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43 free Hot Springs National Park trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Hot Springs National Park trivia quiz covers the small Arkansas park that wraps around a spa town, where 143-degree water rises from Hot Springs Mountain and Congress set aside the first federal reservation in 1832, forty years before Yellowstone. Questions cover the geology of the springs (no volcano involved), the eight bathhouses of Bathhouse Row from the palatial Fordyce to the Superior brewery, the bathing regimens of the Gilded Age, the free baths for the poor and the Army and Navy Hospital. The town's colourful history is here too: Hernando de Soto in the Valley of the Vapors, the Quapaw treaty, the 1878 and 1913 fires, Major League Baseball's spring training and Babe Ruth's home run into an alligator farm, the gangsters and gambling of the Prohibition years, and the park's 2010 quarter. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is marked on every question, so it works for a stroll along the Grand Promenade or a serious park-nerd challenge. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and each question carries its citation. If you enjoy it, try our US National Parks quiz next.
30 of 43 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Hot Springs National Park is in which US state?
Arkansas
It sits in Garland County, wrapped around the city of the same name in the mountains of central Arkansas.
Q 02In which year did Congress set aside the Hot Springs Reservation?
1832
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.
Q 03Hot Springs became a national park in which year?
1921
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.
Q 04Until Gateway Arch was redesignated in 2018, Hot Springs held what distinction among national parks?
Smallest by area
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.
Q 05Why was Hot Springs the first to receive its own America the Beautiful quarter, in April 2010?
It is the oldest area under federal protection
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.
Q 06The springs flow from the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain, part of which range?
Ouachita Mountains
The Ouachita Mountains, a rare east-west trending range shared with Oklahoma, include Hot Springs Mountain; the springs emerge along its lower western slope.
Q 07What is the average temperature of the water as it emerges from the springs?
143 °F
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.
Q 08Where does the springs' heat come from?
Rocks warming naturally with depth
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.
Q 09Radiocarbon dating shows the spring water fell as rain roughly how long ago?
4,400 years
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.
Q 10What is the thermal waterfall on Arlington Lawn, at the north end of Bathhouse Row, called?
Hot Water Cascade
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.
Q 11What did Native American tribes call the area when Hernando de Soto arrived in 1541?
Valley of the Vapors
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.
Q 12After ceding the springs by treaty in 1818, the Quapaw were removed in the 1830s to where?
Indian Territory
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.
Q 13Which president sent William Dunbar and George Hunter to explore the springs in 1804?
Thomas Jefferson
Q 21The Hale, rebuilt in 1892-93, opened in 2019 as what?
A nine-room hotel
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.
Q 22What did the Ozark bathhouse reopen as in 2014?
An arts and events center
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.
Q 23Bathhouse Row was designated what on May 28, 1987?
National Historic Landmark
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.
Q 14How many bathhouses stand along Bathhouse Row?
8
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.
Q 15Which bathhouse reopened as the park's visitor center in 1989?
Fordyce
The Fordyce, the grandest house on the row, was the first to close, in 1962, and reopened as the park visitor center in 1989.
Q 16Which two Bathhouse Row buildings were still operating as bathhouses in 2015?
Buckstaff and Quapaw
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.
Q 17The row's most elaborate bathhouse cost roughly how much to build and furnish in 1914-15?
About $213,000
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.
Q 18Besides baths, the row's grandest bathhouse offered its patrons which recreational facilities?
Bowling lanes and a billiard room
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.
Q 19The Superior, the northernmost bathhouse, reopened in the 2010s as what?
A brewery and restaurant
A brewery and restaurant took over the Superior, which was completed in 1916; it brews its beer with the park's thermal spring water.
Q 20The Quapaw bathhouse, built in 1922, is topped by what distinctive feature?
A dome of coloured tiles
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.
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.
Q 24The brick-paved walkway on the hillside behind the bathhouses is called what?
Grand Promenade
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.
Q 25What did federal engineers do to Hot Springs Creek after taking direct control in 1877?
Covered it with stone arches under a street
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.
Q 26Congress opened a free bathhouse for the poor at Hot Springs in which year?
1878
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.
Q 27Which federal department ran the Army and Navy General Hospital behind Bathhouse Row?
War Department
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.
Q 28Which Chicago gangster famously favoured the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs?
Al Capone
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.
Q 29Hot Springs is often called the birthplace of what baseball tradition?
Spring training
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.
Q 30Which team first brought Major League Baseball to Hot Springs in 1886?
Chicago White Stockings
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.