Taking the Baths: Hot Springs National Park
For the past ten thousand years, humans have sought the comfort and healing they believe can be found in the soothing waters of the warm waters that flow from springs on Hot Springs Mountain. Documented uses of the therapeutic baths date back two hundred years. Native Americans and early settlers to the region sought relief from rheumatism and other ailments in the waters through drinking it and bathing in the warmth.
Forty years older than Yellowstone, the second oldest park in the National Park System, Hot Springs was created by an act of Congress on April 30th, 1832 to preserve the springs. The name was changed by another Congressional Act in 1921 and the official title of Hot Springs National Park was granted.
Although the springs were well known, it was not until 1915 that the first formal bathhouse opened along what would later be called Bathhouse Row. Replacing the earlier crude shelters that some visitors built, The Fordyce Bathhouse was a magnificcent structure that remains in place today. Now used as the Visitors Center for the park, the Fordyce Bathhouse was built in elaborate Spanish Reniassance Revival Style.
Of the many facilities that once operated along Bathhouse Row, only the Fordyce, Libbey Memorial, and Buckstaff remain open “to take the baths”. Visitors can schedule a standard tub bath at any of these facilities along with showers, sitz tubs, vapor cabinents, and hot packs. Prescription baths can be administered only after application to a registered physician.
Admission to the park is free. The Visitor’s Center is filled with memorbilia and exhibits from the resort town’s heyday as a health mecca. A seventeen minute movie and a nine minute film on the bathhouses are shown many times daily.
Within the National Park eight of the historic bathhouses are under government protection. The entire Bathhouse Row district has been deemed a National Historic Landmark.
Ten miles of good road wind through the picturesque Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and take visitors to the summit of Hot Springs Mountain, from which the waters flow. Hiking and biking trails are also available.
A visit to the Hot Springs National Park is very informative. Water from the hot springs is sterile – so sterile in fact that it was used by NASA to hold moon rocks for further testing. Forty-seven hot springs exist within the area but most have been covered to prevent contamination. Average temperatures are about 143 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Park Service also operates “Duck Tours” that use World War II vintage amphibious vehicles that take riders on a journey over both land and water.
Because the park is surrounded by the city of Hot Springs, many other recreational opportunities are available along with lodging and dining facilities.
Hot Springs National Park is a very different kind of national park but it’s well worth a visit to explore the history of the health mecca and to even “take the waters” for relaxation!
