HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS

October, 2O18

It’s long been our goal to visit as many national parks as we can during this journey started so long ago. Leaving Memphis we are on our way to Livingston, Texas.  Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas just happens to be directly on the way.  Perfect!

Pop Quiz: What do major league baseball, gangsters, an old world hotel, luxury spas, the National Park Service, and the boyhood home of President William Jefferson Clinton have in common?  Give up?  The answer is Hot Springs, Arkansas.

I don’t know what images come to mind for you when asked to describe a national park, but for me it conjures images of vast acres of forest, mountains, rivers, lakes and streams, uncountable numbers and species of flora and fauna.  Throw in an occasional geyser, volcano, and frequent waterfall, add peaks so high they touch the sky, and canyons tens of thousands of years old cut deep by the might of a flowing river, guaranteed incredible vistas and sites you’ll only see once in lifetime.  Now toss most of that away and consider Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The city of Hot Springs is situated in a valley surrounded by the Ouachita Mountains, of which the National Park claims 5,500 acres.  Bathhouse Row, a quarter-mile long collection of eight bathhouses along the east side of Central Avenue in downtown Hot Springs is the most visited area within the park.  At the end of Bathhouse Row as an anchor for the downtown area is the Arlington Hotel.  The Arlington is an old-world full-service hotel with uniformed employees, bell staff and concierge; an open and bright lobby, underspoken front desk and lobby bar; 6 floors with long corridors leading to  each of the 120 luxury guest rooms; restaurant and 24-hour room service, 2 outdoor pools built into the mountain-side, a storied history and some fairly nefarious goings on clear back to the early part of the 20th century when the hotel was home to many major league baseball players as well as mobsters on holiday (isn’t THAT a curious phrase?).

To the East and all along Hot Springs Mountain there are driving and hiking paths as well as campgrounds that are open to the public.

Hot Springs, Arkansas is well known as a health and recreation resort that attracted the rich and famous in the late 1800s and well into the 20th century.  In its heyday the city had the finest hotels, liveliest nightclubs, a beautiful mountain setting, and the famous hot springs healing waters.  Hot Springs gets its name from the 47 thermal springs that flow out of the ground at an average temperature of 143 °F.  The hot springs produce almost one million gallons of water each day.  Drinking the hot springs water is perfectly normal, encouraged, and thought to have medicinal benefit.  The water is naturally good to drink when it arrives at the surface and requires no purification.   Throughout downtown and the National Park this natural resource is available to the general public in an unending and unaltered state, and the water can be immediately consumed or bottled and hauled home for consumption later.

It’s hard to tell exactly how long people have been visiting the springs.  Native Americans called this area “the Valley of the Vapors,” and it was said to have been a neutral territory where all tribes could enjoy its healing waters in peace.  Spanish and French settlers claimed the area in the mid-1500s.

The hot springs were such a coveted natural wonder that in 1832, President Andrew Jackson designed Hot Springs as the first federal reservation.  Hot Springs Reservation was essentially America’s first national park, predating Yellowstone National Park by 40 years.

In just a decade after receiving its federal reservation designation, the area changed from a rough frontier town to an elegant spa city centered on a row of attractive Victorian-style bathhouses, the last ones completed in 1888.  When Congress established the National Park Service, Hot Springs Reservation became Hot Springs National Park in 1921.

Bathhouse Row is a collection of bathhouse spas, associated buildings, and gardens located on the east side of the downtown area, along Hot Springs Creek, and each sits literally on top of a hot springs.  Initially Buckstaff, Fordyce, Hale, Lamar, Maurice, Ozark, Quapaw, and Superior bathhouses were independent, competing, commercial enterprises, each more luxurious than the others.  The bathhouses remain a collection of turn-of-the-century eclectic buildings in neoclassical, renaissance-revival, Spanish and Italianate styles aligned in a linear pattern with formal entrances, outdoor fountains, promenades and other landscape-architectural features.  In 1832 the bathhouses were included when the Federal Government took over four parcels of land in order to preserve 47 natural hot springs.  Their mineral waters (which lack the sulphur odor of most hot springs), and their area of origin are located on the lower slopes of Hot Springs Mountain.  Today, the existing bathhouses are the third and fourth generations of the originals.

