The year 2007 marked the 175th anniversary of Hot Springs National park.  In 1832, President Andrew Jackson named Hot Springs the first Federal Reservation, predating Yellowstone National Park of forty years, making Hot Springs America’s first national park.  In the early 1800s, the area was the destination of the Dunbar-Hunter Expedition commissioned by President Jefferson in 1804.  Once discovered by white settlers, the town quickly gre up around the hot springs to provide services for health seekers, rich and poor.

While the cornerstone of Hot Springs National Park is the thermal waters that flow from the active hot springs, the park also touts 26 miles of hiking trails, scenic drives and vistas overlooking the Ouachita Mountains.  Visitors to the park can tour the Fordyce Bathhouse now serving as the National Park’s visitors center and museum.  The Fordyce, built in 1915, closed in 1962 when the thermal bathing industry began diminishing.  The National Park renovated the abandoned bathhouse and re-opened it as a visitors center and museum in 1989.

1890 Williams House Inn, located in the the national park, is located just seven blocks from the Fordyce Bathhouse and historic Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs Arkansas.  An elegant and comfortable lodging option in Hot Springs Arkansas, you will enjoy downtown Hot Springs with its local restaurants,  boutique shopping, antique shops, art galleries and bathhouses.  Come and enjoy a winter vacation in Hot Springs Arkansas.