Hot Springs Mountain

Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas is the only national park in the United States built around a collection of geothermal springs, protecting 47 hot springs that emerge from the base of Hot Springs Mountain at temperatures around 58°C — waters that the federal government has been protecting since 1832, making it the oldest federally reserved land in U.S. history, predating the National Park Service by nearly a century. The bicarbonate-rich waters, naturally pure and free of pathogenic bacteria due to their high temperature and the 4,400-year journey through the earth, flow through a historic bathhouse row of elegant early 20th-century buildings — the Fordyce, Buckstaff, and Quapaw bathhouses — that form one of America's most distinguished collections of Gilded Age and Progressive Era spa architecture. Hot Springs became famous as a therapeutic destination for baseball players, celebrities, gangsters, and presidents during the early 20th century, creating a cultural history as remarkable as its geology. Hot Springs National Park is an irreplaceable American institution — where natural geothermal heritage, architectural grandeur, and the democratic tradition of the public bath come together in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas.