Hot Springs National Park in central Arkansas preserves thermal springs on Hot Springs Mountain and the surrounding Ouachita landscape, but it is distinctive for integrating those waters into a developed downtown spa setting. Native peoples visited the valley for more than 8,000 years and regarded it as a healing place. Congress created Hot Springs Reservation in 1832, making it the first federally protected area set aside for public recreation, and it became a national park in 1921. Under federal supervision, the springs were carefully channeled into bathhouses, culminating in Bathhouse Row, a major historic spa district. The site remains notable for both its healing-water tradition and its unusually early protection.