Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center And Museum — Attraction in Hot Springs

The walls whisper. Faint echoes of days long gone. Strangers from bygone times appear as flashes in the bath house labyrinth. Electroshock equipment starts to spark and go haywire, scaring visitors into frenzies. The old elevator gets stuck, trapping a few tourists who had just been gushing about how “awesome” they thought it to be before they’d any inkling it would become their tomb. In a dozen encounters, the phantoms attempt to tell their deep, painful stories of class conflict, racial strife, and interpersonal dramas, but the daft tourists aren’t listening. Down in the boiling basement spring, the old machinery chugs and roars to life, and the entity stirs. The line between past and present blurs, flashback premonitions bewildering the visitors who investigate, run, or hide from the phantoms, picked off one by one, their sordid, tortured remains subsequently discovered by the dwindling pool of survivors—boiled in the sauna box, strapped down and suffocated on the old massage table, drowned in the baths. The specters corral the last of them into a secret tunnel that collapses as the entity rages in pursuit. The survivors have no choice but to proceed down the dark corridor, kicking and stepping on the sprawling metropolis-underbelly of rats. At last they come to the end of the tunnel to find it leads up into the cellar, the basement morgue, of the now-abandoned sanitarium up the hill from baths. There, they desperately search for a way out but find only more spirits, more stories, more horror and death awaits them as the entity stalks and snares and kills them. Finally, there is but one of them left, who must come face to face with the entity—the vile, monstrous anti-life creature from the black pit of inhumanity that spawned and evolved in the depths of all the hatred, cruelty, sorrow, evil, and waste that spiraled down the bathhouse drains for generations, festering untold. And our hero sees all of this in an ugly, surreal vision, hears this story through the mess of spirits, listens with a mind to truly understand, and ultimately survives with the realization that these stories must be shared with others so that humanity can learn from all of this horror. Only then could the spirits be set freed, the monster vanquished. But how? How can our hero reach them, their heads and their hearts, and get them to listen and believe? There is, of course, but one way: a four-star Google review on the Fordyce Bathhouse...

Not exactly what I'd call a national "park." It's more of a historical town with a little preservation, which is cool, but you're not about to go hiking outside of town looking for natural hot springs or anything. All the hot springs in Hot Springs are commercialized and have buildings or bathhouses built over them. There's not much nature or anything that you would be looking for in a place considered a park. But it is neat historically if you just want to drop in for a day and explore the town. Really touristy, cheesy little gift shops litter the downtown.

There's a cool art gallery place that does artist residencies that you should check out though, thought it was really cool of them to let artists stay there for free in exchange for their work.

Also, I noticed people taking hot springs water from a fountain in little bottles. I saw a painting in the art gallery of people doing this and so when I saw people doing it for real I had to ask what it was all about. Apparently people think that the hot springs water tastes better or is better and they take a bunch and use it for everything. One lovely lady was kind enough to hand me a bottle of water she had just collected. I thought this was a really neat cultural thing but the water didn't taste particular special to me.

There's a creepy building on top of a hill downtown that looks like an insane asylum from a horror movie. It's historical, of course, but is apparently used for something military-like or police-like. We tried to check it out and take a look around but a guard(?) in a truck asked us what we were doing on the property and said we weren't allowed on the "campus." Thought that was interesting, wonder what that place was.

Anyway, check out a bathhouse or two, get a drink at the Arlington hotel lobby and then ditch the place for somewhere a little less commercialized. I'm sure the park service do a lovely job but it's more of a historical themed tourist trap than...

We were looking for "something along our route" and the bath houses came up as a Google recommendation.

My first thought was...that doesn't seem too exciting. I looked at some reviews by others and thought my family may enjoy an hour or two here so we would go. I didn't have any great expectations.

Boy was I surprised! This place was great! We stopped into the visitor center and picked up a map and a coupon booklet. Do that first!

We wandered down the bustling street and passed by countless little shops. We saw an amphibians tour and thought we might try it. Maybe later.

We stopped in a few bath houses that were still operational. With e kids tagging along it wasn't practical to think we were going to bathe, so we went to the next one. Everyone was super friendly and told us about the one that was turned into a museum....the Fordyce.

We made our way over to the Fordyce and saw they had guided tours, or you could self tour. We didn't want to wait for the guided tour so we checked it out alone. My kids were fascinated and I quickly read all the narrations to them as were breezed through the building. They especially like the electromassage and other "weird" technology from back then. We even watched a little of the...