Hot Springs National Park

Hot Springs National Park, 5,549 acres (2,247 hectares), W central Ark.; est. 1921; nearly surrounded by the city of Hot Springs. Visited by Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto in 1541, the springs, long used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes, became a Federal Reservation in 1832. More than a million gallons of water a day, with an average temperature of 143°F; (62°C;), flow from 47 springs. The National Park Service collects, cools, and supplies water to bathhouses in and out of the park. See National Parks and Monuments (table).

---

Hot Springs National Park

National park, central Arkansas, U.S. Established in 1921, it occupies an area of 9 square mi (23 sq km). It is centred on 47 thermal springs, from which more than 850,000 gallons (3,200,000 litres) of water, with an average temperature of 143 °F (62 °C), flow daily. The springs, long used by the Indians and probably visited by Hernando de Soto in 1541, drew Spanish and French visitors in search of health benefits in the 1700s. The city of Hot Springs (pop., 2000: 35,750), a health and tourist resort and boyhood home of U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton, was settled in 1807 and incorporated in 1876.

---

Hot Springs National Park

Parks Directory of the United States / US National Parks / National Parks

Address: 101 Reserve St
Hot Springs, AR 71901
Phone: 501-620-6715;
Web: www.nps.gov/hosp/
Size: 5,550 acres.
Established: Hot Springs Reservation set aside on April 20, 1832; dedicated to public use as a park on June 16, 1880; redesignated as a national park on March 4, 1921.
Location: In Hot Springs, Arkansas, 55 miles southwest of Little Rock, in the Zig Zag Mountains on the eastern edge of the Ouachita Range.
Facilities: Campground (é), picnic area, rest rooms (é), bathhouse, visitor center (é), museum/exhibit, self-guided tour/trail.
Activities: Camping, hiking, horseback riding, thermal bathing, auto touring, family programs, guided and self-guided tours.
Special Features: The oldest park currently in the National Park System (40 years older than Yellowstone National Park) protects 47 hot springs and their watershed, numerous hiking trails, as well as eight historic bathhouses that compose "Bathhouse Row," a National Historic Landmark District.

---

See other parks in Arkansas.