|
The current building was completed in 1922, and the structure that houses the Quapaw Bath House Hot Springs occupies the same site of the two earlier wooden bathhouses, the Horseshoe and the Magnesia.
The owners and builders of the Quapaw named this bathhouse for the Quapaw Indians and incorporated an Indian head design above the entrance, in order to show respect to the long time influence of the Quapaw indigenous peoples.
Bath House Row
Bathhouse Row is a assemblage of bath houses and gardens that are located at Hot Springs National Park in the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas. The buildings that house the bathhouses were included in 1832 when the US Federal Government took over four parcels of land to preserve 47 natural hot springs, their mineral waters (which lack the sulphur odor of most hot springs) and the source springs which are located along the lower slopes of Hot Springs Mountain. This federal acquisition was set aside as the first federal reserve.
The bathhouses are a collection of turn-of-the-century eclectic buildings in neoclassical, renaissance-revival, Spanish and Italianate styles aligned in a linear pattern with formal entrances, outdoor fountains, promenades, and other landscape-architectural features. The buildings are illustrative of the popularity of the spa movement in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Bathhouse Row contains eight bathhouses aligned in a row: Buckstaff, Fordyce, Hale, Lamar, Maurice, Ozark, Quapaw, and Superior; all of which were independent, competing, commercial enterprises.
Visiting the Quapaw
This has long been a regular place for me to stop for a soak in a hot springs pool. Love the hot water, the workers are friendly but don't forget to wear your sandals while walking in the pool deck area.
The primary down side about this hot springs pool is the cost to get in, now at twenty-seven dollars and they do not have a senior discount even though they are part of a National Park.
On my latest visit, when I ask, I find out that the Quapaw gives a ten percent discount for veterans, which drops the cost to enter the Quapaw to just under twenty-five dollars.
Description:
The Quapaw Bath House was built in a Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style and consists of masonry and reinforced concrete covered with stucco. The most striking feature is the large central dome covered with colored tiles and capped with a copper cupola.
The Dome timle was inspired by bathhouse domes in southern France and North Africa.
Quapaw Bath House Information:
Geological Type:
Hot Springs
Pool Temperature:
Source: 143 °
Hot Pool: 104 °
Medium Pool: 102 °
Cool Pool: 96 °
Hot Springs Access:
Pool Time Limits:
no
Reservations Required:
no
Walk-ins Welcome:
yes
Maximum Capacity:
none
Hours of Operation:
Daily:
10am - 6pm, except Tuesday
Last Entry:
5:00 pm
Location:
Address:
413 Central Avenue, Hot Springs NP, AR 71901
Phone:
501.609.9822
Coordinates:
34.5132714, -93.0538072
Elevation:
610 feet
Nearest City:
Hot Springs, Arkansas
Driving Direction:
Geographical Region:
Interior Highlands
Fees:
Park Entrance Fees:
Free
Pool Entrance Fees:
Adults:
$25.00 plus tax (about $27.35)
Seniors (65+):
$25.00 plus tax
Veterans:
$22.50 plus tax (about 24.35)
Children Under Age 14-18:
$25.00 plus tax
Other Site Fees:
Rubber slip-on shoes: $7.00 plus tax
Parking:
Free
Multi-story parking building one block west.
Rating:
Seven of Ten Stars
CX, CD, D1, H0, P2, S1, T0, W1
Native Name:
The Valley of the Vapors
The Ancients
Native Americans are believed to have visited and lived in the area of the hot springs long before 1,000 B.C.E, the end of the
Wayfarer period.
Archeological evidence shows that early Indians quarried stone in the area for various tools and spear points and it is very likely that these indigenous people enjoyed the soothing waters of the thermal hot springs.
While no one knows when the first humans came to what is now Hot Springs, Arkansas, the wise men of this world believe Native Americans, which likely included those of the: Caddo, Choctaw, Cherokee, Quapaw, Tunica and other tribes, were using the springs as a peaceful gathering spot for centuries.
