43 Fun Facts About Hot Springs National Park

Hot Springs National Park is in which US state?

It sits in Garland County, wrapped around the city of the same name in the mountains of central Arkansas.

In which year did Congress set aside the Hot Springs Reservation?

In 1832, on 20 April, Congress set aside four sections of land around the springs as Hot Springs Reservation, four decades before Yellowstone was created.

Hot Springs became a national park in which year?

On 4 March 1921 Congress redesignated the reservation as Hot Springs National Park; its boundaries take in Hot Springs, North, West and Sugarloaf mountains above the bathhouses.

Until Gateway Arch was redesignated in 2018, Hot Springs held what distinction among national parks?

Smallest by area among national parks until Gateway Arch's 91 acres took the title in 2018, it covers roughly 5,500 acres and reaches into downtown Hot Springs.

Why was Hot Springs the first to receive its own America the Beautiful quarter, in April 2010?

It is the oldest area under federal protection, so it led the series, which issues quarters in order of each site's founding date; Yellowstone, the first named national park, came second.

The springs flow from the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain, part of which range?

The Ouachita Mountains, a rare east-west trending range shared with Oklahoma, include Hot Springs Mountain; the springs emerge along its lower western slope.

What is the average temperature of the water as it emerges from the springs?

143 °F is the average temperature at the spring outlets, so the water is cooled before it reaches the bathhouse tubs; about 700,000 gallons flow each day.

Where does the springs' heat come from?

Rocks warming naturally with depth heat the water: rain sinks thousands of feet, picks up heat from the normal geothermal gradient, and rises along fractures under artesian pressure; the chemistry shows no magma contact.

Radiocarbon dating shows the spring water fell as rain roughly how long ago?

4,400 years is the age carbon dating gives the water: it seeps down at about a foot a year to 4,500-7,500 feet, then rises along fractures in roughly a year.

What is the thermal waterfall on Arlington Lawn, at the north end of Bathhouse Row, called?

The Hot Water Cascade on Arlington Lawn, at the north end of Bathhouse Row, pours thermal water over a tufa outcrop where visitors can feel the warm flow.

What did Native American tribes call the area when Hernando de Soto arrived in 1541?

Valley of the Vapors is the name handed down for the steaming springs, which tribes by tradition treated as neutral ground where weapons were laid down; De Soto's party visited in 1541.

After ceding the springs by treaty in 1818, the Quapaw were removed in the 1830s to where?

Indian Territory, in today's northeastern Oklahoma, received the Quapaw in 1834 after a failed move to the Red River; the 1818 treaty had ceded most of their homeland.

Which president sent William Dunbar and George Hunter to explore the springs in 1804?

Thomas Jefferson dispatched William Dunbar and George Hunter in 1804 to survey the newly acquired territory; they spent about a month at the springs that December analysing the waters.

How many bathhouses stand along Bathhouse Row?

8 bathhouses line the row, built as independent competing businesses between 1892 and 1923; the landmark district also takes in the landscaped walkway behind them.

Which bathhouse reopened as the park's visitor center in 1989?

The Fordyce, the grandest house on the row, was the first to close, in 1962, and reopened as the park visitor center in 1989.

Which two Bathhouse Row buildings were still operating as bathhouses in 2015?

Buckstaff and Quapaw were the working pair: the Buckstaff has offered baths without a break since 1912, while the Quapaw closed in 1984 and reopened as a spa in 2008.

The row's most elaborate bathhouse cost roughly how much to build and furnish in 1914-15?

About $213,000 went into building and furnishing it in 1914-15; its builder, a railroad magnate who credited the waters with restoring his health after the Civil War, meant it to outshine every rival on the row.

Besides baths, the row's grandest bathhouse offered its patrons which recreational facilities?

Bowling lanes and a billiard room were among its amenities, alongside a gymnasium, a roof garden, a museum of prehistoric relics and staterooms for reading and conversation.

The Superior, the northernmost bathhouse, reopened in the 2010s as what?

A brewery and restaurant took over the Superior, which was completed in 1916; it brews its beer with the park's thermal spring water.

The Quapaw bathhouse, built in 1922, is topped by what distinctive feature?

A dome of coloured tiles, topped by a small copper cupola, crowns the Spanish Colonial Revival building; it was the moderately priced house, offering baths without beauty parlours or extras.

The Hale, rebuilt in 1892-93, opened in 2019 as what?

A nine-room hotel, Hotel Hale, opened in the building in 2019 after decades of vacancy; the Hale is the oldest structure on the row, rebuilt in brick in 1892-93.

