Hot Springs National Park

July 16th

After driving south, than southwest, through Tennessee into Arkansas, we arrived at Hot Springs National Park.  Hot Springs National Park is located in the western part of the state.  How to describe this park?  The National Parks book describes it as "peculiar", which it is, especially in light of what we have come to expect from our parks.

Hot Springs Mountain is the source of many hot springs, created by water seeping into the depths of the earth, gradually being heated to 140 degrees, than forced up through cracks in the earth.  For years, humans have seen the hot springs as medicinal, using them to treat and cure many diseases.  When private individuals in the early 1800's began to lay claim to individual springs, the federal government stepped forward in 1832 to protect the resource for all citizens as a national reservation.  It became a park in 1921.

The park encompasses Hot Spring Mountain and Bathhouse Row, a row of Victorian buildings located along Central Ave. that were previously commercial bathhouses.  One of the more luxurious, the Fordyce, is the park's Visitor Center.  There are only a very few commercial bathhouses remaining.  The rest are or have been renovated by the Park Service to lease to private businesses.  The numerous springs on the side of the mountain in back of Bathhouse Row have all been capped to maintain their cleanliness and are stored for use by the remaining bathhouses.

One of the Bathhouses on the Row

One of the treatment rooms in the Fordyce

The lounge

The "demonstration" spring

We visited the Fordyce and toured the building, which has been restored to how it looked during its  hay day- including all the weird exercise equipment- and includes displays of the services offered during that time.  It was interesting, the building was beautiful, but the park was disappointing.  We had been lead to understand that there were still natural springs on the mountain that could be viewed.  The only springs visible were a "demonstration" spring built to show how it looked in nature, and several springs piped to fountains in the Bathhouse Row area.  In essence, nothing of the natural springs remains except the water.  It is still unclear to me what happens to the thousands of gallons of water produced by the springs every day.  If you are in the area, it is worth visiting to get a glimpse of the culture of the time, but don't make a special trip.