Hot Springs, AR
Downtown Hot Springs as seen from the 216-foot-tall Mountain Tower.

The New Hot Springs

The Arkansas resort town celebrates its past as it looks to a green future.

by

On a good day, you can drive from Memphis to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in under three hours. That must explain why, during a recent visit to the Spa City, I encountered so many people from Memphis.

We stayed at The Waters, a hotel on Central Avenue that is part of a recent spate of rebuilding and renovation in the city’s historic downtown. Located in a former medical arts building, the boutique hotel features spacious rooms with contemporary amenities. In the lobby, we ran into Memphian Greg Hisky, in the 1980s the leader of Neon Wheels, one of Memphis’ pioneering alternative bands; nowadays, he works for an aerospace company. “I love Hot Springs!” he exclaims. “I’ve been coming here my whole life.”

Although Hisky was in Hot Springs on business, servicing the city’s small but significant aircraft industry, his first experience with the Arkansas mountain town involved, like most people’s, leisure. “I like to go down to Lake Hamilton. I grew up there. I used to spend my summers there. I caught my first fish there when I was a little boy.”

Later, at The Pancake Shop, Hot Springs’ favorite breakfast spot, we find ourselves seated next to Tim and Donna Parker, a Germantown couple who retired to Hot Springs. “We travel the world, and this is the nicest place we’ve ever been,” says Tim. 

The Parkers live in Hot Springs Village, a planned community that stretches across two counties. “It’s the best-kept secret in the nation,” says Tim. “They say that Arkansas is the Natural State. It really is. Any kind of outdoor sport you want to do is available here. Fishing, hunting, golf, anything.”

The couple say they used to boat on Lake Ouachita, but Donna says, “Our thing now is to sit back and enjoy life.”

And that’s what she recommends Memphians do when they visit her adoptive home town. “People need to come and relax — relax and enjoy it!” 

A City of Firsts 

Hot Springs holds a unique place in American history. It represents the first time the federal government tried to preserve a plot of land for the enjoyment and posterity of the people. In 1832, President Andrew Jackson and Congress, at the request of the Arkansas legislature, created the first-ever federal reservation here — National Parks weren’t a thing yet. The goal was to preserve the thermal springs, where 140 degree Fahrenheit water bubbles up from the hills that surround the town. The spot soon became a mecca for people who sought to soothe their ailments by bathing in the warm, pure waters. Entrepreneurs created all kinds of entertainment to lure the bathers, and Hot Springs soon became one of the country’s first resort towns.

During the early twentieth century, Hot Springs boomed as residents of St. Louis and Dallas made the trek to the Ouachita Mountains to take the waters and promenade on the brick-paved mountain trails above Central Avenue. Gambling was illegal in Arkansas, but those laws were rarely enforced in Hot Springs. As you can learn at the Gangster Museum of America on Central, gangsters from Chicago came here when the heat was on in the Windy City. Al Capone even had his own suite at the then-new Arlington Hotel. “The Arlington is the largest hotel in Arkansas, with 500 rooms, says Hot Springs City Manager Bill Burrough. “It’s not just a Hot Springs icon or a Garland County icon, it’s a state icon.”

There’s also an unexpected sporting connection in Hot Springs, says Greg Hisky. “This is the home of the first spring training. Dizzy and Daffy [Dean] used to have a big baseball camp here.” Arkansas sports legend Dizzy Dean brought his friends down to work on their offseason chops, a novel idea at the time when America’s pastime was in its first boom phase. “There’s a plate on the back corner of the Weyerhaeuser parking lot,” says Burrough. “That used to be a baseball field. You can still see the concrete bleachers on the mountainside. Babe Ruth hit a home run from that plate that landed in the second pond at the alligator farm, 500 feet away. We’re so proud of that history.”

But the site of the first spring training soon became a victim of its own success, as the players discovered the city’s famous party atmosphere, and not enough actual training was getting done. “They had to move to Florida, because they were having too much fun here,” says Burrough. 

