AP Features, April 23rd, 2007
Hot Springs National Park is celebrating its 175th anniversary and its status as the country's first federally protected area.
Hot Springs' celebration commemorates the April 20, 1832, signing by President Andrew Jackson of an act setting aside four square miles around 47 hot springs to protect and preserve them for future use.
"I grew up spending my summers in Hot Springs, and it just holds a very near and dear spot in all our hearts as Arkansans," U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln said. "But as Americans, it also has historical aspects, in terms of the decision our country made to start preserving special areas for future generations.
"And I think when you've got something like Hot Springs that has set that precedent and started that effort, that's pretty monumental," she said. "To think we thought 175 years ago to do that, is worth celebrating."
Events were held Friday and Saturday along Bathhouse Row to commemorate the anniversary.
"Here, our predecessors knew was a prize worth saving," Dan Wenk, deputy director of the National Park Service, said Friday. "Unlike so many places, where we didn't know development was coming until it got there, here the people of this nation tried to protect the remarkable natural and therapeutic resources while it was still undeveloped."
Hot Springs Reservation was renamed Hot Springs National Park in 1921, when it became the country's 18th national park.
The park is one of 390 sites under the jurisdiction of the National Park System, and one of seven in Arkansas. Other Arkansas sites are Buffalo National River, Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, Pea Ridge National Military Park, Arkansas Post National Memorial, the Central High National Historic Site and the Fort Smith National Historic Site.
