Upon their journey for the gold mines along the Salmon River, the Washburn Expedition discovered Dragon’s Mouth in 1870. Dragon’s Mouth underwent several name changes since its discovery and christening as “Cave Spring” by Warren Gillette, a member of the expedition. Also called “The Grotto,” “Gothic Grotto,” and “Devil’s Grotto,” the name “Dragon’s Mouth” stuck when a tourist tacked a sign to a nearby tree.

Nathaniel Pitt Langford, categorized the Mud Volcano area as “the greatest marvel we have yet met with.” The expedition heard the volcanic activity from half a mile away before viewing it as they heard the sound of “distant artillery shells.”

Upon approaching the disturbance, they discovered a massive caldera bellowing clouds of steam and hurling “hogshead” sized globs of hot mud 30 feet in the air. The eruptions continued sporadically, continually belching steam into the air and flinging mud as high as 300 feet and as far as 200 feet from the epicenter. The expedition determined that the Mud Volcano had just reached the surface of the Earth by the time of their arrival and they were witnessing the violent birth of a natural marvel.

The area’s seismic activity has diminished greatly since its discovery, no longer throwing mud hundreds of feet into the air. Though it is not a true mud volcano, which spews hot mud from deep within the Earth’s crust, the area is home to many mudpots, which churn basins of mud with steam and various sulfides giving it its distinct colors.

Researched, written, and narrated by University of West Florida Public History Student James Steele