Gasport took its name in the summer of 1826, when Professor Amos Eaton's Rensselaer School Flotilla stopped during a study trip aboard a canal boat and discovered a spring emitting "carburetted Hydrogen or Coal Gas". According to the diary of future scientist Asa Fitch, the group experimented by applying a lighted candle to the bubbling gas, which produced a red flame. Because of this discovery, the group called the nearby village Gasport, and local residents adopted the name and painted it on a bridge over the Erie Canal.