From the late-1800s through the mid-1900s (especially in the 1930s) Hot Springs was a popular hangout for Al Capone, Frank Costello, Bugs Moran, Lucky Luciano, Owney “The Killer” Madden and other infamous mobsters.  The city was known as a safe haven and neutral territory, and the safe, secluded scenic location made Hot Springs an ideal hideout.  Hot Springs was also a wide-open town and a safe haven for gambling, prostitution and bootlegging.  The Ohio Club became the spot for nightlife.  Gangster activity in Hot Springs came to an end in the 1960s, due to a federal crackdown on what the government called “the site of the largest illegal gambling operation in the U.S.”

In 1886, Cap Anson first brought his Chicago White Stockings (now the Cubs) to Hot Springs for spring training and to take in the famous mineral baths in preparation for the upcoming season.  In time, five fields were built, and each spring as many as 250 players, including many legends of the game came to the City to train.  That list includes Hall of Famers: Hank Aaron, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Cap Anson, Frank “Home Run” Baker, Cool Papa Bell, Yogi Berra, Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, Roy Campanella, Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, Frank Chance, Commissioner Happy Chandler, Mickey Cochrane, Charlie Comiskey, “Dizzy” Dean, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Leo Durocher, Bob Feller, Rube Foster, Jimmie Foxx, Josh Gibson, Hank Greenberg, Robert “Lefty” Grove, Rogers Hornsby, Carl Hubbell, Miller Huggins, Walter “Big Train” Johnson, “Wee” Willie Keeler, Commissioner Kenesaw “Mountain” Landis, Al Lopez, Connie Mack, Larry MacPhail, Mickey Mantle, John McGraw, Johnny Mize, Stan “Stan the Man” Musial, Mel Ott, Satchel Paige, Branch Rickey, Brooks Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Red Ruffing, Babe Ruth, George Sisler, Tris Speaker, Casey Stengel, Bill Terry, Pie Traynor, Honus Wagner, Hack Wilson, and Cy Young.  Not a modern list by any means, but “back in the day…”

The recommended ideal visit to the Park includes a tour of the Fordyce Bathhouse and a walk around downtown, taking in the Arlington Hotel and the Ohio Club, and any number of days hiking followed by a pampering soak and massage.  Who were we to not follow those recommendations?

The Fordyce Bathhouse is the Park’s Visitor Center and a museum telling the history of Hot Springs as America’s First Resort.  Visitors can watch a 9-minute video about the bath routine, view the changing rooms, the “treatment” areas and equipment, the music room complete with a grand piano, and the gymnasium, a forerunner of the modern fitness club.  Visitors can also head down to the basement and see the Fordyce spring, which supplied the bathhouse with its waters.  The displays clearly showed the development of the town, explained the beliefs about the healing properties of the waters, and gave a sense of the different amenities available for the visitors in the late 1880s and early 1900s.  It definitely was a journey back to yesteryear.

Fans of hiking be forewarned as the trails around Hot Springs start with serious uphill treks, and depending on which trail you choose may or may not level off for any substantial distance.  Then there is the return to the trailhead which will be downhill.  We think of it as cardio on the upslope and knees on the downslope.  Maybe that’s why the recommendation was to have a soak and massage following hiking?  There are wonderful vistas to view when you make it to the top of your hike.

Following 2 days of hiking we were more than ready for our spa experience and scheduled a couple’s soak and a massage for Barbara.  The Quapaw Bathhouse was recommended and it did not disappoint.  The staff provides friendly and gracious old-world hospitality and service, and to a person, they go out of their way to make your experience a treat indeed.  You’re escorted into a waiting area as your bath is being prepared; the proper temperature of the water is set and the bath salts chosen are added to the water.  Once in your private room there’s nothing to do but immerse yourself, lay back and enjoy.  Afterwards it was hydrate and avail yourself of a snack if desired, and then off to the massage room.  Barbara was totally pleased with “one of the finest” massages she has ever had.

There was one additional option we’d recommend, and we should have done it ourselves.  Should you find yourself in the Hot Springs neighborhood, purchase a day pass to the Quapaw public baths.  There are 3 baths of varying temperatures available, surrounded by a broad deck with chairs and chaise lounges.  A  bathing suit is required at all times.  Lunch and beverages are available.  There is no time limit other than the hours of operation, so bring a book and spend a part of a day just relaxing.

Barbara and Brian