Our time in Hot Springs, Arkansas began like much of the trip thus far. Torrential rains, black skies, angry clouds, and flash flood warnings. I won’t go into too much detail for fear this blog is starting to sound more like a weather report than a travel story, but it is rather unnerving to have your phone blaring emergency alerts at you every few hours. We were able to snag one of the last four sites available at Gulpha Gorge, the Hot Springs National Park campground.

The campground’s proximity to the already swollen creek was also unnerving especially because we had recently seen the outcome of another campground flooding. Fortunately, the camp host eased our worries by assuring us that we weren’t in any trouble. We must not have looked too convinced because he went on to tell us that there are numerous sensors monitoring water levels both in the creek and coming down the mountain.

Sufficiently satisfied that we wouldn’t float away, we battened down the hatches for the evening and hoped for sun in the morning. Hot Springs marks the first official national park of our journey so we were very excited to be there. Much of our road trip itinerary is built around visiting national parks as they encompass many things near and dear to us: nature, hiking, scenery, history, and preservation of our beautiful planet.

The next morning clouds finally gave way to sun as we explored the historic and arts district of Hot Springs where the park is located. Hot Springs National Park is unique in many ways. Most obviously is that it isn’t a large swath of rugged land as many national parks are. Instead the main area of the park is located right in the old downtown of Hot Springs, AR. It’s a picturesque street filled with historic structures, small local shops, and flowering trees. Bathhouse row stands out with large, architecturally diverse, and ornate buildings.

Unlike other parks, where the National Park Service (NPS) is protecting and preserving the natural environments of an area of land, the goal at Hot Springs is to protect, preserve, and share the water itself. While it wasn’t the first national park (that title belongs to Yellowstone of course), back in 1832 it was the first natural resource to ever be reserved by the federal government.

The NPS restored and maintains one of the most opulent buildings on the street—the Fordyce Bathhouse. We went on a ranger led tour of the 28,000 square foot building. We learned that as far back as historians know, the hot springs were used by humans for healing. First by the indigenous people of the area, then also by French fur traders. As the area became more widely known and popular, business people made claims on the land and built wooden bathhouse structures over the springs so they could charge admission. The problem with those structures is that, as you can imagine, they frequently rotted away or burned (in addition to being grossly unsanitary).

In the 1890’s through the 1920’s all of the old wooden structures were replaced with vast, luxurious buildings. Many of the bathhouses were created with Spanish style architecture. The goal of Hot Springs at that time was to rival Europe’s bathhouses. Slogans like “Uncle Sam Bathes the World” were used to draw visitors from all over. Many people arrived by train where they were greeted by “drummers”. Drummers would ask what ailment the visitor had and then recommend a specific doctor at a specific bathhouse. They were of course getting a cut of the money from that doctor. Eventually “drumming” got so disruptive that it was outlawed.

The Fordyce Bathhouse still has much of the original equipment that was used for treatments. While the foundation for many of the treatments is still used today, the rooms look more like torture chambers than health spas. One treatment in particular caught our attention—the mercury sitz-bath. The patient’s skin would be completely covered with a mercury paste. Then they’d sit in a hot sitz-bath where the mercury would of course vaporize. Being that we’d just finished listening to the S-Town Podcast the day before, we found this particularly interesting. No spoilers, so I won’t say anymore, but we definitely recommend S-Town.

Another unique feature of Hot Springs NP is that visitors are encouraged to take the natural resource. Part of the government’s mandate for the area is that the waters must be freely given away to everyone so that all can enjoy the benefits of the magic water. The springs pump out 700,000 gallons of water per day. There are multiple jug filling stations located throughout the park where anyone can come and take the piping hot 143° F water. And many do. We saw people coming and going all day from filling stations. Pulling up with multiple 5, 10, or more gallon containers to fill and take back to their homes.

It’s local belief that the waters still have healing and restorative powers. We can understand why. The hot springs water (even warm) was the best we’ve ever tasted! The best way I can think to describe it is soft, pure, and rich. I know that none of these words are typically used to describe taste but the water transcends taste in some way. I guess it’s gotten to me too because I feel like maybe the water is a little magical.

One day while filling our 5 gallon jug, an older gentleman came up to the fountain and told us with a smile that the water is “Arkansas Vodka,” he continued with “It’s what keeps me alive.” Soon another man approached to fill his own 6 jugs. He asked if we were planning to go crystal or diamond mining while we were visiting. Before we had a chance to reply, the first man’s eyes lit up and he jumped in with a story.

He said that years ago there was a woman out at the diamond mine. She was standing at the edge of a large pit when something pushed her down into the hole. There was no one around though. Apparently Hot Springs is also very haunted. The woman miraculously wasn’t injured by the fall, but her shovel had fallen with her and hit something large and hard on the way down. When she looked to see what it was, she found a 600 carat diamond. Perhaps we had encountered our very own modern-day “drummer”.

We ended our time at Hot Spring NP with a long day of hiking and then some relaxing by the now less raging creek. We didn’t end up doing any mining, but perhaps we should have. Could Arkansas really be home to magic water and haunted fortune filled mines?

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