Hot Springs: Thermal Water, Horse Racing, and a National Park Inside City Limits
Hot Springs is the only city in the United States with a national park inside its downtown. Hot Springs National Park protects 47 thermal springs that produce roughly 700,000 gallons of 143-degree water per day. Bathhouse Row, a line of eight ornate bathhouses built between 1892 and 1923, is a National Historic Landmark. Two of them still offer bathing services; the Fordyce Bathhouse serves as the park visitor center. The water has been a draw for centuries, used first by Indigenous peoples and later by everyone from Al Capone to Babe Ruth during the city's heyday as a resort destination.
Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort has operated since 1904, making it one of the oldest thoroughbred tracks in the country. The Racing Festival of the South each spring draws horses preparing for the Kentucky Derby. A $100 million expansion added a hotel tower, casino floor, and event center. Oaklawn is the single largest employer in Garland County and one of the biggest revenue generators for the city.
The city wraps around the base of Hot Springs Mountain and the surrounding Ouachita ridges, giving it a topography that is unusual for Arkansas. The winding streets and hillside neighborhoods feel more like an Appalachian spa town than a typical Southern city. Lake Hamilton and Lake Catherine, both created by damming the Ouachita River, provide waterfront housing and recreation on the south side. The population sits around 35,600, but tourism significantly inflates the number of people present at any given time.
During Prohibition and the mid-20th century, Hot Springs operated as an open city where illegal gambling flourished under the protection of local officials. Mobsters including Al Capone and Owney Madden made the city a regular destination. That era ended with a state police raid in 1967 ordered by Governor Winthrop Rockefeller. The Southern Club, the Vapors, and other gambling halls closed, and the city had to reinvent itself around legal tourism and horse racing.
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Hot Springs is the only city in the United States with a national park inside its downtown. Hot Springs National Park protects 47 thermal springs that produce roughly 700,000 gallons of 143-degree water per day. Bathhouse Row, a line of eight ornate bathhouses built between 1892 and 1923, is a National Historic Landmark. Two of them still offer bathing services; the Fordyce Bathhouse serves as the park visitor center. The water has been a draw for centuries, used first by Indigenous peoples and later by everyone from Al Capone to Babe Ruth during the city's heyday as a resort destination.
Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort has operated since 1904, making it one of the oldest thoroughbred tracks in the country. The Racing Festival of the South each spring draws horses preparing for the Kentucky Derby. A $100 million expansion added a hotel tower, casino floor, and event center. Oaklawn is the single largest employer in Garland County and one of the biggest revenue generators for the city.
The city wraps around the base of Hot Springs Mountain and the surrounding Ouachita ridges, giving it a topography that is unusual for Arkansas. The winding streets and hillside neighborhoods feel more like an Appalachian spa town than a typical Southern city. Lake Hamilton and Lake Catherine, both created by damming the Ouachita River, provide waterfront housing and recreation on the south side. The population sits around 35,600, but tourism significantly inflates the number of people present at any given time.
During Prohibition and the mid-20th century, Hot Springs operated as an open city where illegal gambling flourished under the protection of local officials. Mobsters including Al Capone and Owney Madden made the city a regular destination. That era ended with a state police raid in 1967 ordered by Governor Winthrop Rockefeller. The Southern Club, the Vapors, and other gambling halls closed, and the city had to reinvent itself around legal tourism and horse racing.
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