Fordyce Bathhouse

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Source:	Hot Springs National Park
Categories:	Field Trips, Historic Buildings, Science

Description

Water. That’s what attracts people to Hot Springs. People have used the hot springs for more than two hundred years to treat illnesses and to relax. Both rich and poor came for the baths, and a town built up around the Hot Springs Reservation to accommodate them. Together nicknamed “The American Spa,” Hot Springs National Park today surrounds the north end of the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas. The Fordyce Bathhouse was the largest and most elegant of the bathhouses. It has been the park visitor center with 24 refurnished rooms since 1989.

Programs

All park tours are free. A guide will take you through the restored bathhouse rooms. You will hear about why people took the baths and how they took them. You will also hear about what else there was to do at the bathhouse. In the gymnasium, the students will be able to hold a medicine ball.

If time allows, students may watch the 15-minute park movie “Valley of Vapors” in the theater, or you may request to use it before the tour. An optional short tour to the nearby open springs that includes a taste of the hot spring water is avaialable.

Please call at least 3-4 weeks in advance to schedule a tour reservation.