Hot Springs National Park is one of the smallest national parks in the United States and preserves something rather unique among national park sites. While the park is centered around the natural hot springs located in the area, the park just as much preserves the man-made structures built around the hot springs. Native Americans had been coming to this area for many years before Europeans, who eventually built up Hot Springs as a commercial district centered around the bathhouses that utilized the water from the hot springs. While there are only a couple of bathhouses still functioning for their original purpose today, many of the buildings still stand and are used for other purposes.

Visitors to the national park site will be struck by the fact that the site stretches along the main street through Hot Springs, featuring many Art Deco buildings. The actual national park is made up of several of the old bathhouses that stretch along one side of the road. Plaques in front of each of the bathhouses give a brief history of each house and point out some of the unique architectural details.

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One of these bathhouses is currently being renovated; another is a brewery and tasting room called Superior Bathhouse Brewery; two are still used as bathhouses; others are owned by the national park service, one of which serves as the park visitor center. In addition to being the visitor center, this building is a museum which preserves the bathhouse as it looked in the early twentieth century, allowing visitors to tour the different rooms and get an idea of what it would have been like to visit a bathhouse. The tour is self-guided, and visitors get to walk through each of the rooms that were a part of the process, including the changing rooms, the hot baths, and the different specialty rooms, such as the beauty salon and the lounge.

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After leaving the visitor center, visitors can walk behind the bathhouses, enjoying some of the natural beauty of the national park and getting to see some of the hot springs. If you’d like to enjoy a slightly longer hike, there are a few trails in the national park close to the bathhouses.

Hot Springs National Park reveals yet another facet of American history and is well-worth a visit. We enjoyed getting to see the architecture of the bathhouses, as well as learning about how patrons used to enjoy their baths. Finally, the landscape itself was lush and a joy to be in.