While it may be one of our smallest parks, the Hot Springs facts page is full of cool stats and surprising facts that may enlarge the park’s status in the eye of the curious traveler.
Guide to Hot Springs
Hot Springs Fun Facts
fact 1: Hot Springs National Park is our oldest protected park.
Not many know this, but the area was first set aside as Hot Springs National Reservation by Congressional action in 1832, during the administration of Andrew Jackson.
Some folks mistakenly claim that Hot Springs is our oldest national park, which is simply not correct, as the idea for a “national park” had not yet been proposed, but this was a start. Yellowstone, the world’s first national park, would not be declared for another 40 years.
fact 2: The water at Hot Springs has been underground for more than 4,000 years!
Scientists tell us that the water that emerges from the Earth at Hot Springs National Park has been underground for a long, long time. Rainwater that falls on this area of the Ouachita mountains slowly seeps through the cracks and faults in the Earth’s crust and travels down an estimated 8,000 feet into the boiling internal caldron that exists at the center of the Earth.
As this water moves deeper into the Earth’s core, it slowly heats to a point that is well above the boiling point. It is estimated that it takes about 4,000 years to travel that 8,000 feet, where the water hits a fault line, which begins to return the water to the Earth’s surface. Scientists tell us that it only takes about 400 years for the intense upward pressure to return water some 8,000 feet to the surface, where it emerges at 147° degrees F.
That sure is some hot old aqua…
fact 3: There are plenty of sharp knives in Hot Springs National Park.
Well, at least there should be… Hot Springs has been home to mining activity for centuries, as the hills that surround the park are heavily laden with a stone known as Novaculite. Native Americans used this stone to craft tools and and weapons for thousands of years prior to European arrival.
The early 1800s witnessed an increase in the amount of novaculite that was removed from the hills that today surround the park. Novaculite is best known today for its use as whetstones, which are sharpening stones used to sharpen knives, blades and other metal-edged tools. The term “whetting” means to sharpen something by rubbing it on a stone.
Indeed, the term novaculite is derived from the Latin term novacula, which translates to razor.
Today, any self-respecting mountain man who has a sharp knife on his hip is probably the proud owner of a classic Arkansas Whetstone, which very well may have came from the hills of Hot Springs.
Hot Springs Stat Sheet
established: March 4, 1921 as Hot Springs National Park
national reservation: in 1832 (oldest protected park)
rank of admission: 15
size: 5,550 acres
rank in size: 62
annual visitation: 2018 – 1,506,887
rank in visitation: 19
time zone: Central Time
park phone: 501 620 6715
Guide to Hot Springs
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