APPENDIX C REPORTS OF OFFICERS IN CHARGE OF THE NATIONAL PARKS AND ENGINEERING DIVISIONS HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK Dr. JOSEPH BOLTEN, Superintendent, Hot Springs, Ark. GENERAL STATEMENT The total receipts of the pay bathhouses were $428,401.31 as compared with $396,604.47 for the fiscal year 1924. The net profits reported for 17 pay bathhouses aggregated $109,015.11. Three bathhouses reported deficits amounting to $3,877.46. The total profits, including deficits, for all bathhouses last year were $83,316.54. The baths given were as follows: Complimentary, 2,983; paid baths, 647,240; at the United States free bathhouse, 73,841; at the Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital Bathhouse, 5,419, making a grand total of 729,483 baths, as compared with a grand total of 679,396 given during the previous year. The springs, 46 in number, supply 850,000 gallons of hot water daily, which is collected and distributed to the Army and Navy General Hospital, the United States free bathhouse, the Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital Bathhouse, and 19 pay bathhouses, all of which are under government supervision. ADMINISTRATION The park is in charge of the superintendent, who has supervision over all matters pertaining to the park and its management, the general sanitary control of all bathhouses receiving hot water, and control over all employees connected with the bathhouses. The park personnel is divided into the following departments; Administrative, police, maintenance, and free bathhouse and clinic. On December 1, 1924, the park took over actively the public camp grounds located at the east base of Hot Springs Mountain. An act was passed by the Arkansas Legislature giving to the Federal Government exclusive criminal jurisdiction over the public camp grounds. Total deposited to credit of miscellaneous receipts__ 44,742.70 All but one of the remaining city lots belonging to the park were disposed of at public auction, $20,035 being derived from the sales. This amount was deposited to the credit of a special fund available for improvement of the park. The unexpended balance of this fund is $20,308.82. The following expenditures were made by the park from appropriations: For administration, protection, and maintenance. For construction of physical improvements__. For construction and reconstruction of roads (from the National Park Service road budget) - Total expenditures__-- CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE, AND REPAIRS $66, 757.75 17,055. 49 25, 600.00 $109, 413. 24 Free bathhouse building.—A 5-foot concrete walk, 600 feet long, was laid around the building. The hot-air ventilating ducts were patched and plastered, and other repairs made to the hot-air heating system. Under a 1924 contract 1,800 square feet of radiation was installed to supplement the hot-air system. Screen doors and windows were installed throughout the building where required. The walls, ceilings, and floors of the clinic, and a number of rooms and the lobby of the bathhouse were painted. Leaks in the bath pools were repaired by the use of chemicals. Gutters and downspouts were repaired and new downspouts installed. Office building and pumphouse.-The exterior was painted and the interior of the pumphouse was whitewashed. The heating plant was overhauled and repaired. A new floor was laid in one room of the building, and another room was divided into two to provide storage space for office supplies and records. New screen doors and windows were installed. A new Superintendent's residence.-A screened sleeping porch was built. hot-water heater was installed and the hot-water pipes were replaced. heating system was completely overhauled. The walls of the hall, kitchen, and pantry were painted and all floors varnished. Fountain Street residence.-A screened sleeping porch was built. A partition was built to shut off the second floor from the first floor, to improve heating conditions. A new bathroom was installed on the first floor. Barns. Two new stalls were built. A small brick addition was made for storage of gasoline and oil and a gasoline pump and 550-gallon gasoline storage tank installed. Work was started on the service road back of the barn. Greenhouse.-An addition 12 by 36 feet was made. A new heating plant was installed. Whittington Park buildings.-Replaced gutters and repaired porch of keeper's house. Pavilions were repaired and painted. Grounds. Crêpe myrtle was planted along Bath House Row and on the free bathhouse grounds. Rose cuttings and flower bulbs were planted at various places on the reservation lawns. About 60 maple and elm trees were planted along the lower slopes of Hot Springs Mountain and in front of the barn. A shrubbery nursery was started at the greenhouse, and privet, crêpe myrtle, and other varieties of shrubs have been propagated, to the estimated value of five or six hundred dollars. A 600-square-foot retaining wall was built in front of the barn and fill made, to enlarge the driveway and help in masking the building. Drainage ditches, gutters, and tile were repaired in places and new drains built. There were hauled and spread on the lawns 179 yards of alluvial soil. Several square sections of the concrete walk on Bath House Row were replaced. An old, obsolete hot-water reservoir was demolished and the space it occupied was filled and grassed. The Arlington Hotel Co. completed the parking of its former site at the north end of Bath House Row, grass being sowed, shrubbery and decorative trees planted, and gravel and concrete walks laid. Roads. Under an allotment from the National Park Service road budget, the work of reconstructing the park roads was carried on by hired labor. Nearly all of the Hot Springs Mountain roads had been constructed to double travel width and the reconstruction of the loop road on North Mountain was completed. All equipment necessary for completing the construction and reconstruction work was purchased. In view of the construction work, the maintenance of the roads was curtailed to the minimum necessities. Trails.-Concrete cross-drains and tile were installed where needed to protect the trails from excessive wash. The trails were repaired, cleared, and put in excellent condition. A trail about 100 feet long was built on North Mountain to a large rock about 30 feet above the old trail, giving a commanding view of the surrounding country. Electric lighting system.