Hot Springs "National Park"

The Hot Springs National Park is probably the least worthwhile National Park I've ever seen and could ever imagine. As I told the people at the visitor center, I have trouble caring. After having toured the Fordyce Manor, I have even more trouble caring. So, they used to rub mercury on peoples' genitals in an attempt to cure syphillis. So what? At the most, this should be a state historical park, and not a National Park absorbing tax dollars from people in faraway states. A worthy project would be to strip this place of its National Park designation. I can understand how someone who lives in Arkansas would support the Gates of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, even if they never visit there. But, I can't understand how anyone who lives in Alaska, California, New York, or even elsewhere in the South would want to support the preservation of bathhouses and quackery. (Although, to be fair, the cures there were supposedly not considered quackery at the time, they were considered state of the art for the time.)

Aren't we setting the bar a bit low here? What are we going to have 100 years from now? The L. Ron Hubbard National Park? The Wal*Mart National Historical Site?

A small part of the problem for me is, frankly, the thought that this was basically a place just for the rich. However, that is apparently not correct; the bath houses weren't just for rich people. Down the street from the Fordyce was one that catered to working people. There was even a nationally-run bath house for indigents. [Just like in Russia --ed.] Taking the baths there was considered beneficial to the greater good.

There are still a few operating bath houses here, it costs around $20 to take a bath. At Fordyce, it was $2.30 in 1965 for a bath; that would be in line with the current price.

Pictured above is a bath that people were lowered into. The sign mentions the bit about mercury. See this page for more information on the park and other tourist traps there.

Seriously, why? I've been to several National Parks across the country, and I am still puzzled how anyone could think this place is even remotely in the same league as the Grand Canyon, Zion, or even something relatively small and insignificant like Bryce.

BloggingAcrossAmerica · Sun, 11/09/2003 - 11:08 · Importance: 1