The America's National Parks Podcast is sponsored by L. L. L. Bine believes the more time you spend outside together, the better.

That's why they design products that make it easier to take longer walks, have deeper talks,

and never worry about the weather.

Discover clothing, outerware, footwear, and gear made for every type of adventure with the outside built right in.

Because on the inside we are all outsiders.

Be an outsider with L.L. Beam. In the mountains of Western Arkansas, there's a place where rainwaters are absorbed through crevices in the earth's surface, then warmed and enriched with

minerals percolating deep underground. The water then flows back to the surface in steaming hot springs, filling the cool mountain air with steam in the winter.

It's a place that humans have been using for millennia for rest, relaxation, and healing.

It's also our first piece of federally protected recreation land.

On this episode of America's National Parks,

The American Spa Hot Springs National Park.

Here's Abigail Trebute. National Park.

Here's Abigail Trebue. You're going to be here. In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto was the first European to visit what the indigenous people called the valley of the vapors. A confluence of a

hundred and forty-three-degree springs flowing from the western slope of what is now

known as Hot Springs Mountain, part of the Washita Mountain Range in modern day

Arkansas. Tribes used it as a neutral gathering place for over 8,000

years, believing that the water of the thermal springs possessed healing properties.

DeSoto and his conquistadors spent several weeks resting in the steam and waters.

In 1673, Explorers Marquette and Louis Joliet claimed the area for France.

For the next 130 years the land would move between Spanish and French control,

eventually finding its way into the Louisiana purchase.

In 1803, the Hot Springs of Arkansas became a part of the United States.

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