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Hot Springs National Parkcolor photo of Fordyce Bathhouse gym with parallel bars in left foreground and vaulting horse in right background
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Hot Springs National Park
Indoor Activities
Exterior of Fordyce Bathhouse, looking north, with the Maurice Bathhouse and Arlington Hotel in background.
Explore the restored Fordyce Bathhouse, the park visitor center and museum.
Tour on your own or with a guide what was the "grandest bathhouse" of its time. Take a virtual tour for a sneak preview. Watch a brief history movie of the park and another that shows what a traditional bath is like. Children can earn a Junior Ranger badge by completing activities in the program booklet.
 
Smiling woman in ceramic tub with water; woman is draped with a white towel
Courtesy of Buckstaff Baths
Enjoy a relaxing bath the same way visitors to Hot Springs did 50 years ago.

Take a traditional bath at the Buckstaff Baths, a park concessionaire since 1912, or a modern spa experience with co-ed pools at the Quapaw Baths.

 
Interior of Quapaw Baths showing people in pools with stained glass skylight overhead.
NPS photo by Gail Sears
Pools at Quapaw Baths

Read about the reopening of the Quapaw Baths, which opened in July 2008.
Pres. Roosevelt is in an open touring car on Fountain St. in front of the Arlington Hotel. A crowd surrounds the car.  

Did You Know?
On June 10, 1936, President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Hot Springs National Park and toured the Fordyce Bathhouse as part of the Arkansas centennial celebration. FDR used the baths at Warm Springs, Georgia, on a regular basis to relieve his polio. He never bathed in Hot Springs.

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Last Updated: July 30, 2008 at 16:00 EST