In October of 1877, Benjamin Kelley was appointed the first superintendent of Hot Springs Reservation. With the park now under government supervision, the Secretary of the Interior ordered Kelley to remove all of the wooden shanties over the "Dugout pools" of Ral Hole, Corn Hole, and Mud Hole. This action forced the removal of three to four hundred people encamped on the Hot Springs Mountain’s western slope. The situation at Ral Hole was described, “in this hole, diseased paupers have been bathing to the detriment of the prosperity of Hot Springs, and to the disgust of all persons of refinement and intelligence who have visited this watering place.”

Kelley carried out this order as his first official duty, but a mob confronted him the next day and threatened to hang him for his action. The crowd then hauled lumber to the pools and rebuilt the shanties. When the U.S. Marshal was unable to stop the construction, Kelley sent for federal troops. Company E of the 13th Infantry arrived to protect U.S. property and keep the peace. The troops remained until June 1880.

However, poor bathers continued to use Corn Hole, an excavated spring with a pool about ten feet square situated behind the site of the current Maurice Bathhouse. Reportedly, a chiropodist had the wooden seats built around it so that men in the morning and women in the afternoon could soak their feet and have corns removed for twenty-five cents each.

Kelley moved the city of encamped people away from the springs to a site on the south side of Hot Springs Mountain, after closing Ral Hole for bathing. Kelley had no funds to move and provide for these people, so he appealed to the guests and citizens for money. With this money, Kelley provided sufficient and comfortable barracks on the south side of the mountain, two commodious and comfortable bathing pools, one for men and one for women, and iron pipes to convey the hot water to them in the new city of Kelleytown. 

The town was located about a quarter mile beyond the site of the medical director's residence on Reserve Street. Bathers rented the cheap bachelor apartments for about $1 a week, and used the local Hospital Bath House in Kelleytown.

Credits and Sources:

Cockrell, Ron. “The Hot Springs of Arkansas—America’s First National Park: Administrative History of Hot Springs National Park.” National Park Service. Accessed June 15, 2015.

Shugart, Sharon. “The Hot Springs of Arkansas Through The Years: A Chronology Of Events -Excerpts-.” Department of the Interior, 2004. http://www.nps.gov/hosp/learn/historyculture/upload/chronology.web.pdf. (accessed June 15, 2015).

Quinn Evans Architects, Mundus Bishop Design, and Woolpert, Inc. Hot Springs National Park, Cultural Landscape Report and Environmental Assessment. National Park Service, 2010.