What did the Ozark bathhouse reopen as in 2014?

An arts and events center, the Ozark Bathhouse Cultural Center, opened in 2014 in the 1922 house that had closed as a bathhouse in 1977.

Bathhouse Row was designated what on May 28, 1987?

National Historic Landmark status came on 28 May 1987 for the row and its grounds; the district also takes in the landscaped walkway on the hill behind and the formal entrance.

The brick-paved walkway on the hillside behind the bathhouses is called what?

The Grand Promenade, begun in the 1930s and finished in the early 1960s, runs about half a mile between Reserve Avenue and Fountain Street above the row.

What did federal engineers do to Hot Springs Creek after taking direct control in 1877?

Covered it with stone arches under a street sums up the 1880s work: the main thoroughfare was laid above the buried creek, squatters were evicted and a central plumbing system built by about 1890.

Congress opened a free bathhouse for the poor at Hot Springs in which year?

In 1878 Congress authorised the Government Free Bathhouse, where applicants swore an oath of poverty to bathe without charge; the free house closed in 1957.

Which federal department ran the Army and Navy General Hospital behind Bathhouse Row?

The War Department ran the Army and Navy General Hospital, opened in 1887 and rebuilt in 1933; the building later housed a state rehabilitation centre and career school until 2019.

Which Chicago gangster famously favoured the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs?

Al Capone kept a suite at the Arlington Hotel, reputedly room 443 overlooking the Southern Club casino; Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello and Bugs Moran also frequented the town.

Hot Springs is often called the birthplace of what baseball tradition?

Spring training is traced to 1886, when a National League club came to town to sweat out the winter in the thermal baths before the season; other big-league clubs followed for decades.

Which team first brought Major League Baseball to Hot Springs in 1886?

The Chicago White Stockings, under player-manager Cap Anson, came in March 1886 to train and take the baths; Whittington Park was later built for visiting teams.

Babe Ruth hit a famous long home run in Hot Springs into what?

An alligator farm across the street from Whittington Park caught the ball on 17 March 1918, a drive later measured at about 573 feet; Ruth was playing first base for the Red Sox that day.

Which US president grew up in Hot Springs?

Bill Clinton was born in Hope but moved to Hot Springs as a child and graduated from Hot Springs High School in 1964; actor Billy Bob Thornton was born in the city.

How tall is the Hot Springs Mountain Tower that opened in 1983?

216 feet tall, the observation tower opened in 1983 as the third tower on the summit, with an elevator to its viewing decks.

Where did the second tower on Hot Springs Mountain, the Rix Tower, come from?

The 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis had used it as a wireless telegraph tower; it was re-erected on the mountain in 1906 and torn down in 1975 as unstable.

Where is the park's public campground?

Gulpha Gorge Campground, beside Gulpha Creek about two miles from downtown, is the park's only campground and links by trail to the summit of Hot Springs Mountain.

Which two tree species dominate the park's old-growth stands on North and Hot Springs mountains?

Shortleaf pine and oak dominate the never-logged stands on North and Hot Springs mountains, which the Old-Growth Forest Network has recognised as old growth.

Who was the first European-American to settle at the springs, in 1807?

Jean Emmanuel Prudhomme, a Louisiana planter, camped at the springs in 1807 and went home after two years of bathing restored his health; trappers John Perciful and Isaac Cates followed.

Which French explorers claimed the springs area for France in 1673?

Marquette and Jolliet descended the Mississippi in 1673 and France claimed the region; it went to Spain in 1763, back to France in 1800 and to the United States in 1803.

Which bathhouse was the last built on the row, completed in 1923?

The Lamar, finished in 1923, was the last bathhouse built on the row; it later reopened as the Bathhouse Row Emporium gift shop.

Bathing facilities for Black visitors in Hot Springs, such as the Pythian, were segregated until when?

The civil rights laws of the 1960s ended the separate system; the Pythian, built by the Knights of Pythias on Malvern Avenue, had served Black bathers since the 1910s.

Horse racing in the city of Hot Springs takes place at which track?

Oaklawn Park opened in 1904 and runs a winter-spring thoroughbred meet; its signature race, run each spring, is a major prep for the Kentucky Derby.

Under the Köppen system, what climate type does Hot Springs National Park have?

Humid subtropical (Köppen Cfa) describes the park's long, muggy summers and short, mild winters, with rain spread through the year.

Which tribe settled the springs area around the 18th century, before the Choctaw and Cherokee?

The Caddo, farming peoples of the Red River country, used the springs in the 18th century; Choctaw and Cherokee bands arrived later, and the Quapaw ceded the area by treaty.