ABSTRACT
HOT SPRINGS RESERVATION Hot Springs Reservation, a health resort rather than a scenic park, is not really within the scope of this book, but since it called for more of the attention of Congress than perhaps any other park, almost more than all the other parks at times, it must be discussed very briefly. For some reason Mather wanted to make it a national park. This he succeeded in doing in 1921, through an amendment to a sundry civil appropriation bill. 1 There may well be some question as to the wisdom of this, for Hot Springs was just hot springs, supposed to have great curative powers in baths, but with no particular scenic merit. The springs had been set aside in 1832, the government had properly reserved with them four sections of land, but the area was largely in private holdings, with titles that were in process of litigation for years. The Hot Springs Reservation was not recognized until 1870, when Congress tried to set up legal procedure for settling some of the titles and claims to titles. For fifty years Congress was wrestling with the problems of land titles and disposition of the healing waters. The springs, really remarkable springs, were located in Hot Springs, a fair-sized town, and a national park in a town seems something of a misnomer. It should have remained a reservation. 2