Off to the Races

The most popular sport at the turn of the twentieth century was not baseball, it was horse racing. In 1904, Louis Cella founded a racetrack he called Oaklawn. More than 3,000 people came to watch the six races held on its first day. Today, the Cella family still owns and operates Oaklawn Racing Casino Resorts, says Jennifer Hoyt, Oaklawn media relations manager. “Our current president, Louis Cella, is the fourth generation. We are the longest continually operated sports franchise across all genres. … One thing that Oaklawn hasn’t lost that a lot of other racetracks have lost is the crowd. We still average about 20,000 during a typical Saturday. But when we get to Arkansas Derby Day, our record is 72,000. Last year, in the pouring rain, we had 45,000.”

The track has had its ups and downs over the decades, but Hoyt credits a pair of horses for reviving Oaklawn at critical times. “Smarty Jones is the horse that put Oaklawn back on the map. Late in the 1990s, people were writing headlines that Oaklawn was going to close. … In 2004, we celebrated 100 years in existence. In celebration of that, Charles Sela put up a $5 million bonus to any horse that could win the Rebel Stakes, the Arkansas Derby, and the Kentucky Derby. 

“Lo and behold, this little horse from Pennsylvania was here all winter and won not only those races, but won the Southwest Stakes to kick off the season, then the Rebel, then the Arkansas Derby, went into the Kentucky Derby as the favorite and won, then won the Preakness Stakes and just missed winning the Belmont Stakes.” 

Thanks to a change in laws, the gambling that has always been a part of Hot Springs history is now legal. 

The second hero horse is immortalized in bronze in front of Oaklawn. In 2015, American Pharaoh became the first horse in 37 years to win the coveted Triple Crown, and the first ever to win the Grand Slam of thoroughbred racing. Since Oaklawn’s racing season starts in January and runs through May, it has become the place where horses come to prove their mettle before moving on to conquer the big races in Kentucky and beyond. “We are the only thoroughbred racetrack in North America that has raised purses for 12 consecutive years,” says Hoyt. “We are in the midst of our third major expansion since 2009.”

Thanks to a change in laws, the gambling that has always been a part of Hot Springs history is now legal. Oaklawn’s casino recently expanded to 84,000 square feet and includes live table games and sportsbook in addition to betting on the ponies. Next year, a brand-new, 200-room hotel will open, with half the rooms facing the track and the other half overlooking the mountains. “Horse racing is a very traditional sport,” says Hoyt. “We have a lot of traditions here, but one of the things we’re trying to get out of the mindset of is saying, well, that’s the way we’ve always done it.”  

Reubens, Steak, and Beer

But let’s get to the important part about Oaklawn: Years ago, before we met, my wife Laura Jean Hocking visited the Arkansas Derby. That day, she ate a reuben sandwich, and I’ve been hearing about how good it was for our entire relationship. When we sat down at the Silks restaurant for lunch, my order was pre-ordained. I’ve had reuben sandwiches at the New Apollo Diner in New York City and at the legendary Cantor’s in Los Angeles. There’s no way this place in Arkansas topped  those two eateries, right?

Wrong! The reubens at Oaklawn are exquisite creations, a little bit crispy and chewy in all the right places, with gooey cheese and enough corned beef to satisfy but not so much as to overwhelm. They lived up to the hype. Oaklawn serves 30 tons of corned beef every season, and if you catch it on a throwback day, you can get one at the track snack bar for 50 cents.

There are no shortages of great food and drink in Hot Springs. The Avenue restaurant in The Waters hotel features shrimp and grits, surf and turf, and a mushroom-based vegan steak dinner. For real steaks, the historic Brick House Grill, tucked into Spencer’s Corner, serves up unbeatable filets and ribeyes in a room filled with local art.

