Colter's Hell is a roughly one-square-mile geothermal area of hot springs and fumaroles on the Shoshone River near Cody, Wyoming. Closely associated with mountain man John Colter, who passed through in the winter of 1807–1808, it took its name from his report of steaming ground and boiling water along the river then called the Stinkingwater. Later writers sometimes confused it with Yellowstone geyser basins, though it was a separate place and Colter may not have visited Yellowstone at all. Early accounts by Joseph Meek, Plenty Coups, and Bonneville's scouts helped fix its location. Its thermal activity has diminished, but extinct cones still show a more active past.