Arkansas: Hot Springs Continues to Attract Visitors for the Water and More

The Fordyce Bathhouse includes the Hot Springs National Park’s visitor center and a museum.

Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas is an unusual national park. Like Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, it has a strong connection to hot water, but you experience the heat at Hot Springs by turning on a tap instead of watching it shoot skyward out of large holes in the ground. It’s also located in a busy city, not the wilderness. Yet the park attracts more than 1 million visitors a year, which includes two visits by us over the past 15 months because we’ve found it to be a fun, scenic place with plenty to do.

The Quapaw Bathhouse is one of two active bathhouses in Hot Springs. Buckstaff is the other.

THE MAIN ATTRACTION

Bathhouse Row clearly stands out as the main attraction of Hot Springs National Park. These buildings capture the Golden Age of Bathing when visitors came to the city to immerse themselves in the area’s hot water, believing that the average temperature of 143 degrees Fahrenheit and traces of minerals gave the water therapeutic properties. They also drank the water from cold springs.

American Indians knew about and bathed in the hot springs during the 1700s and early 1800s. Next, French trappers, hunters and traders enjoyed the experience. As the United States expanded westward, settlers moved in and some built crude canvas and lumber bathhouses over individual springs or reservoirs. Eventually, the U.S. government took control of the area and approved private bathhouses that ranged from simple to luxurious. The bathhouses that remain today come from the late part of the 19th Century and the early part of the 20th Century, but they have been remodeled over the years and then renovated after most were shut down for some time.

GRAND PROMENADE

Another outstanding attraction is the Grand Promenade that runs behind Bathhouse Row and across the foothills of Hot Springs Mountain. It’s a beautiful, wide and comfortable path that played a therapeutic role during the peak of Hot Springs as “The American Spa.” Now, it’s a great place for a leisurely walk or to get started on a vigorous hike. Both are good ways to enhance your physical and emotional health.

HIKING TRAILS

You’ll have at least a dozen excellent choices for hiking trails within the national park. Most of them connect to the Grand Promenade and go up or around Hot Springs Mountain and North Mountain. Another series of trails, accessible from Whittington Avenue in Hot Springs, travel through West, Music and Sugarloaf Mountains. You can pick up a trail map at the visitor center in the Fordyce Bathhouse.

The Ozark Bathhouse conveys a mission style that may relate to the legend that Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto visited the hot springs. The twin towers are merely decorative.

LINDA’S TAKEAWAY

Hot Springs is my favorite park in Arkansas to visit for two reasons. It has beautiful historic bathhouses and numerous gift shops and stores on the main historic street—Bathhouse Row. During my family vacations as a child, my dad gave me the nickname of “Souvenir Sue.” Doug understands how I earned that title and has picked up where my father left off, referring to me as Souvenir Sue during our road trips together.

I collect many things that are priceless to me but might not interest others. Rocks are one of my favorites to search for on beaches and in national and state park gift shops. During our visit to Hot Springs, Doug asked if I’d like to stroll down Central Avenue and browse in shops while he took more photos of the historic sites we had visited. I gladly agreed.

The first store I entered became my last stop—The Rock Shop! I discovered row after row of beautiful Arkansas stones. I searched through many bins of collectible rocks. There were so many precious stones to choose from that I hadn’t made my final selection when Doug called to pick me up. I had to make quick decisions based on the color and size of the rocks. I would have needed another hour to select rocks by their geological names such as mica and fluorite.

The Superior Bathhouse had the longest continuous operation of all Hot Springs bathhouses before closing in 1983.

DOUG’S HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT

President Thomas Jefferson had a keen interest in the “Hot Springs of the Washita.” Shortly after purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, he directed an expedition to explore the springs and assigned William Dunbar and George Hunter to the task. Their report to the president was widely publicized and led people to travel there to soak in the water. In 1832, the federal government set aside four sections of land in present-day Hot Springs to protect the natural resource.

Our Restaurant Recommendation

ot being foodies, we usually don’t make dining recommendations, but we discovered a restaurant in Hot Springs worth mentioning. After walking past several choices, we decided to try Rolando’s at 210 Central Avenue and ended up eating on the patio, which is behind the restaurant next to a natural stone outcropping. We enjoyed the setting, service and every bite of Lulu’s Enchiladas and Jose’s Quesadilla’s.

The present Hale Bathhouse was built in 1892, but drastically altered in 1914 and 1939.

GEE WHIZ FACTS

The National Park Service collects 700,000 gallons of spring water a day for use in the public drinking fountains and bathhouses.
About 200 years ago, the steam from the hot springs led to the area being nicknamed “Valley of Vapors.”
Scientists have determined that the water emerging from the hot springs is more than 4,000 years old.
Hot Springs National Park is not in a volcanic region like Yellowstone. The water is heated by a different process—gravitational compression and by the breakdown of naturally occurring radioactive elements. It’s complicated, but a park ranger will be glad to explain it to you. The result is the same—hot water.

PARTING SHOTS: MORE BATHHOUSES AND OTHER THINGS TO SEE IN HOT SPRINGS

The Lamar Bathhouse features a gift shop where you can buy bottles to fill with the spring water available from the fountains on the street. You can also purchase books, postcards and bath-related souvenirs.

The Buckstaff Bathhouse has been in continuous operation since 1912 and is the only one of its neighbors to provide the traditional therapeutic bathing experience.

In 1911, the Maurice Bathhouse replaced a Victorian wooden structure with the building seen at the park now.

In 1915, the Fordyce Bathhouse was considered the best in Hot Springs. Today, extensive restoration shows you what it looked like at its peak.

Next to the Park Administration Building sits a memorial to James Alexander Cary, the first National Park Service ranger to be murdered in the line of duty.

Linda and Arla take a break while touring Hot Springs’ Bathhouse Row.

Hot Springs Mountain Tower

This popular tourist destination provides a panoramic view of the city below and the surrounding mountains. You can drive or hike to it.

The Arlington Hotel, located at 239 Central Ave. in Hot Springs, provides park visitors with a convenient and historic lodging option.

Hot Springs features several murals to celebrate the baseball players that came to the bathhouses to recover from injuries and the physical toll of a long season.

Artwork adorns a wall near the Hot Springs Convention Center.