Last updated: December 20, 2022
Place
Hot Springs Creek
HOSP/Archive
Quick Facts
Location:
Hot Springs, Arkansas
Significance:
Hot Springs Creek receives all of the natural discharge of the hot springs. Its name reflects that its temperature greatly increases in the thermal discharge area.
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
Hot Springs Creek begins flowing near Whittington Park and eventually empties into the Ouachita River, a few miles south of Hot Springs.The creek is covered as it passes Bathhouse Row and is no longer visible within the park.
The creek sculpted the small valley we see today. The creek flows against the foot of Hot Springs Mountain on the east side of the valley, but ancient floods created the open flat area on the west side of the valley, where many of the businesses can still be found.
As Hot Springs Creek flows through the valley along Bathhouse Row, it still collects the runoff of the hot springs waters, and its temperature increases significantly from the influence of the thermal waters.
In 1828, a visitor from Louisiana described how bathers used the creek water for bathing. "After 2 or 3 weeks of dry weather, the creek becomes too hot to bathe in, opposite the springs, and bathers go an eighth or a quarter of a mile below, where the warmth is bearable...A man who has just arrived with rheumatism, has I think adopted a judicious plan. He had a bed made for him of a couple of bear skins on the hot gravelly bottoms of the creek—this he covered with other blankets spread over poles like the top of a covered wagon. Here he slept all night undergoing a gentle perspiration for eight or ten hours."
Because most of the springs emerge on the east side of Hot Springs Creek, the bathhouses were also located on the east side of the creek. As bathhouses were constructed in the valley, bridges were built from the road, acroos the creek, and to the bathhouse.
As the town grew in the valley, the creek effectively became an open sewer, carrying away the used water from bathhouses, hotels, businesses, and even roaming cattle.
In the 1880s, the Department of the Interior oversaw construction of the Creek Arch that covers the creek to this day. The Creek Arch--14 feet wide and 12 feet tall-- was part of the first major federal infrastructure developments in what was then called Hot Springs Reservation.
The Creek Arch served two purposes. It met sanitation needs by creating a barrier between the creek and sources of contamination. It also helped to widen the availabe ground in the small valley. Soil and sidewalks were built on top of the arch to connect the road to the bathhouses. The fronts of the present day bathhouses are built on top of the ground created by the Creek Arch.
The Creek Arch has increased the impact of flooding in Hot Springs Creek. It was designed for 10-year flood events, and cannot accomodate the water volume in major storms. Several flood events have caused standing water to surge down Central Avenue.
Hot Springs Creek is still visible in Whittington Park--located a mile northwest of Bathhouse Row--and along the Hot Springs Greenway, a city park and trail that begins near the Hot Springs Intracity Transit building.
The creek sculpted the small valley we see today. The creek flows against the foot of Hot Springs Mountain on the east side of the valley, but ancient floods created the open flat area on the west side of the valley, where many of the businesses can still be found.
As Hot Springs Creek flows through the valley along Bathhouse Row, it still collects the runoff of the hot springs waters, and its temperature increases significantly from the influence of the thermal waters.
In 1828, a visitor from Louisiana described how bathers used the creek water for bathing. "After 2 or 3 weeks of dry weather, the creek becomes too hot to bathe in, opposite the springs, and bathers go an eighth or a quarter of a mile below, where the warmth is bearable...A man who has just arrived with rheumatism, has I think adopted a judicious plan. He had a bed made for him of a couple of bear skins on the hot gravelly bottoms of the creek—this he covered with other blankets spread over poles like the top of a covered wagon. Here he slept all night undergoing a gentle perspiration for eight or ten hours."
Because most of the springs emerge on the east side of Hot Springs Creek, the bathhouses were also located on the east side of the creek. As bathhouses were constructed in the valley, bridges were built from the road, acroos the creek, and to the bathhouse.
As the town grew in the valley, the creek effectively became an open sewer, carrying away the used water from bathhouses, hotels, businesses, and even roaming cattle.
In the 1880s, the Department of the Interior oversaw construction of the Creek Arch that covers the creek to this day. The Creek Arch--14 feet wide and 12 feet tall-- was part of the first major federal infrastructure developments in what was then called Hot Springs Reservation.
The Creek Arch served two purposes. It met sanitation needs by creating a barrier between the creek and sources of contamination. It also helped to widen the availabe ground in the small valley. Soil and sidewalks were built on top of the arch to connect the road to the bathhouses. The fronts of the present day bathhouses are built on top of the ground created by the Creek Arch.
The Creek Arch has increased the impact of flooding in Hot Springs Creek. It was designed for 10-year flood events, and cannot accomodate the water volume in major storms. Several flood events have caused standing water to surge down Central Avenue.
Hot Springs Creek is still visible in Whittington Park--located a mile northwest of Bathhouse Row--and along the Hot Springs Greenway, a city park and trail that begins near the Hot Springs Intracity Transit building.