University of Arkansas Press Publishes Pictorial History of Hot Springs

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Ray Hanley, author of A Place Apart

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A Place Apart: A Pictorial History of Hot Springs, Arkansas, by Ray Hanley ($22.50 paper), has been published by the University of Arkansas Press.

The book begins with a brief overview of European exploration in the Hot Springs area and goes on to portray the town’s evolution into a national park and tourist destination. Stories and photographs of pioneers, wealthy barons, scoundrels, gamblers and colorful politicians abound; they were part of the droves of people who have come to the spa city since the early 1800s for the pleasures and health benefits of the area’s thermal waters.

Those waters bubble up from the Ouachita Mountains ringing the city to feed the baths that made the town famous. American Indians knew about and used the hot springs, as did early European explorers. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1804, the town became increasingly well-known until the Civil War, when it was burned and abandoned. After the war, the town was rebuilt to become a grand Victorian resort attracting people from all over the nation. Hot Springs’ heyday was captured by photographers from the late nineteenth century, while the town also suffered fires, floods and the destruction of historic buildings in the name of progress. Businesses in the area grew to include horse racing, alligator and ostrich farms, baseball and wide-open gambling, and the 1920s and ’30s would see the city become a favorite for gangsters drawn by its tolerant ways.

World War II brought a military presence to Hot Springs, where the Army and Navy hospital loomed over the downtown tourist district. Over time, fewer people believed in the curative power of the waters. In 1967, Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller ended gambling, dramatically altering the town’s flavor, and setting the course toward the town’s reinventing itself as a more family-centered destination.

Ray Hanley is the author or co-author of 15 books on Arkansas history, and, with his brother Steven Hanley, he started “Arkansas Postcard Past,” which had been running in the Arkansas Gazette and now the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 1986. He will be discussing and signing his book at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 5, at the Garland County Library in Hot Springs. The event is free and open to the public.