Up early to catch a couple of hours at Hot Springs National
Park. Patti had visited this place 30 years ago in the spring, when it was cold
and having a hot springs bathing experience felt great. Not today!
Hot-already nearly 90 degrees, before 9:00, and humid.
This area of natural hot springs has along
history of people enjoying the waters.
It was set aside as a “reservation” in 1825 by President Andrew
Jackson. That meant it became government
land and could be protected.
Over the next 100+ years, the government allowed lavish
bathhouses to be built. A town grew up
around the baths. People traveled from
all over to come and “take the baths” for health and therapeutic reasons. Many famous people came there, and it was a
world-class destination. Eventually, it
was named as a National Park, preserving both the natural wild areas, as well
as the developed areas around the hot springs downtown. The bathhouses eventually went out of
fashion, and most closed. The National
Park Service has been in the process of rehabbing the old buildings, and two of them are
currently open for hot water baths and massage.
Since we were there before even the Visitor’s Center
opened, we walked along the street looking at these grand old buildings on bathhouse
row. They are still glorious. Many were highly luxurious and we got glimpses
of what the visitors would have experienced when they came in the past, and
what many people till take advantage of today. The Buckstaff Bath now has modern bathing facilities that are available at a more reasonable price than what was pain 100 years ago.
Highlights included talking with
summer interns and rangers about some of the projects they were working on
(including using goats to eat invasive species and doing testing of the water
from the springs). The staff was highly
knowledgeable and friendly. We enjoyed
our taste, but hot baths when the temperatures are rising just didn’t sound
good today.
We noticed a number of
fountains. Although these were not
elaborate, they were different. The
water flowing from them was so hot that there was steam along with the water.
They were fed directly from one of the springs. This was a very practical way
for us to experience the hot waters of the area.
We walked up to the area behind the big bathhouses. This was developed as the Promenade. We could imagine the well-to-do patrons of
the baths strolling along this brick walkway in their fashionable clothes.
There were over 40 wells or springs
producing water at 143 degrees F. Water
from some of the springs is still dedicated to the bathhouses and has to be
cooled in order to be used for baths. Elsewhere,
there were springs that had been channeled and some just flowed
out-of-the-ground. One in the middle of
a lawn.
The National Park Service had restored one of the
bathhouses as a Visitor’s Center. We were able to go into one that was made
into a museum and visitor’s center to see what the grand old bathhouses looked
like. At their time, these were state
of the art medical, massage and physical therapy facilities. We
took a very informative self-guided tour of the building. It was an example of how the rich-and-famous
would enjoy the experience with all of the luxury they expected.
Men and women were separated on two
sides of each of the bathhouses. Usually
the men’s side was more elaborate but women still wanted the to bathe,
too. Some bathhouses had to expand their
facilities for women because it became too crowded. We saw the facilities and they were sumptuous
on both sides. Each of the bathers was
assigned an attendant who cared for them, even with help in bathing.
The hot springs water was promoted as being
“healing.” There were many reports of
miraculous cures of a wide variety of ailments and infirmities. One example of how the bathhouses prepared to
serve these people was the transfer lift to assist those without use of their
legs to gain access to a bath.
Especially after the previous two days,
we were hypersensitive to the racial divide that was apparent at the time of
the heyday of the bathhouses. Arkansas
is in the South and Jim Crow laws were rigidly enforced. In the big bathhouses on Bathhouse Row, all
of the rich patrons were White. Nearly all
of the staff attending to them were Black.
Non-White people who wanted to enjoy the hot spring waters could not
enter the big bathhouses. To accommodate their needs, a whole different system
of bathhouses was established a couple blocks away. Of course, these were not nearly as elegant
and were not preserved. But, the memory
of them lives on.
By late morning, the road called. We were due in a suburb of Dallas at Patti’s
sister in time for dinner. So off in our
car to head for Texas. By noon, the
temperature was over 100. Yay, air
conditioning!
As we neared the Texas/Arkansas
border, we realized we would be driving right by the town of Hope, AR:
Birthplace of President Bill Clinton. His campaign phrase was that he was "A Man From Hope." On
this year’s trip, how could we pass this up?
So we stopped.
Bill was born to his young
mother a couple months after his birth father had died in a car accident. She and Bill lived with her parents, and they
cared for Bill while she left him to go to New Orleans to finish her nursing
training. She eventually married another
man, by the name of Clinton, and Bill at age 15 decided to take the Clinton
name, although he was never officially adopted by his step-dad.
The house was modest but nice, and he
lived there and visited on and off until his grandfather died when Bill was age
10. The house does not have original
family furnishings, but Bill’s mother was very active as they were setting up
the house to become a historic site, sharing a lot of information about what
the house would have been like when he was a small child. Bill was a big fan of Hopalong Cassidy, a TV western hero in the 50s. He was especially drawn to this character because his grandparents' last name was Cassidy.
We joined a house tour in progress and got
to get inside this house and see lots of copies of pictures and furniture that
would be typical of time. There was an
old fashioned swing on the front porch.
Patti couldn’t resist the opportunity to enjoy it for a few moments.
Then, another 3+ hours to drive until we
would reach Patti’s sister, Peggy’s home in the suburbs of Dallas. So nice to see her and her family. We were
warmly greeting. Of course, Dallas is
also HOT!
We would then settle in for a couple of
nights on a quick final family visit of this trip. Dinner at Peggy and Rob’s is
always excellent, and Rob fixed some really good pork tenderloin on the grill
with Drew helping on two delicious sauces.
Peggy made some other wonderful dishes.
We all ate some great food. It
was fun having time together to begin to catch up. We don’t see each other as often as we would
like.
Interesting read! I wanted to stop at the Hot Springs but spent too much time in Memphis.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I saw the strangest thing driving through Arkansas, people were towing two cars that were hooked to the back of a pick-up. I saw several like this and only in this state. One can only think they were cars bought at an auction or something.