The famous Bathhouse Row, once the city’s reason for being, sat vacant and crumbling after the last facility closed in the 1980s. One of the signs of the city’s comeback is the activity that has returned to these gorgeous historic buildings, and there’s no better example than the Superior Bathhouse Brewery. Owner Rose Schweikhart came to the business through an unusual path. She is a classically trained tuba player, with a master’s degree in music.“Tuba players love beer,” she says with a laugh.

She moved to Hot Springs a decade ago, attracted by the town’s annual classical music festival. “The first time I saw the Superior Bathhouse was in 2011. When I walked through the door, I could picture what we are doing right now — sitting along a rail in the window. It’s such a big, open space.”

After two years of proposals, negotiations with the federal government, and securing financing, Schweikhart opened the first-ever brew pub in a National Park, all thanks to Hot Springs’ famous water. “It’s fantastic for brewing for two reasons. First, when I open the tap, it’s 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The first step in brewing beer is heating up a ton of water, which takes a lot of time and energy. So we’re ahead of the game by having almost free hot water.”

The second reason? “Chemically, it is a blank slate,” she says. “Geologically, our spring water is forced up through a limestone bed. It’s a geothermal fissure, where two mountain ranges are slowly moving against each other. It heats the water and forces it up through the limestone. The water we drink today is 4,000-year-old rainwater. It’s very low in minerals that can contribute flavors to beer you don’t want. So basically, we have water that is very similar to Cologne or Dusseldorf in Germany, which is also very famous for beer.”

Schweikhart grew up in New Jersey and lived in big cities all her life until she came to Hot Springs. The small-town life suits her. “Eight years ago, Rose was a different person. I’m not sure I was that happy, but I’m happy now in Hot Springs. We kind of get the best of both worlds. It’s a small town with an urban nightlife. Then I can hop on my mountain bike and be at a trail head in five minutes.”

A Green Future

There are three epic trails within 30 minutes of Hot Springs,” says biker Tracy Berry, who, like many of her friends, hangs out at the Superior Bathhouse. “People have been coming through here for a very long time to ride. The difference is that now, people are staying to ride our trails.”

“We’re very proud of the fact that we will be one of only six cities in North America that are totally reliant on renewable energy.” — Bill Burrough

Berry moved to the city full-time a year ago to become the Northwoods Trails Coordinator for Visit Hot Springs. The new network of biking trails winds through the woods in and around Hot Springs. The course was designed by International Mountain Biking Association specialists and funded by the Walton Family Foundation; it is divided into different skill levels like ski slopes. “Typically what we’ve had around here are your traditional, single-track, hand-cut, volunteer-built, cross country trails,” says Berry. “This is new to this region.” 

City manager Burrough says the new trails, which will eventually be expanded to 40 miles long, are a sign of Hot Springs’ green future. “What we have seen is, not many people who come here for the lakes come into downtown, and not many people who come here for the National Park really go out to enjoy the lakes. But now, we’re seeing that kind of blend. Since we’ve had some of the changes in our downtown area over the last five years, it’s starting to draw crowds. They realize there’s more to Hot Springs than just the lake and Oaklawn.”

Burrough’s administration recently signed a pact with Scenic Hill Solar of Little Rock. “We’re very proud of the fact that, at the time we signed this agreement, we will be one of only six cities in North America that are totally reliant on renewable energy,” he says. “I think there’s going to be a lot more.”

The city is currently paying an average of 8.8 cents per kilowatt hour for the 20 million kwh it uses each year. Scenic Hill Solar will deliver power for 5.9 cents per kwh, increasing by a predictable 1 percent a year for the next 28 years. The 36,000 panels, which Burrough hopes will be completed by the end of the year, will be located on about 10 acres of city-owned land. 

“When you first look at something like this, it seems really big,” says Burrough. “You think, man, do we even have time to bite something like this off? But when you look at the benefits, both financially and environmentally, it’s almost your responsibility to do it.”

Hot Springs may no longer be a draw for notorious characters like Al Capone, but it’s got plenty of unique attractions for people of all ages. For that matter, the reuben alone is worth the drive.