First Wayƒarer
First Migration
(The Algonquian Cultures)
There is no documentation of indigenous people using the hot spring until 1771, when Jean-Bernard Bossu, a French navy captain and explorer, noted during a visit with the Quapaw Indians: "The Akanças country is visited very often by western Indians who come here to take baths, for the hot waters are highly esteemed by native physicians who claim that they are so strengthening."
Caddo
The Caddo Indians enter the written history of the European by way of the chronicles of the expedition begun by Hernando de Soto, which describe encounters during the Spanish passage through southwest Arkansas. As these Spaniards explorers entered within the perimeter which was the Caddo native lands on the 20th of June 1542, they encountered an indigenous people which was uniquely distinguished by their language, social structure, tradition, and way of life. The Caddo often refer to themselves as Hasinai, meaning our own people.
When the Spanish and the French returned and encountered the Hasinai in the 1680s, they were a centrally organized chiefdom under the control of a religious leader, known as the Grand Xinesi. He lived in a secluded house and met with a council of elders.
More recently, most of the Caddo historically lived in the Piney Woods ecoregion of the United States, which is found in the areas of East Texas, southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and southeastern Oklahoma. Upon arrival of the European settlers, the Caddo were affliated with other nearby tribes including the Yowani and Choctaw.
Choctaw
Long before the European settlers arrived, the
Choctaw indigenous people, descendent of the Sons of Diklah and part of the Muskegean language family, lived in the area and/or visited the area of the hot springs throughout the 1600s through 1800s and most likely for several centuries before.
The Chacta indigenous people also were very likely to have utilized the hot waters of this area as their local legend speaks of the thermal springs as constituting a neutral ground in which various tribes, even those at war with each other, could co-exist in peace, at least temporarily.
Quapah
(O·gá·xpa, meaning "Downstream People")
The
Quapaw people, of the family of Dhegiha and descendants of the Sons of Obal
, have a long history in Arkansas, particularly in the area of Hot Springs. They were among the first inhabitants of the region, migrating down the Mississippi River after leaving their close family tribes (Dhegiha) and establishing settlements in what is now the Arkansas Delta.
The Quapaw were renowned for their pottery, river-based lifestyle, and skills as farmers, hunters, and fishermen. They also established extensive trade networks and were involved in diplomatic relations with European powers.
On August 24, 1818, the Quapaw Indians ceded the land around the hot springs to the United States in a treaty. Arkansas became its own territory in 1819 and the following year, the Arkansas Territorial Legislature requested that the springs and adjoining mountains be set aside as a federal reservation. The same year, another treaty designated southwest Arkansas for Choctaw resettlement, but this was amended in 1825 to redirect the Choctaw to Oklahoma.
The Earth
National Park
Hot Springs
Display Spring
behind 259 Central Street Building
(34.5140447, -93.0531235)
Hot Springs (near Arlington Lawn)
(34.5160640, -93.0526120)
Hot Water Fountain (Bottle Filling Station)
Thermal Spring Fountain
(34.5143194, -93.0533203)
Noble Fountain
(34.5117800, -93.0531920)
Hot Springs Fountain
101 Reserve Steet
(34.5117315, -93.0534856)
The Stevens Balustrade
(34.5138743, -93.0532009)
Cold Water Fountain (Bottle Filling Station)
Happy Hollow Fountain
(34.5187907, -93.0490424)
Whittington Spring
(34.5150192, -93.0694076)
Sunset Trail Trailhead
(34.5084466, -93.0686485)
West Mountain Loop Ovderlook
(34.5083101, -93.0684078)
West Mountain Trail Parking and Overlook
(34.5128478, -93.0582312)
Hot Springs National Park
Babe Ruth Historic Baseball Trail
(34.5151900, -93.0727475)
The Modern Man
The Steps
Steps Afoot
West Mountain Trail (34.51260536184969, -93.05851663149497)
Steps Afield
West Mountain Roadway (34.50482633792072, -93.06598066415084)
Congregation:
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah′s Witnesses
(34.5093238, -93.0109551)
2018 E Grand Ave, Hot Springs, AR 71901
Phone: 501.318.9306
English: East Congregation
English: South Congregation
Spanish: National Park Congregation
| 
