Hot Springs National Park Arkansas

Hot Springs National Park

After leaving The Smoky Mountains we headed 600 miles South. Hot Springs Arkansas was our destination. Since we normally try to keep our daily miles traveled below 400 miles we got about 50 miles east of Memphis. Then we moved on and headed to Hot Springs. We pulled into a nice RV Park near Hot Springs. JJ RV Park. JJ the owner, he built the Park 18 years ago. JJ was a character. Hot Springs was different than the other Parks. The Park is the town, took us a while to understand how to "visit" the Park. The Park focus is the Hot Springs and the Bath Houses that line Central Avenue. 10 or 11 houses still are in their place along the Avenue. Most of them have had some extensive restoration and are museums. The Baths had all the bath tubs, showers and other equipment, not sure it would pass all the current laws. Ann used the word Creepy. I did not disagree. The water coming into the baths was 143 degrees. It is not heated by geothermal, but pressure forcing the water up through fissures in the earth surface. I am sure that is not how a geologist would explain the process. If you really want to know the details Google the process. The history I was expecting was to have Hot Springs history built around President Roosevelt. I remember reading how he would travel by train and spend time in Hot Springs and "soak" in the Pools. I did not find any historical evidence that he spent time in Hot Springs. Not one sign that said "Roosevelt slept here". So the second half of this section of the blog takes us down a darker side of Hot Springs.

Arlington Hotel the Crown Jewel of Hot Springs

Built in 1923 

Population in 1923 was about 33,000 

The rest of the story...

Gangsters---Booze---Prostitution---Gambling

After we had wandered around downtown and looked at the bath houses and the National Park Visitor Centers. We moved on to the "Rest of the Story". By the way I could not find any Post Cards in the trinket shops. We then begin to look at the other side of street. One of the very interesting things we did was to go into the Gangster Museum. Our guide through the museum (pictured to the right), he has been a life long resident of Hot Springs. Interesting person to give you a verbal journey through about 60 years. Our guide took us through the museum. It had about 8 rooms. We would go into the room and he would give us stories and information and then a video about the topic that was that rooms focus. Al Capone wandered the streets during the roaring 20's. Hot Springs was wide open in regards to booze. Possum Kingdom an area north of Hot Springs was the hot bed of Moon Shiners. "Clear" was brewed under the shine of the Moon. Hence, Moon Shine. Hot Springs had 4 major plants that made glass bottles....Thousands of gallons of "shine" left the area in trucks and on the Railroad. It seemed that every gangster of that era at one or more times spent some time in Hot Springs. Al Capone had some issues with the IRS and did not go back to Hot Springs after 1930. That left a huge void in the for the bad guys to fill. During this void a "understanding" Mayor, Leo McLaughlin was elected and was major for 20 or so years. During this time a few of the visitors to Hot Springs; Frank Nash, Alvin Karpis and the Barker Gang, Pretty Boy Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde. Each of this list had meetings "on the record" with Mayor McLaughlin. Hot Springs at this time had about 9 major casinos and most of the houses and buildings that had a second and third story was a house of ill repute. Reading about the history around Hot Springs is interesting to say the least.

Just had to take this picture.

 

Leaving Hot Springs area and heading for Texas....