HS Mountain Tower celebrates 35 years
The National Park Service and Hot Springs Mountain Tower staff will celebrate the tower’s 35th anniversary with coffee and doughnuts in the morning and cake in the afternoon on Sunday.
Hot Springs Mountain has been home to three observation towers over the last 141 years. The current tower opened its doors to the public on June 3, 1983, according to information provided by the National Park Service in a news release.
The first of the three towers was an 80-foot wooden observatory kept by Horace Woolman in 1877 and Enoch Woolman in the 1880s. It was an immediate sensation and featured in the January 1878 issue of Harper’s Monthly Magazine. Visitors who climbed the mountains and went up the narrow wooden steps up to the tower’s platform were rewarded with a breathtaking view, said to encompass 30 miles, the Park Service said. A permanently mounted telescope further enhanced the viewing.
The first Hot Springs Reservation superintendent, Gen. Benjamin F. Kelley, wanted everyone, even those unable to make the climb up the mountain, to enjoy the view. He requested that Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurtz allow him a small sum to build a carriage road up to the tower.
The drive was completed in October 1879 for only $356.59 and was the first reservation drive built primarily for visitor enjoyment. It linked Reserve Street with the tower, which remained a popular tourist attraction until a lightning strike burned it to the ground sometime between
1885 and 1895, the release said.
It was 1903 before the secretary of the Interior leased the site for the second tower. Capt. Charles N. Rix, president-elect of the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce and president of Arkansas National Bank, visited the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1903 where he observed a Marconi wireless tower, constructed of steel. Rix thought a similar tower would be an excellent addition to Hot Springs Mountain. By May 22, 1903, the Department of the Interior had approved plans for a similar tower to be constructed on Hot Spring Mountain. John H. Howell, a businessman who had assumed a lease for the tourist attraction with the federal government, assigned his lease to the Hot Springs Mountain Observatory Company, headed by Rix. On May 30, 1905, Howell and Rix contracted with the Texas Steel Bridge Co. of Dallas, Texas, for the construction of a steel tower.
Called the Hot Springs Mountain Observatory or the Rix Tower, the tower opened on May 4, 1906. Forty-one square feet of concrete embedded in solid rock formed the structure’s base. The 165-foot tower boasted a small Otis elevator, but visitors that were more adventurous could instead climb the circular staircase of 188 steps to the platform on top, furnished with a high-power telescope for even better viewing.
The years took their toll on the Rix Tower. The base of the tower had to be strengthened and repaired, and then the tower frame itself had to be reinforced. The tower was finally declared unsafe, and on July 13, 1971, the popular tourist attraction was taken down in one piece and dismantled. In the last year of operation, the tower had attracted 120,000 visitors, the release said.
In 1981, the city of Hot Springs launched plans for a third modern observation tower. The tower opened to the public on June 3, 1983. Its construction was financed through a city bond issue, but the National Park Service retained title to the facility because it was built on federal land in Hot Springs National Park. The Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission operated and managed the tower under a concessions contract with the Park Service until 2016. The tower is currently operated by Hot Springs Mountain Tower LLC.
Constructed of latticed steel, the observatory has two highspeed elevators that take visitors to two observation decks. Four high-powered telescopes offer panoramic views to a distance of 140 miles and beyond of Hot Springs scenery and the Ouachita Mountains. The lower deck features a circular exhibit area to tell the history of both the city of Hot Springs and Hot Springs National Park. The observatory attracts well over 200,000 visitors a year. A retail shop on the first floor has a variety of mementos, T-shirts, and other souvenirs of the area.
The tower is open every day from 9 a.m. to dusk.