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Photo: DronePhotographer, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
Centered around the eponymous lake that dominates the area west of Hot Springs, its large size kind of caters to boating enthusiasts, but has hiking, swimming, and camping amenities nonetheless. Visitor center, kayaking.
Lake Ouachita State Park is a 360-acre (150 ha) public recreation area located ten miles (16 km) northwest of Hot Springs, on the eastern side of Lake Ouachita, which at 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) is the largest man-made lake located entirely within the state of Arkansas. In addition to its recreational offerings, the park preserves the site of the historic Three Sisters springs which were once touted for the curative properties of their mineral waters.
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A great family attraction and the largest hands-on science center in Arkansas. Take the “Underground Arkansas” tour of a gigantic indoor cave filled with chambers, bridges, tunnels and slides, or experience the light, motion and sound of the “Virtual Reality Simulator.” Mid America Museum is the perfect setting for school field trips, birthday parties, summer science camps and more.
The present Hale Bathhouse is the oldest visible structure on Bathhouse Row. The Mission Revival-style bathhouse is a textbook case of the changes in use and design of bathhouses buildings in Hot Springs National Park.
Includes the Fordyce Bathhouse and seven other bathhouses all built in the early 20th century. The Row is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Aside from the Fordyce which serves as the park visitor center, the Buckstaff and the Quapaw are the only other operating bathhouses that are still in use as a spa. The other bathhouses are vacant but awaiting new uses.
The visitor center in the former Fordyce Bathhouse is also a 24-room museum offering self-guided tours. Considered the most elegant bathhouse when completed in 1915, it exhibits beautiful mosaic tile floors, marble, stained glass windows and ceilings, a gymnasium, and routine bathing equipment. The 15-minute orientation movie, Valley of Vapors, offers a brief history of the area. Taking the Baths is a 9-minute video showing the traditional bathing routine in the Hot Springs bathhouses. Rest rooms and water fountains are located in the basement. Other rooms shown include the music room, massage rooms and a bowling alley.
A landscaped walkway behind Bathhouse Row which offers a glimpse of the springs and historic landscape features. Entrances are from behind the Visitor Center and from Fountain Street.
Museum about organized crime in America, particularly during the prohibition years of the 1920s and early 1930s, when Chicago gangsters came to Hot Springs to relax in the thermal baths and run illegal drinking and prostitution establishments while local police and politicians were paid to forget they ever saw any gangsters.