—Six new five-cluster-light metal standards donated by the Arlington Holtel Co. were erected on the Arlington Park and connected up by 750 feet of three-conductor cable. All standards on Bath House Row, Hot Springs Mountain, and Whittington Park were painted. New reflectors were purchased for the road-lighting system on Hot Springs Mountain. Water system.-A new cellar drainer was installed in the sump of the main reservoir. The overflow pipe from this reservoir became obstructed, was dug up and a new 6-inch line installed. A new overflow line was also laid from the Superior Reservoir. A 4-inch electric recording and integrating water meter was puchased and will be installed on one of the bathhouse supply lines for experimental purposes, with the idea of installing them later on ail lines and metering the water supplied to all bathhouses. A hot-water shortage was averted this year by the exercise of strictest economy and by redistribution of water in reservoirs. Public camp grounds.-The 16 acres of land, when taken over, were densely covered with underbrush, and there were several marshy places. The underbrush was cleared away; low places were filled in; ditches were cut and tile laid to drain wet places. A comfort station for men and women, with pressure flush toilets, was erected. To supply water, a 100-foot artesian well was drilled. having a flow of nearly 30,000 gallons per day. A 3,000-gallon storage tank and a pump house were built at the well and pipe lines and galvanized storage tank installed. A complete electric lighting system was built, current being supplied by the local electric company. A road was built to open up parts of the grounds for camp sites. Two concrete bridges with wood superstruetures and three concrete culverts were built to bridge streams. The swimming pool was deepened and cleaned out, and the dam was repaired. The dressing rooms were remodeled. Sanitary sewer.-Contract was let for installing approximately 2,000 feet of 14-inch cast-iron sanitary sewer, extending from the north end of Bath House Row to a point about 600 feet south of the reservation line, from which point it will be cared for by the city. This sewer line will be built within the arched conduit of Hot Springs Creek and will replace the old 10-inch tile sewer. A 4 by 5 foot reinforced concrete storm sewer was built from the property line on Canyon Street down to Central Avenue from which point the city continued it into the creek conduit. The section built by the park was approximately 400 feet long. Miscellaneous.-Nearly all park benches were repaired and painted. The rolling equipment was kept in repair. the old equipment at considerable ex pense. An unusually violent hailstorm visited the city on December 7, 1924, the damage to the park amounting to $400 or more. The lights and balls of the Whiteway were broken, the glass roof of the greenhouse was demolished, and shrubbery and trees suffered considerable damage. GOVERNMENT FREE BATHHOUSE AND CLINIC The average number of persons bathed daily in the Government free bathhouse was 241, with a total of 73,841 baths given during the year. The total number of persons bathing was 3,441. The total number of patients examined and treated in the free clinic was 3,411. Of this number 2,787 were venereal-disease cases. The total number of examinations, treatments, etc., given in the clinic during the year was 65,313. The course of instruction for physicians was continued in the clinic, several physicians taking the course during the year. While a smaller number of patients has been treated in the bathhouse and clinic, more intensive courses of treatment have been given those under treatment. PAY BATHHOUSES One new bathhouse, the Arlington, was completed this year, opening on De cember 20, 1924. On October 15, 1924, the lease of the Rector Bathhouse expired, and it was closed. At least Regular and irregular inspections are made in all the bathhouses. five regular inspections are made in the men's department and two in the women's department of the bathhouses each month. Very satisfactory conditions are usually found, it being to the bathhouses' interest to be in good condition, from a standpoint of sanitation and cleanliness. On the first of each month all bathhouse employees coming in personal contact with bathers are given a physical examination, and conditions found are noted on the employees' health cards. New employees are given complete examinations, including the Wasserman test, before being permitted to work in the bathhouses. Bacteriological examinations of the water have been made at intervals, but no contamination has been disclosed. Mosquito control work has been carried on in all parts of the park where they might have a tendency to breed. Particular care was taken to keep the public camp site free from mosquitoes. Regular examinations have been held at intervals of three months for applicants for the position of masseur and masseuse in the bathhouses. Mental, written and oral, and practical examinations are given, in addition to complete physical examinations. VISITORS The records for the travel season show that about 265,500 persons visited the park this year. A paved highway connecting Little Rock and Hot Springs was completed in June. This has brought about an enormous increase in the number of automobile tourists visiting this park. Official figures are not available, but the chamber of commerce estimates that about 130,000 automobile tourists came here. Since December 1, 6,900 visitors have used the public camp grounds. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK HORACE M. ALBRIGHT, Superintendent, Yellowstone Park, Wyo. The opening ceremonies of the 1925 season were held on June 18 at the western gateway. Cooperating with the National Park Service in preparing for these ceremonies and in conducting them was the Union Pacific System. Numerous publicity men, photographers, etc., were invited to the ceremonies by the railroad. Indians from the Fort Hall Reservation were also brought in. Four governors were present: Gov. Nellie Tayloe Ross, of Wyoming; Gov. J. E. Erickson, of Montana; Gov. C. C. Moore, of Idaho; and Gov. George H. Dern, of Utah. All of the governors spoke of the great beauty and interest of Yellowstone and its importance, both from the economic and recreational standpoints, to the adjoining States. Just before leaving, the governors |