Hot Springs National Historical Park (September 3, 2000)

Our fourth park trip came when we headed east to Hot Springs for the Labor Day weekend. Being only Labor Day weekend in the Southwest, it was still INCREDIBLY hot, which makes the idea of going to a place actually CALLED Hot Springs a little stupid. But, hey, we were going for the closest stamps, not the smartest! This was also the first trip where I decided taking a shot of the official sign would be good, especially since Hot Springs is an entire town with stuff all over to look at.

Here's a great shot of Kevin standing by this...uh...this hole in the ground.

This hole was famous for its, uh...holey-ness and because, uh....it's been there a long time, this hole.

In Hot Springs.

Um...there was hot water in it, too.

Did I mention it was in Hot Springs...?

Okay, this officially qualifies as the stupid pic of the trip!

The bath houses were the big draw of Hot Springs (and still are). Back when good health was the craze in the 1800's, people flocked here for the "healing" aspects of the hot springs (yes, there's actually a hot spring under the city, in case I hadn't already mentioned it!). These places were the resorts of their day, as you can tell by the photos below and to the right.

Ooo, ooo, ooo…did I mention they had big SHINY THINGS???? One of the other draws of the Hot Springs area are the “diamonds”, which are really just hunks of quartz with points at both ends like a diamond. They also had table upon table full of the blue shiny glass that I love…apparently the world’s biggest Coke bottle had shattered nearby…! J

My favorite pic, however, is right from the hotel room. I love how the town is just snugly nestled into the Ouachita Mountains! If not for the inherent danger most of the rural parts of the Appalachians has for me, we'd probably be living in a log cabin snuggled into a mountainside with a ton of trees ourselves (of course, 2 outta 3 ain't bad...got the trees and the cabin now)!

Central High School National Historic Site (September 3, 2000)

The same day we hit Hot Springs, we took the extra hour or so drive over to Little Rock to check out the new Central High School site, where the Little Rock Nine first began the desegregation of Arkansas schools. The actual school is across the street from this site, made to look like a 50's gas station. The place was relatively new at the time (created in 1997, I believe) so I don't have a passport picture of it yet.

Even before we got there, we both realized this was not a place to make jokes about. I was really impressed with way they had all the information laid out...a little chaotic, but still carrying the message...which, I suppose would be a fairly accurate description of the times.

The picture below is the actual school, which had a real imposing look to it. I always forget that the old schools looked more like fortresses than warm and friendly hallowed halls of learning. It takes up that whole block, which was still pretty big for the 50's, and it took me 3 shots to create a panoramic view of it (too big to show here).

The woman who was at the main site was from Texas, so she told us a lot about the site. Apparently, even after all this time, there were a lot of people who DIDN'T want this to be a historic site because it would stir up old news and such. Pres. Clinton made it so, but it made quite a few Arkansanians unhappy. The pic to the right happened later. It's a pic of my camera strap (grumble) and more importantly, a HUGE tree that back in 1957 had a black person hung in effigy on it. It was hit by lightning a few weeks before we came. God does NOT like racial hatred, folks...

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural NHS (October 14, 2000)

We moved up to New York in 2001, but we came up the opening of duck season in 2000. Keelin, Maureen and I went to the Teddy Roosevelt site together to have a look around.

Unfortunately, I ENTIRELY forgot to take pictures, even though I could have SWORN I did take some. I'm assuming either it never happened, or the shots were lost. All I have now is the stamp (which came next year in the 2001 collection) and the cancellation (something I was not so lucky with at the Abe Lincoln site...see the next page for that debacle!)

Update 10/2006: Having no pics for this site and living only an hour away finally got the best of me! I went and got pictures of some of the insides a few months ago and can FINALLY rest easy knowing you all have seen SOME of the insides of this place (like the pic below)! J

First of all, here’s the SIGN! Don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but along with the other stupid things that creep me out, the lettering used in the national park signs is kinda scary, too. I think I’ve always associated this lettering with places where people have died (as a child, we saw quite a few historic battlefields and such for school), so I think it’s just stuck with me. But, seriously, the lettering IS a little wobbly in that spooky kinda way…right? Right?

The site is actually the home of Ansley Wilcox, where Teddy Roosevelt actually took the oath of office after William McKinley was assassinated. Like the Alamo, this site is actually right in the middle of a bustling modern city. You’d totally pass it if you didn’t look for the sign, since it’s squeezed in between a bunch of other places that have no historical significance whatsoever. Only when you get inside do you see anything remotely old-fashioned. This room is the actual spot where TR took the oath of office, in a coat he borrowed from the Wilcoxes.

One of the more interesting points to me that I didn’t even notice when I first went was the fact that an African American had been responsible for bringing down McKinley’s assassin, not the Secret Service. You can read more about James Benjamin Parker by clicking here. Sadly, though he stopped the shooter from getting in another shot, he was not celebrated in any way and did not ask to be. One has to hope the world has changed…

The pic on the left and the ones below are of the informational panels they had set up on the bottom floor regarding the assassination and Roosevelt’s subsequent replacement. The upper 2 floors have rooms for art exhibits and a gift shop where I got my next set of passport stamps when we first came.