On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
frosty
Hot Springs is unique by being a the smallest National Park and the only one in the middle of a town. It started in 1832 when Congress created the Hot Springs Reservation to preserve the springs, and it became a National Park in 1921. During that time, several bathhouses were built to cater to visitors who wanted to “take the waters” as therapy.
The center of the Park is the eight surviving bathhouses. Buckstaff and Quapaw still offer a hot spring experience. Two of the buildings are home to the Park Service headquarters (Fordyce) and bookstore (Lamar), and one other is home to an art gallery (Ozark). Superior and Hale have been renovated as a craft brewery and hotel. One other (Maurice) is in the process of renovation
The park also includes forested areas of the Ouachita Mountains, with hiking trails and overlooks.
COVID has had an effect on visiting this year. Fordyce, the Park Service Visitor Center, is closed. It’s a shame, because the interior has been restored as a museum as of the 1920s, with room decor and hydrotherapy equipment from that era. COVID also limited other options. I gave some thought to trying out one of the pools in Quapaw, but could see through the front desk that none of the guests were masked, and it was too much of a risk for my tastes.
Bathhouse Row
Buckstaff Bathhouse has been in continuous operation since 1912, offering thermal water soaks, sitzbaths, steam cabinets, massages, and hydrotherapy.
Quapaw Bathhouse has been renovated and operates as a modern spa with both private and public pools, massages, facials, etc.
Superior Bathhouse is home to a craftbrewery and brewpub.
I bought a growler of a British-style ale.
Fordyce Bathhouse, Park Visitor Center
There are trails behind bathhouse row, including the Grand Promenade shown here.
A public fountain allows you to fill your water jugs with refreshing spring water … at 143 degrees! It’s drinkable and pure because the heat doesn’t come from any volcanic sources. Water percolates 6,000 to 8,000 feet underground where the temperature is higher, then is forced up through faults in the rock under pressure where it comes out as hot springs.
OzarkHillbilly
That ain’t the Arkansas I know. ;-)
Soprano2
It’s an amazing place. It’s too bad you couldn’t go in the visitor center. I’d like to go up in the tower sometime. It’s so cool to see the steam coming out of the ground. I’m so glad they made the decision to preserve it as a national park, or else by now it would probably have been ruined.
Laura Too
So pretty! I traveled through there once but only stopped briefly. I’ve been trying to get back since. Someday…Thanks for the reminder.
Barbara
Not as impressive but there is a state park in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia that encompasses “baths” that have been in operation as such since Revolutionary War times. It used to be called Bath. There are modern spa and bath facilities and you can also fill up water jugs.
I would like to see Hot Springs.
JPL
A friend visited Hot Springs a few months ago, and went into a gift shop. The owner told her that they didn’t need to wear masks inside. My friend said thank you and left.
eclare
Interesting history and photos
Honus
Used to like to go to the pools in Warm Springs, about two hours from here. The buildings were basically round wood barns with open roofs. It was great if you went late in the year, October or early November, and it snowed. It was really informal, cost about two dollars to go in, and then you could get a towel from an attendant for a dollar. Probably not a whole lot different than when they opened in the 1700s. Alas, they’re now owned by The Homestead and have been closed for repair for a couple years.
Quiltingfool
I’ve been to Hot Springs twice – once in the late 70s and in 2019. I wasn’t impressed in the 70s – my overall impression was of a dirty, run-down town. Well, Hot Springs got itself together and voila! Very nice! The restorations are lovely. I was interested in the history of the town; from my reading, Hot Springs was a proto-Las Vegas. A place where drinking, gambling, prostitution, corruption and bribery were commonplace. Once Vegas was established, Hot Springs faded.
Hoodie
“Married today, Hot Springs tonight!”
ThresherK
If you want to read a history of Hot Springs, “The Vapors” by David Hill is pretty damn absorbing.
frosty
@Quiltingfool: There’s a gangster museum on the main drag, so Hot Springs hasn’t forgotten that part of its history. We didn’t go, it had the look of a touristy Ripley’s kind of place.
frosty
@JPL: It’s funny to reread this after we’ve been vaccinated and so many people have dropped wearing masks. Things changed fast!
mvr
Thanks for this. Been meaning to get to that town some day and this gives me a small shove for a possible winter trip. Also maybe stop by the Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan in Tulsa on the way there or back.
Also too, if you like hot springs there are a number of towns in the west with hot springs. In WY there is Saratoga in the South Central part of the state with a municipal hots springs with a developed pay portion, a developed nonpay part and shower/changing rooms, and another free part where you can sit in the river. Further north and west, Thermopolis has the worlds largest municipal hot springs (or so they claim). In Oregon, there used to be Bagby hot springs on Mt. Hood, but it may have burned last summer. IIRC it was a mile or so to hike in. Also a hike in in Washington state was Kennedy hot springs near the Pacific Crest Trail.
Anyway, the buildings look cool (said an old house nut). Thanks for the photos!
Geminid
@Honus: I miss the pools at Warm Springs also. I still get out there some to visit Hidden Valley, a National Forest area seven miles north of Warm Springs. It’s on the Jackson River, with good fishing and nice walking. The drive to it is beautiful. I like Rt. 252 from Staunton through Middlebrook, then a right on Rt. 39 through Goshen Pass.
Mrearl
@ThresherK: I’ll second “The Vapors,” in memory of Owney Madden.
Geminid
@Geminid: Hidden Valley is a very nice place to camp. There are about 40 camp sites, and I’ve never seen it full. It’s a little over two hour drive from Charlottesville.
Adam Lang
Not to nitpick, but:
”The National Park Service lists the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial as the smallest national park.”
and
“The Hyde Street Pier, at 2905 Hyde Street, is a historic ferry pier located on the northern waterfront of San Francisco, California.”
Dr Colossus
I used to teach at the Arkansas School for Math Science and Arts in Hot Springs and there’s a couple cool things I picked up about the local springs. The water in the springs in geologically isolated from everything else, so the thermophiles living there are completely unique. It’s like the Galapagos of hot springs.
In the basement of the last bath house (I can’t remember the name), the spring runs against a basement wall, and because of that the calcium in the rock has been leached out and replaced by radioactive cesium. So, there a circle painted on the wall around the hot spot and the floor has a rectangle marking the danger zone, along with a radon abatement system.
JDM
Hot Springs trivia. Years ago (mid-60s) we were visiting my moms aunt who had retired to Hot Springs. We ate at the Holiday Inn. I ordered a Rueben sandwich because at that time I was adventurous food-wise and that was a really gutsy move outside of NYC, Miami, or Beverley Hills. It was great. Trust me, at that time a Rueben in a place like that was likely to be inedible; I had one in Kalamazoo that literally was, couldn’t tear it with my teeth. But Hot Springs was one of those odd food oases you’d find at that time.
WaterGirl
@Dr Colossus: Hi there. Your first comment on balloon juice has to be manually approved. Now that I’ve done that, future comments will be visible right way. Welcome!
Origuy
@Adam Lang: Also the Presidio National Park occupies much of the northwest corner of San Francisco. It’s not in the middle of town, but definitely part of it.
Someday I’ll put together an OTR of the Presidio. I have lots of pictures of bits of it.
Hot Springs will be on the list of places to go if I’m ever in Arkansas.
Dan B
My mother worked in Hot Springs. She told no stories so it seemed like it must have been boring, or so I thought. It would have been the late 20’s. She was a teetotaler and her mother was a charter member of the Arkansas WCTU, Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Maybe she was embarrassed but she seemed proud of having worked at a place renowned outside of Arkansas.