Hot Springs, Arkansas is hot. And not just in the geothermal spring waters. The city has been gaining steam as a popular travel destination. What many people don’t know is that Hot Springs has been ahead of the times for more than a century when it comes to attracting tourists, and that storied history only adds to the Hot Springs’ charm and allure.
In 2018, Priceline named Hot Springs its number one emerging travel city. COVID barely slowed things down, and in 2023 it boasted more than 3 million visitors a year. It’s a modern success story for a small town in Arkansas, but its history is even more impressive. Over a century ago, Hot Springs National Park was the most visited health and wellness resort in the U.S. because of its healing thermal waters. And Sin City started in Hot Springs before Las Vegas was even a concept.
When you first hear about Hot Springs’ colorful past, it seems their history comes straight from a movie script. From bathhouses to gangsters, a diverse range of accounts have made Hot Springs what it is today. The town’s innovation in its use of natural resources created a destination that continues to thrive in modern times.
Hot Springs National Park
Hot Springs’ intriguing past makes it the quirky and diverse city it is today. Its “American Spa” nickname references the remarkable natural phenomenon found in Hot Springs. There are 47 natural hot springs throughout the city.
Hot Springs’ unique metropolitan setting, comprising historic buildings, thermal spring water, and an urban, federally protected area, creates a distinctive setting for thriving businesses in a modern world.
The city formed around the springs before government-mandated regulations. Developments were able to capitalize on the area’s unique mineral water, which has helped create the diverse and thriving city of Hot Springs.
Bringing the Bathhouses Into the Modern Era
With the discovery of geothermal mineral water, bathhouses became a prominent use of the area’s natural resources. Civil War veterans were among the first groups to benefit from the water, hoping to utilize the water’s rumored healing properties.
Over the years, Bathhouses became medical facilities. Thousands journeyed to Hot Springs, hoping to reap the benefits of the healing waters. Locals prescribed mineral water for various medical conditions before the invention of antibiotics and other modern medicines. Some Western doctors sent patients to Hot Springs when traditional medical care no longer worked.
The scarcity of indoor plumbing at the time made hot baths a novelty. Accounts of sick people healed by soaking in the clean, hot water for several weeks spread rapidly around the country. Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt touted the benefits of the springs. Hot springs’ popularity as a polio treatment grew after he gave his stamp of approval.
Bathouses remain a long-standing tradition. Tourists can travel back in time to one of the Southern city’s most unique experiences by stepping into the elegant Buckstaff Bathhouse. Once the elevator attendant brings guests to their designated floor, a personal attendant guides them from station to station to experience different forms of treatments developed from the warm mineral water.
Pure Water Transformed Beyond Spa Treatments
Though mineral water is no longer the novelty it once was, budding entrepreneurs discover other uses for the unique spring water.
Sake, a traditional Japanese wine made of fermented rice, didn’t take off in North America until recently. But Hot Springs’ extremely pure water drove Matt Bell to found Origami Sake in the area 15 years ago.
The simplicity of sake, made primarily of water, made the product an obvious fit for the famous water from Hot Springs. When Bell heard the business idea, he jumped at the opportunity. Bell works with one of the world’s 400 certified sake masters to create one of the nation’s only authentic sakes. The pair has even partnered with a local Arkansas farmer specializing in sake rice.
Travelers can tour the distillery for an unforgettable firsthand lesson on sake-making processes. The 22,000-square-foot brewery is the largest domestically owned sake brewer in the United States.
Secrets Still Exist in Downtown Hot Springs
Another piece to the puzzle in Hot Springs’ history that is making a comeback is its connection to prohibition-era gangsters.
Hot Springs was once a haven for gambling, bootlegging, and other activities in the first half of the 20th century. From 1927 to 1967, Hot Springs had the most sizable illegal gambling operation in the U.S. Visitors include Bugs Moran, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, and Al Capone.
Another unique Hot Springs feature lured gangsters — its spiderweb network of underground tunnels. The purpose behind the constructed tunnels was to help with stormwater runoff from the mountains. Engineers also needed to prevent bathhouse visitors from crossing raw sewage. Of course, the gangsters found another use as the perfect cover for hidden transportation beneath the city. Mobsters could enter the basements from the Arlington Hotel and travel to bathhouses or join their friends at gambling soirees without anyone seeing them and provided cover to transport illicit goods.
Today, Hot Springs has embraced its mobster history with a fun throwback in the form of an elusive restaurant that provides the type of secrecy once hidden in Hot Springs. The industrial-style restaurant at 901 Central Avenue is hidden in an unidentified art gallery and requires a password from your booked reservation. The restaurant’s incognito style pays a fitting homage to Hot Springs when the Prohibition-era city provided a haven for gangsters.
Hot Springs Uses the Past To Shape the Future
Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, is passionate about the city and its vision for the future. “Hot Springs is unique in that it matches up perfectly with the things that all our visitors are looking for in a vacation destination,” notes Arrison. He highlights the rich history, natural wonders, gaming, and family attractions that “[have] made Hot Springs Arkansas’s number one vacation destination for over a century.”
It’s not hard to share in Arrison’s excitement. Hot Springs’ extraordinary history has shaped the city into a vibrant tourist destination that embraces its past to create an even brighter future.
