§ 361. Establishment; supply of water; free baths for indigent; dedication to United States

The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to grant to hotels having bathhouses attached, and to bathhouses situated in the Hot Springs National Park, as well as in the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas, the right to install, maintain, and use, either in said bathhouses or in connection with the rooms of said hotels or the bathhouses attached to said hotels, as many bathtubs as in his discretion he may deem proper and necessary for the public service and the amount of hot water will justify. The superintendent shall provide and maintain a sufficient number of free baths for the use of the indigent. All titles given or to be given by the United States shall explicitly exclude the right to the purchaser of the land, his heirs or assigns, from ever boring thereon for hot water; and the Hot Springs, with the National Park and mountain are dedicated to the United States, and shall remain forever free from sale or alienation.

(Dec. 16, 1878, ch. 5, 20 Stat. 258; June 16, 1880, ch. 246, § 3, 21 Stat. 289; Apr. 12, 1904, ch. 1249, 33 Stat. 173; May 23, 1906, ch. 2552, 34 Stat. 198, 199; Apr. 30, 1908, ch. 154, 35 Stat. 98; Mar. 4, 1921, ch. 161, § 1, 41 Stat. 1407.)

Codification

Codification

Act Apr. 12, 1904 amended act Dec. 16, 1878, by striking out a proviso thereof and inserting in lieu thereof a proviso which is the source of the first sentence of this section. The proviso stricken out limited the supply of water to hotels or bathhouses to not more than enough for 40 bath tubs of the usual size to a single establishment.

A portion of act Dec. 16, 1878, made an appropriation for the expenses of the Hot Springs Commission, and provided for the appointment of a Board of Commissioners, conferring upon them the powers of the Commissioners appointed under act Mar. 3, 1877, ch. 108, 19 Stat. 377, to lay out, etc., the Hot Springs Reservation, and revived and continued in force said act Mar. 3, 1877 to enable the Commissioners to perform the acts and duties authorized by it. These and other earlier provisions relating to the establishment and management of the reservation were temporary and have been executed.

Provisions of act Dec. 16, 1878, relating to leases of ground, bathhouses, etc., were omitted as temporary in nature and superseded by sections 362 to 368 of this title.

There have also been omitted as temporary and executed a provision of act Dec. 16, 1878 for the expenses of the free baths maintained for the indigent and a provision for the disposition of fractions of lots made by straightening, widening, or laying out streets.

The boundaries of the Hot Springs National Park have been affected by act June 25, 1930, ch. 607, 46 Stat. 1915, which provided as follows: “That the Secretary of the Interior be, and is hereby, authorized in his discretion to convey to the P. F. Connelly Paving Company, of Little Rock, Arkansas, by the issuance of patent or other appropriate instrument of conveyance, and at an appraised value to be approved by said Secretary, that certain tract of land located within the Hot Springs National Park, Garland County, Arkansas, described as follows: Beginning at a point on the west boundary line of Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas, said point being the most southerly corner of lot 32, block 128, United States Hot Springs Reservation as surveyed, mapped, and platted by the United States Hot Springs Commissioners; thence in a southeasterly direction and at right angles to the boundary of Hot Springs National Park aforesaid, a distance of fifty feet; thence in a northeasterly direction and parallel with the aforementioned boundary line, two hundred and ninety feet; thence in a northwesterly direction a distance of fifty feet to the aforementioned boundary line; thence in a southwesterly direction along said boundary line a distance of two hundred and ninety feet to the point of beginning; and, upon the transfer of title to said land to the said company, the same shall be, and is hereby, eliminated from the said Hot Springs National Park.”

Change Of Name

Change of Name

“Hot Springs National Park” substituted in text for “Hot Springs Reservation” pursuant to act Mar. 4, 1921.