HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, ARKANSASin

It was cold and drizzly but a perfect day to visit the Hot Springs National Park and Museum.  The visitor's center is at the Fordyce Bathhouse.  In 1915, reviews proclaimed the Fordyce the best in Hot Springs.  It closed its doors in 1962 and reopened after extensive restoration in 1989.  The bathhouse looks as it did in its earlier years outfitted with the furniture and equipment of the time; steam cabinets, Zander mechano-therapy equipment, tubs, massage tables, sitz tubs, hydrotherapy equipment, billiard table, piano, beauty parlor, lounge and exercise room.

We took the 45-minute ranger guided tour and all of us enjoyed it.  After the tour, we walked Bathhouse Row.  In the 1960s the bathhouses began to close their doors and fell into disrepair.  In the 1980s the National Park Service began exploring ways to return Bathhouse Row to its splendor. 

Hot Springs is not in a volcanic region.  Pores and fractures in the rock conduct the water deep into the Earth.  As the water percolates downward, increasingly warmer rock heats it at a rate of about 4 degrees Fahrenheit every 300 feet.  Eventually, the water meets faults and joints leading up to the lower slope of Hot Springs Mountain, where it surfaces.  The drinking water here is pure and natural with no filtration or chemicals.  People still come here for health reasons to soak in and drink the water with no sulfur smell.

Fordyce Bathhouse - now the Visitors Center & Museum

All the Bathhouse on Bathhouse Row have been renovated - Now the Cultural Center

This fountain was in the men's bathhouse

Not much for comfort but it served its purpose

This was a beautiful leaded stain glass skylight in, of course, the men's bathhouse

The Arlington Hotel & Spa - The present Arlington opened in 1924 but the original opened in 1875.  The original was
a 3-story high wooden structure.  That building was razed to make way for a new 300-room Spanish
Renaissance structure in 1893. That building was destroyed by fire in 1923. Famous guests like Presidents, Babe Ruth,
Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand and Yoke Ono have all stayed here.  Al Capone had a whole floor
for his staff and bodyguards.

Thanks for stopping in to say hi and God Bless.