In the summer of 1867, a survey party led by General Grenville M. Dodge and seeking a route for the Union Pacific Railroad stopped here. General John A. Rawlins, a member of the party, called the spring "the most gracious and acceptable of anything he had had on the march" and said that if anything was ever named after him he wanted it to be a spring of water. General Dodge replied, "We will name this Rawlins Springs."