The falls are located approximately 0.5 miles (0.80 km) upstream from the confluence of the Firehole and Gibbon Rivers at Madison Junction.

Lt. Gustavus C. Doane, U.S. Army, a member of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition described the falls in his 1871 report to the Secretary of War: Following down the river bank through a deep cañon of volcanic rocks, in many places broken in huge fragments, we presently came to rapids, having a fall of perhaps 40 feet in a half mile.

We were obliged to scale the ridge above, and follow down the steam on its summit, through dense timber and steep ravines, with considerable difficulty.

In three miles we reached a level bottom, on the river, at the junction of a large creek coming in from the northeast.

[2] By the mid-1880s, they were routinely referred to as Firehole Falls in both government and commercial accounts of the park.