Talk:The Geysers

Remembering the Geysers Resort

I am just old enough to remember the Geysers Resort. Obviously not it's heyday, but it's later days, during the Hippie era. The resort at that time, consisted of a small hotel with a restaurant ( I remember they had the best coffee I had ever tasted. Must have had something to do with the water ) and an old ramshackle bath house.

When you drove the then gravel road, it was hairy trip. Many times the road was washed out. At the end of Geysers Road was the entrance to the "Resort", you had to pay an entrance fee at the hotel. From there you walked down to the bath house, which had three pools, a dry sauna, and a steam room that consisted of a sort of cave, with a pipe gushing hot steam from one of the geysers. You could not control the heat, and sometimes it became unbearable. The three pools were of three different temperatures. The largest was bath water warm, the next smaller one, was boiling hot. Last but not least, there was a cold plunge. There was a rickety wooden bridge that crossed Big Sulphur Creek. On the other side were several natural pools that were fed by a hot waterfall from above. There was a trail that went up the side of the hill, to one of the wellfields. People camped down along Big Sulphur Creek, and up the creek was a great swimming hole. I had some great times there. The last time I attempted to visit in the mid seventies, the resort had been turned into a religious commune. The bathouse had been drained and turned into a barn for animals. That was the last I saw of the Geysers until I looked it up on Wikipedia. I wish I had some pictures of it then. It was a great place. Unfortunately it was eventually closed, due to unsanitary conditions at the baths that polluted the creek. --Bunkster (talk) 04:24, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

This is interesting information. In order to add it to the article, we would need to cite reliable sources for the information. For instance, the existence of the Geysers Resort Hotel (starting in 1852!) is confirmed by this page. Do you have access to any books or articles that discuss the history of the Hotel? Can you narrow down the date of closure? --Stepheng3 (talk) 22:24, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Added The Geysers from the late 60’s to mid-70, the hippie era. I worked for Loffland Brothers, a drilling company out of Oklahoma. We were drilling geothermal wells and had a small office or time shack at The Geysers. I would like to find people who were there. It was one of the best times of my life. I have offend wondered if any deformed babies were born to anybody who had spent any time at all, even a day at The Geysers. The Geysers was located right on top of a cinnabar (mercury) deposit and the mines and processing was done at the Geysers. As far as the drilling of geothermal, it was pure energy. Much hotter that steam. We used air to drill with, because it was too hot for water. It took about two years for a steam well to normalize. As the ground cooled, it cracked and allowed more heat to rise. Once the well was transforming as much heat from the bottom rock that could leave the well, then the temperature normalize itself. My first time at the café I could overhear the people at the end of the counter talking. “I saw John eating out of the trash cans in back of the café”. Another person replies, “Yea, I see Mary and Tom eating there all the time.” Another person also replies, “Yea, Jack been eating back there for the last several months.” I was quite shocked until I heard more and realized that these were the names of the dogs. This was at the peak of the hippie generation and at one of the largest and most popular hippie spots in the world. Hippies use nick names, but most of their dogs had people names. Mike Yohe yohemichael@gmail.com — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.209.37.211 (talk) 20:38, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

List of power stations

Hello. Perhaps we should consider adding a table listing all the power stations on this field with their respective capacities, coordinates, etc? Kind regards. Rehman⁽⁺⁾ 16:09, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

The Geysers, History

History Drilling a geothermal well, 1977 (USGS).

The first recorded discovery of The Geysers was in 1847 during John Fremont's survey of the Sierra Mountains and the Great Basin by William Bell Elliot. Elliot called the area "The Geysers," although the geothermal features he discovered were not technically geysers, but fumaroles. Soon after, in 1852, The Geysers was developed into a spa for The Geysers Resort Hotel, which attracted the likes of Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and Mark Twain.[9]

67.188.44.157 (talk) 04:41, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

This page has been edited from Geysers staff. It's their attempt to mollify folks who are quite unhappy that the "Yellowstone of the West" has been plugged up, and fenced off, to produce electricity. The claim that there were no geysers is one they have been making for decades now. It's just not true. Back in the 60s, some of the older folks in the area could remember hearing the geysers erupting on calm nights. In addition, does it make any sense that the town of Geyserville would have been named after some fumaroles?

I spent many weekends up in the Cloverdale area (Asti, actually - next town north of Geyserville) on the Russian River back in the late 60s and early 70s. At that time, you could walk around the power production site. Since then, they've fenced it off, possibly as a result of some damage, but in any case, to prevent such in the future.

I understand that when power was first harvested, it made sense to drill out active geysers. That's where steam came from. If one were to start today, it would make more sense to determine where heat was available that would not disturb the existing geyser plumbing, and drill there.

However, it is not okay to rewrite history, and claim that there never were any geysers.

Linwood Lyons linlyons@yahoo.com 67.188.44.157 (talk) 04:41, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Fumaroles And Geysers

Hi-- geysers are effectively long period fumaroles, which have more power behind them. So if some people heard them... anyhow, that should help... 72.214.13.2 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 01:17, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Annual net output

The wikipedia article states Annual net output = 6,516 GWh (2018)[3] But when you look up the reference Geysers 5-20 states:

• 2020 4,609,873 MWh
• 2019 4,351,429 MWh
• 2018 4,674,308 MWh

Why the mismatch? Pacomartin (talk)

Wiki Education assignment: California Natural History

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 August 2022 and 2 December 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Treasure.boutan (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Treasure.boutan (talk) 06:37, 26 October 2022 (UTC)