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Hot Springs celebrates 100 years as national park, 89 more of federal protection
By Tom Adkinson
August 6, 2021

hot springs national park anniversary

HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, Arkansas – A yearlong birthday party is in progress in central Arkansas, and there’s plenty of time for you to enjoy it. This is the centennial year of Hot Springs National Park, a chunk of treasured real estate that has been a federal property since long before the National Park Service was created.

Yellowstone may have been our first national park, but Hot Springs has an even older claim of federal protection. It was in 1832 when Congress declared the area a federal reservation. The national park designation came in 1921.

“We’re small but mighty,” NPS ranger Ashley Waymouth said of the 5,500-acre national park. The only one smaller is Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, Missouri.

hot springs bathhouse row
The Buckstaff, a key part of Bathhouse Row, has been in continuous operation since 1912. Image by National Park Service.

Hot Springs comes by its name naturally. The park contains 47 protected springs, whose gurgling waters really are hot – 143 degrees Fahrenheit. They are the only federally controlled hot springs in the nation that are managed for public health and consumptive use. Take a sip or fill a jug at fountains located around the city.

hot springs rainwater
Rainwater that fell to earth 4,400 years ago bubbles to the surface in 47 springs at Hot Springs National Park. Image by National Park Service.


A natural wonder of this magnitude has been a magnet for millennia. Archeological evidence shows natives “took the waters” 10,000 years ago, and the Caddo and Quapaw tribes were connected in more recent centuries. The Quapaw name lives on at the historic bathhouses that so many people think of first when Hot Springs National Park is mentioned.

The Quapaw is one of eight distinctive bathhouses on Bathhouse Row, itself a National Historic Landmark District. Most were built in the early 1900s, and they led the way for Hot Springs to develop a restorative resort reputation popular with many people.

Those early patrons included some notorious characters such as gangsters Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Bugs Moran and Frank Costello. Indeed, Hot Springs for many years was known for gambling, drinking, and other questionable pursuits.

“This was Vegas before Vegas,” Waymouth observed, noting the city’s once-rough reputation and the casual nature of law enforcement decades ago.

The deeper and more important essence of Hot Springs, of course, lies in the thermal waters.

Waymouth enjoys describing one amazing fact about the springs. The water that you sip or soak in today fell to earth as rainwater approximately 4,400 years ago – about the time the pyramids of Giza were being built – and began a descent of 6,000 feet into the earth.

Two establishments on Bathhouse Row remain open for your bathing enjoyment. They are the Quapaw and the Buckstaff, which has been in continuous operation since 1912.

The others have different uses. The Superior is a restaurant and brewery (yes, it uses thermal spring water and is the first brewery inside a national park). The Hale Bathhouse (built in 1892) now is the nine-suite Hotel Hale (opened in 2019). The Fordyce Bathhouse, which Franklin Roosevelt visited, is the national park’s visitor center, the Lamar Bathhouse now is the Bathhouse Emporium retail store and the Ozark Bathhouse is the Hot Springs National Park Cultural Center.

hot springs city view
It’s practically impossible to tell where the city of Hot Springs ends and Hot Springs National Park begins. Image by Visit Hot Springs.


Bathhouse Row blends so seamlessly with locations that are not part of the national park that it sometimes puzzles visitors.

“One of the most frequent questions I hear is ‘Where is the national park?’” said Bill Solleder, marketing director for Visit Hot Springs, noting that he sometimes can answer by telling the person to take a step to the left or a step to the right to enter or exit park property.

“Our national park simply blends in with the city,” he said, explaining why there is no entrance gate or tollbooth.

Both Solleder and Waymouth quickly note an aspect of Hot Springs National Park that many people don’t expect. Just as with many other national parks, this one also is a back-to-nature destination with 26 miles of trails. Downtown itself is effectively one big trailhead, according to Solleder.

Two routes that are easy to reach are the Hot Springs Trail and the North Mountain Trail. Access is up Stephen’s Balustrade (grand staircase) right behind the Fordyce Bathhouse. The 10-mile Sunset Trail is the park’s longest.

hot springs mountain tower
Hot Springs Mountain Tower is the destination for many hikers who enjoy 26 miles of trails in the national park. Image by National Park Service.

The destination for many hikers is the Hot Springs Mountain Tower, operated by a concessionaire inside the park. It rises 216 feet to an elevation of 1,256 feet and offers a view of the entire park and expanses of the Ouachita Mountains.


Trip Planning Resources: HotSprings.org, NPS.gov/hosp, and Arkansas.com

(Travel writer Tom Adkinson is author of 100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die
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