 Today, Calpine Corporation generates power at the site and no Native American groups receive direct financial benefits from the operation.The Geysers were first seen by European Americans and named in 1847 during John Fremont's survey of the Sierra Mountains and the Great Basin by William Bell Elliot who called the area "The Geysers," although the geothermal features he discovered were not technically geysers, but fumaroles.Between 1848 and 1854, Archibald C. Godwin developed The Geysers into a spa named "The Geysers Resort Hotel", which attracted tourists including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain.