Nearly 200 years ago, Hot Springs was in a real mess.
Settlers were moving into the area, building businesses around and even over the hot springs. The situation hadn't improved since President Andrew Jackson signed Hot Springs Reservation into existence on April 20, 1832. As Sharon Shugart, a museum specialist for Hot Springs National Park in 2007, noted on the 175th anniversary of Hot Springs Reservation, Congress had failed to pass any legislation for administering the site.
As a result, people continued to settle and use the property.
Jackson signed legislation to set aside "four sections of land including said (hot) springs, reserved for the future disposal of the United States (which) shall not be entered, located, or appropriated, for any other purpose whatsoever."
That legislation would make Hot Springs the oldest area in the National Park System, predating the establishment of Yellowstone National Park by 40 years.
By the mid-1800s, though, the springs were being claimed by several private citizens, and the government was forced to reestablish its jurisdiction over the area, according to Shugart's account. When the Department of the Interior was established in 1849, the reservation, as a property administered under the General Land Survey, was placed under that department's control.
Over the intervening years, various hotels and bath houses sprang up around the springs, all using the thermal waters, and, by 1901, all the springs had been walled up and covered over to protect them. Except for a few open display springs, they remain sealed today.
Congress established the National Park Service on Aug. 25, 1916, and Hot Springs Reservation fell under its administration. Hot Springs was designated the 18th national park on March 4, 1921.
A lot has changed over the past 100 years, but one thing has not: The National Park Service's commitment to protecting our valued natural resource, the thermal water.
"Our mandate is to protect the springs, and, of course, since the water is flowing from them, make use of that natural resource and make it available to the public," a former park superintendent, Josie Fernandez, once told us. "So, in as much as Mother Nature will cooperate and provide us the water, we will collect that water and make it available. The dual intent of the federal government is to protect the springs and make the water available in an orderly fashion to the public. That has always been the intent."
On Thursday, as the national park and the city that shares its name celebrated the 100th anniversary of the national park designation, state Reps. Bruce Cozart, Les Warren and Richard McGrew introduced, appropriately, a House Resolution at the state Capitol to commemorate the event.
It notes, in part, that "nearly one million five hundred thousand (1,500,000) visitors have the opportunity each year to fill vessels with thermal spring water, hike the extensive trails throughout the park, walk along Bathhouse Row, imagine the heyday of Hot Springs, and enjoy the best that the park has to offer."
That's quite a legacy we all share -- the federal government, the state government, the city and county, private citizens, and the millions who visit here each year. And it is that legacy that challenges us to continue to grow and improve as we move ahead to the next 100 years of Hot Springs National Park.