Drive 90 minutes from Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, and you’ll find yourself in Hot Springs National Park, a protected tract of land that predates the US National Park system.
It became the Hot Springs Reservation in 1832 after being acquired almost 30 years earlier in the Louisiana Purchase, a land deal with France that brought in more than 800 million sq miles, from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Before that, Native Americans came to the springs to quarry materials for their weapons. It became an official national park in 1921.
Today, the park covers more than 5,000 acres of Arkansas’ greater Hot Springs area, comprising miles of trails for hiking and horseback riding. Prior to management by the government, the 47 or so namesake hot springs could be claimed by individuals, who would set up crude buildings on top and charge people to use the waters.