The water in those we tasted was about milk warm. In strong contrast is a fine cold soda spring, only a few rods away, which is quite pleasant to the taste. There are one hundred forty of these mineral springs in the immediate vicinity."