Hot Springs National Park, AR news and local guide

The Quapaw ceded the land around the springs on August 24, 1818. In 1820 the Arkansas territorial legislature asked that the springs be set aside, and in 1832 Congress created the Hot Springs Reservation to protect the thermal waters, renamed Hot Springs National Park in 1921. During the Civil War, after the Confederate defeat at Pea Ridge in 1862, Governor Henry M. Rector moved his staff and state records to Hot Springs until July 14, 1862. Many residents fled to Texas or Louisiana, and guerrilla bands pillaged and burned the nearly deserted town, leaving only a few buildings standing. After the war bathhouses and hotels were rebuilt, and by 1873 there were six bathhouses and 24 hotels and boardinghouses. Hot Springs became the seat of the new Garland County that year. Joseph Reynolds's narrow-gauge railroad from Malvern was completed in 1875, the year the first Arlington Hotel opened. A Supreme Court ruling of April 24, 1876, gave title to the springs to the federal government, and Congress formed the Hot Springs Commission to lay out the town and settle land claims. Sources Wikipedia: Hot Springs, Arkansas