Hot Springs, Arkansas

 Arkansas
May 012021
 

April 2021

Hot Springs, Arkansas, has a very rich history.  It gets its name from the natural thermal spring waters that flow out of the ground at an average temperature of 143 °F, producing almost one million gallons of water each day.  Water flowing from the springs today fell as rain when Egyptians were building the pyramids.

Native Americans called this area “the Valley of the Vapors,”  and Spanish and French settlers claimed the area in the mid-1500s.

In 1832, President Andrew Jackson declared Hot Springs as the first federal reservation essentially making Hot Springs the US’s first national park, but without the official designation.

Over time the area grew to be an elegant spa city centered on a row of Victorian-style bathhouses. Hot Springs Reservation became Hot Springs National Park in 1921.

From the late-1800s through the mid-1900s, with its heyday in the 1930s, Hot Springs was a hotbed of mob activity and a  popular hangout for Al Capone, Frank Costello, Bugs Moran, Lucky Luciano.

On Mach 12, 1927, US Park Ranger James Alexander Cary was killed by bootleggers while patrolling on West Mountain in Hot Springs National Park. Cary was the first National Park Service Ranger to be murdered in the line of duty.

Mob activity came to an end in the 1960s, due to a federal crackdown on what the government called “the site of the largest illegal gambling operation in the U.S.”

After a 400 mile drive,  as we entered the park, we read the guide book stating “don’t go out of your way to visit the Hot Springs”

Ghost Signs at the Hot Springs

It is a strange park.  It is the smallest national park, formed around a natural resource that is used for commercial purposes. The  commercial strip is the entry of the park with one side belonging to the park and the other being privately owned.  The town has fallen on very hard times, with many abandoned buildings and a grand hotel, that sits on National Park land, in dire need of love and attention.  Only two baths still operate as they once did. Sadly they had very limited hours during COVID, but the architecture of each of the remaining buildings are worth a slow stroll through town.

Abandoned buildings in downtown Hot Springs

An odd little tidbit this San Franciscan found fun: Before Tony Bennett was to perform his famous song I Left My Heart in San Francisco he rehearsed the song at the Vapors in Hot Springs.  Nobody was around except for the bartender who was setting up for the night.  After hearing the song, the bartender told Bennett and his accompanist, “hey guys, if you record that song I’ll buy a copy.”

These green boxes can be found all along the Grand Promenade. They surround individual springs to protect the quality and help regulate the water. Some springs are hotter than others, some have more flow, and some are prone to temporary dips in temperature due to rainfall.

View from the Hot Springs Mountain Tower observation deck which puts you 216 feet in the air or 1,256 feet above sea level.

Ozark Baths

Superior Baths

Eureka Springs Arkansas

 Arkansas
May 012021
 

April 2021

Eureka Springs is an unusual town.  Its architecture is primarily Victorian, and with its narrow streets and historic trains, it is a fun place to explore. Despite its charm it is filled, primarily, with tacky tourists shops.

A flatiron building in Eureka Springs. The original building was built in 1880 and was destroyed by fire in 1890. Shortly after, a new building was erected and also was destroyed by fire. The current building was built in 1987.

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Most everything was closed due to COVID so a walk around town was enough, we headed out of Eureka Springs to go exploring the environs.

Driving around Northern Arkansas the fields were filled with buttercups.

A hike along the Buffalo River yielded an armadillo carapace

A small glimpse of the Buffalo River. The river is a National Park, to reach the water you need to hike, go by boat or bicycle

Our day to explore the Northeast of Arkansas began with a tornado warning that sent us to the basement of our hotel.  The rest of the day was under flash flood warnings, we crossed many rivers overflowing their banks.

Crystal Bridges

Once on our way we headed to Crystal Bridges Museum.  The rain made pictures of the place impossible, but looking out the windows was a great reminder that we were high and dry.

Cleaning up after flash floods at Crystal Bridges. In the back you can see Fly’s Eye Dome by Buckminster Fuller and Americana by George Sánchez-Calderón

More exterior art at Crystal Bridges On the left is Lowell’s Ocean by Mark di Suvero

The Bachman-Wilson house by Frank Lloyd Wright at Crystal Bridges, was closed that day

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is in Bentonville, Arkansas. Founded by Alice Walton of Walmart,  the museum opened November of 2011.

The museum, designed by Moshe Safdie and engineered by Buro Happold, is made of glass-and-wood and  features a series of pavilions nestled around two creek-fed ponds..

photo from Wikipedia

Gilhuly at Crystal Bridges

Thorncrown Chapel

Sitting quietly in Thorncrown Chapel simply brought me to tears.

Thorncrown Chapel was designed by renowned architect E. Fay Jones. Fay was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1921. He studied at the University of Arkansas, Rice University, the University of Oklahoma, and under his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright at the Taliesin Fellowship.

A closer look at the pulpit

The interior  lights form crosses that are not noticed by many

Thorncrown Chapel is worth seeking out, and if you can enjoy the chapel alone it is a very moving and wonderful experience.

Little Rock

We flew out of Little Rock giving us just enough time to visit a dear old friend and see a few sights.

Central High School – Little Rock

Central High School was the center of racial discrimination in Little Rock.  The National Parks has installed a wonderful educational center just down the block from the High School.

The formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, enrolled nine black students in September 1957. Their attendance at the school was a test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. On September 4, 1957, the first day of classes, Governor Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to block the black students’ entry into the high school. Soon, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine into the school. It drew national attention to the civil rights movement.

Across the street from the National Park Educational Center is the Magnolia/Mobil service station.  It was built in the 1920s, and has served as a gas station, a student hangout, a temporary “office” for reporters during the desegregation crisis, storage for a wholesale florist business, a National Historic Site visitor center, eventually it will be an educational center for the National Park Service.

The Arkansas River flows right through the center of Little Rock, making their bridges a focal point for visitors in the newly built waterfront park area.  This is a bridge as seen from the Clinton Center and the restaurant 42 as the sun went down.

A roundup of our 2021 National Parks Road Trip

We visited:

Congaree National Park – the largest intact expanse of old growth bottom land and a UNESCO Biosphere site.

Shenandoah National Park had the first Civilian Conservation Corp camp in a National Park.

The Great Smokey Mountain National Park is the most visited National Park in the states and the most biologically diverse.

The New River Gorge National Park is the newest designated National Park

Mammoth Caves National Park is a UNESCO Biosphere site and a World Heritage Site with the world’s longest underground cave system.

Gateway Arch National Park is the smallest National Park

Hot Springs National Park is the most urban National Park

We visited 7 national parks, drove through 9 states (Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois) crossed the Mississippi, Missouri and Arkansas Rivers, there were hundreds more, but those are the big ones, and we saw four mountain ranges, The Appalachia’s, The Smokies, The Shenandoah and the Ozarks.