This is the second in a series of six posts inspired by several visits to Hot Springs, Arkansas, once known as The American Spa. I believe that much can be learned from the colorful history and current state of the place for those of us who are interested in spa culture and the future of spa as a contributor to the health and vitality of both people and planet. It is a meandering journey, appropriate here since the essential subject is water. Author: Sara Firman of Vision Spa Retreat
There are several competing histories for Hot Springs - one in the romantic mythology used to market its offerings to tourists, another in the scientific and archaeological publications of the National Park Service that oversees the thermal waters and the associated Bathhouses, and then there is a sociopolitical history that marks the lives of the melting-pot of peoples who've lived there. How might these stories relate to an ongoing appreciation and use of the natural waters, and the lifestyles that evolve around them?
These different histories are visible in an observant walk around town. Especially significant I think is the story about the peace-engendering atmosphere of the place that the friend mentioned in the previous post also sensed. The official visitors website says: 'For centuries, this misty Ouachita mountain valley was revered by Native Americans as a place of neutrality where all tribes could bathe in peace' and 'Legends tell us warring tribes would lay down their arms to bathe in the healing waters in the Valley of the Vapors.'
Meanwhile, a Park Service document adds carefully: 'Numerous tales about Indians using the springs have been repeated over the past 200 years or so. Many of these stories are European-American in origin, from an historian's point of view, classifiable as modern folklore.' Similar creative renditions have been offered in Hot Springs' sister town, Eureka Springs, presenting interesting challenges to Arkansas' historians and anthropologists.
Before being censorious about these early adjustments of 'truth', it is useful to ask to what extent stories like these inform, inspire, nurture and heal, compared with any intent to mislead or manipulate. Storytelling can be seen as a healing art, and in the world of spa the creation of fantasy settings is not unusual. The important question to ask is: is harm done to place or person or creature through the weaving of a tale?
If yes, what stories are missing or how can the existing stories be retold to bring healing? If not, what are the deeper messages to be gleaned from stories that do not match historical evidence? These are the kinds of questions you might consider as you take this journey with me through Hot Springs, Arkansas - the American Spa. Let's not be the kind of tourist or spa-taker who wants only the glossy brochure version.
Though a National Park Services leaflet says: 'The water was first protected for all people to enjoy - not just a privileged few', minorities did not at first have equal access to the bathhouses that sprung up along famous Bathhouse Row. The dominating European history of Hot Springs is built upon the earlier gathering place (though some dispute this) of the indigenous peoples, and was supported in slavery and service by African Americans who worked as bath attendants in the early spa industry.
On my last visit, the African American history of the town stood out for me, still visible and alive. After Civil War Reconstruction, African Americans were hard at work in the bathhouses but did not have free access to bathing in them. In response to this, bathhouses owned and operated by African Americans emerged in the early 1900s. Crystal Bathhouse on Malvern Avenue (outside the park) was the first to be built for the exclusive use of African Americans.
When it burned down, the Pythian was built on its site as the primary health care facility for the African American community, housing a hospital as well as a bathhouse. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 changed things, after much struggle and heartache. Today, the general manager for the newly refurbished Quapaw Baths and Spa (named for a Native American tribe) on Bathhouse Row is an African American, and when I last used the pools there I shared them with African Americans. Why point this out?
An aside: This recent newspaper article celebrates an African American from Hot Springs: Jefferson Thomas, who died on September 5 [2010] aged 67. Thomas figured in one of American history's most infamous acts of racial politics when he became one of nine black students to test a new ruling outlawing racial segregation in schools.
On that visit to Hot Springs last summer, I was struck by the exceptionally friendly presence of African Americans - something I miss in rural southern Missouri where I live and where African Americans even now do not always feel safe (personal comments). Hot Springs may be more enlightened than some of the rural out-lying areas in this region. Arkansas was below the Mason-Dixon line in the Civil War, and thus a slave state. Unfortunately, that racist heritage continues in places. Driving home through Arkansas, it was disturbing to see a handmade overtly racist billboard.
Peace and harmony are tenuous things.
In the next post in this six-part series, I'll explore the wellspring for Hot Springs' association with peace - its earlier Native American history. To follow the series: Subscribe here.
- The American Spa: a salutary history
- Competing histories of Hot Springs, AR: fact or fiction
- Place of Peace: Native Americans and Hot Springs, AR
- Waves of change in the bathing industry of Hot Springs, AR
- The waters of Hot Springs, AR: hope for the future?
- Hot Springs, AR: a visitor's crib sheet
For more background:
African Americans in the bathing industry of Hot Springs
