Cold spring water, loaded with iron-rich minerals, bubbles up into small pools throughout the area called Paint Pots. Iron mineral-laden water leave orange stripes in the soil as it flows through the area. Miners, both Native people and European, scraped the colored earth and formed cakes that would be baked hard. These cakes had commerical value as their material could be used to color many things, from body-paints to household wallpaint.