Stevens to oversee a number of ambitious landscaping and building projects in the 1890s. The Secretary of the Interior appointed U.S. Roads and paths were improved for the convenience of visitors who wished to enjoy the scenery. The haphazardly placed wooden troughs carrying the thermal water down the mountainside were replaced with underground pipes. The new Victorian bathhouses built between 18 were larger and more luxurious than could have been dreamed of ten years earlier. The arch was then covered with earth, and the area above it was landscaped to create a pleasing park bounded with Lombardy poplars. In 1882-83 the government enclosed Hot Springs creek in an underground arch for flood and sewerage control. National Parks Service image from HOSP archives Hot Springs Creek & Early Bathhouses Men constructing the brick archway over Hot Springs Creek As a result, no controls were exerted in the area, and people continued to settle there, building businesses around and over the springs. Unfortunately, Congress failed to pass any legislation for administering the site. On April 20, 1832, President Andrew Jackson signed legislation to set aside ".four sections of land including said (hot) springs, reserved for the future disposal of the United States (which) shall not be entered, located, or appropriated, for any other purpose whatsoever." This makes Hot Springs National Park the oldest national park among current National Park units, predating Yellowstone National Park by forty years. To protect this unique national resource and preserve it for the use of the public, the Arkansas Territorial Legislature had requested in 1820 that the springs and adjoining mountains be set aside as a federal reservation (not to be confused with the Indian reservations being established around the same time). National Park Service image from the HOSP archive Hot Springs Reservation Hot Springs Reservation entrance between the Maurice and the Palace Bathhouse
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