Park Number: 20/63

First Visited: May 8, 2011

Prior to Gateway Arch, this was the oddest national park in the entire system. I say this because it’s only 5,550 acres, it’s in an urban setting, and, more than anything, it’s really just a bathhouse of antiquity.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think bathhouses are just as cool as the next person, but why this place has “national park” status befuddles me. Of the forty-three hot springs in the park, a lot of them are capped off and inaccessible to the public. Also, the most famous of the geysers isn’t even fully natural; it was artificially diverted to be more aesthetically pleasing.

Surprisingly though, Hot Springs was actually the first federally protected “park” in the country in 1832. Hot Springs, however, didn’t become a true national park until 1921. But, nonetheless, this is why Hot Springs was selected to be the first national park quarter released in the series.

I don’t have grievances with this park, it just stands out as the Which-One-of-These-Doesn’t-Belong. The place, I think, would be better suited as a national historic site.

Affiliated tribes with Hot Springs are the Quapaw and the Caddo.

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