Note 135 — Chapter VII

Hot Springs, now the famous health resort in Garland County. The spot was widely known among the Indians, and De Soto, led on by their reports, probably visited it in 1542. Summer parties of wealthy planters began to frequent the region early in the nineteenth century, and to such visits were doubtless due the well-marked roads from Natchitoches, described above (see ante, note 126). The town of Hot Springs is of late growth; it was a mere village in 1860. A tract of four square miles surrounding the springs was purchased in 1877 by the government, and is now a national park.—Ed.