About HOT Airport and Hot Springs, AR.

Memorial Fields Airport – HOT – is located 3 miles southwest of the City of Hot Springs, Arkansas. It covers 844 acres.

Southern Airways has been operating in some capacity since the 1950s.

The center of Hot Springs is the oldest federal reserve in the United States, today preserved as Hot Springs National Park.

Following federal protection in 1832, the city developed into a successful spa town.

Incorporated January 10, 1851, the city has been home to Major League Baseball spring training, illegal gambling, speakeasies and gangsters such as Al Capone, horse racing at Oaklawn Park, the Army and Navy Hospital, and 42nd President Bill Clinton.

In 1673, Father Marquette and Jolliet explored the area and claimed it for France. The 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded the land to Spain; however, in 1800 control was returned to France until the Louisiana Purchase of 1803

Legend says Babe Ruth became a hitter in Hot Springs. According to the story, Ruth in Spring training hit a 573′ homerun while playing first base, not his previous pitching role. After that the rest is history and Ruth was often seen “rehabbing” in Hot Springs.

The city takes its name from the natural thermal water that flows from 47 springs on the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain in the historic downtown district of the city. About 1,000,000 US gallons of 143 °F  flow from the springs each day. The flow rate is not affected by fluctuations in the rainfall in the area. Studies by National Park Service scientists have determined through radiocarbon dating that the water that reaches the surface in Hot Springs fell as rainfall 4,400 years earlier. The water percolates very slowly down through the earth’s surface until it reaches superheated areas deep in the crust and then rushes rapidly to the surface to emerge from the 47 hot springs.