Did you know that Hot Springs, Arkansas is the only National Park that brews beer? Well, not the Park Service itself but Rose Schweikhart in the form of the Superior Bathhouse Brewery. As part of a tour we got to meet Rose and go on a tour of her brewery and learned quite a bit.

For example, did you know that Superior Bathhouse Brewery is the only brewery in the entire world that brews beer with mineral water? Of course part of that is the kind of mineral water that’s present in Hot Springs, Arkansas which is good stuff in the first place.

Bathhouse Brewery?

Americans discovered the magical healing power of hot water about 150 years ago with humans using the hot water that came out of the earth for relaxation and all sorts of purported medical cures and such.

In Hot Springs, Arkansas the hot springs became an ever more important aspect of the region with bathhouses growing from tents to proper structures to competing businesses in ever-fancier buildings. The competing bathhouses offered more and more elegant settings and elaborate services until the popularity of bathhouses began to dwindle.

As we average Americans got our own hot water in our own homes the popularity of the bathhouses dwindled and they all eventually closed their doors leaving a row of nice buildings that were essentially abandoned.

Eventually the Federal government declared Hot Springs, Arkansas a National Park but it’s unusual in that it encompasses all these former bathhouses which had been closed. Closed, unloved buildings don’t tend to last. So the Feds sought out tenants and Rose proposed doing a brewery here.

In a remarkable miracle of the Federal government actually doing something super cool Rose ultimate was able to lease the building specifically to be a brewery and it has been one since 2016.

I had several of the beers here including the Tiny P Hazy Ale which has an outstanding malt flavor and a hint of pineapple. I also tried their Space Force IPA which was a proper IPA but not overly hoppy and also very good.

Peggy gave the Beach Juice ginger seltzer a try and also really enjoyed it.

Rose knows her stuff when it comes to brewing but I am also impressed by her ability to navigate the complexity of dealing with the Feds on a historic building.

For example, you know that a brewery needs large tanks to do the whole brewing thing but the Feds were not keen on cutting a big hole in the wall to facilitate getting the tanks in. So finally they agreed to letting her remove one of the front windows of the building and then a large inner window and create a ramp-like pathway for the tanks to come into the brew house. It’s creative, got the job done and didn’t alter the historic appearance of the building.

There are also interesting aspects to leasing a building from the Feds - you can’t own it. So Rose’s lease is 55 years but she is also responsible for the roof and windows and all the bits that wear out. Oh, and if you’ve ever owned a historic building and it is recognized as such know that there are all sorts of regulations and guidelines for colors, type of windows, roof material and on and on and on.

There are also Federal regs for thinks like handicap accessibility which often are completely in opposition to historic preservation. So hoist a pint to Rose and her patience but also her ability to brew a good pint of beer!

It’s the water

Peggy did an article about the geology of Hot Springs, Arkansas which you can read here. But know that the water is pretty pure once it’s made it’s path through the limestone after a few thousand years underground.

That’s how it’s able to be used in a brewery and why there are spigots all over town where folks bring their containers and fill them with the water. We’ve often seen lines at the spigots where folks are waiting their turn to get the water here.

The water comes out of the ground around 143°F but to start the brewing process it actually is heated further.

Camp Carpe Diem

What brought us back to this unique national park is that we’re participating in Camp Carpe Diem. You can learn more about this in our podcast with April and Debra. The idea is to meet new like-minded people and do some cool activities and, thus far, we’ve really enjoyed the people we’ve met.

This is the fourth Camp Carpe Diem and some are already regulars, others are newbies like we are.

Getting here was some of the fun

Peggy already covered our drive from New Mexico into Oklahoma in the previous two posts but our third night on the road was. Well. Interesting.

We tend not to drive more than 300 miles in a day for a number of reasons. One of those is that we tend to shuffle along about 63 miles per hour even when others are going much faster. This is about the ideal combination of speed for us for fuel mileage (it’s still terrible!) and just the feeling of control should something happen. It also minimizes wear on the vehicle and trailer and occupants in our opinion.

We also tend to stop a lot when we see interesting things on the side of the road. So if we come across a muffler man or some other roadside Americana we’re probably going to stop and take a selfie. That’s how we roll.

Peggy is a master at finding places to rest our heads for the night and particularly adept at finding places that aren’t all that expensive. While some of you might seek-out places that are fancy or have specific amenities, we’re fine with spending the night in places that don’t have services or might have limited services. So some of them are. Well. Interesting.

However some of them are also full-hook-up RV parks that have seen better days but charge under $20 per night. Yep, they’re still out there.

Stuckey's Travel Stop in Seminole OK has everything

So this particular place we stayed in Seminole, Oklahoma was called Stuckey’s Bar H. It was actually a pretty well maintained RV park with concrete pads at each site along with full hook-ups.

What struck me was the store for this place. They had a gas station, a number of truck lanes, a Dunkin’ Donuts, a place that sold pizza, a place that sold burgers, a full convenience store, knives, local souvenirs, clothing and even a Baskin Robbins. Of course there was the RV park but also a motel with four rooms. But this was all contained in a building that is barely larger than a normal convenience store.

In some ways it was like a really low-grade version of a Buc-Ees but with Indians behind the counter that seemed quite weary. I wonder if this was a family-owned business that did some research on what it took to build a successful truck stop but didn’t quite have the money for a fancy one so just did this?

So this place was a Stuckey’s which rhymes with Buc-Ees but didn’t have the panache. Nor the super duper clean restrooms.

The windows in this place were plastered with posters for all the things they had inside and their fuel prices were really good and for Top Tier fuel as well. Heck, I even got a donut!

When we arrived we thought we were the only people in the park but, later, a large fifth wheel pulled in and several truckers took advantage of the parking lot to rest their heads as well. These seemed like pretty enterprising people but ones who were definitely putting in long, long days.

And I guess this is better than Buc-Ees because they encourage RVers to be here as well as truckers so fooey on you, Buc-Ees because these people actually like those of us with larger vehicles and I have my own doggone bathroom so there.