As its name suggests, Hot Springs takes its name after the city’s multiple hot springs in the Ouachita Mountains. Hot Springs National Park, the oldest federal reserve in the United States, is located in the center of Hot Springs. Since its incorporation in 1876, Hot Springs has been associated with Major League Baseball Spring training, speakeasies and gangsters like Al Capone, horse racing at Oaklawn Park, the Army and Navy Hospital, and 42nd President Bill Clinton, who spent much of his young life in the city. Aside from its history, Hot Springs is a destination for the arts, the Hot Springs Music Festival, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, and Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival. Other points of interest in the city include the Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo, Central Avenue, Garvan Woodland Gardens, and Lake Catherine and Lake Hamilton.
