HOT Springs in America’s Deep South is the place where mobster Al Capone used to go on vacation – the kind of holiday offer you can’t refuse.
It’s not a link you might expect, connecting gangland Chicago of the 1920s and the quiet state of Arkansas, with its far gentler Southern ways, and yet just a couple of hours flight away.
But it’s one of the many fascinating contradictions, curios and conundrums to be found in this varied and beautiful Old South territory, which until recently has been well off the international tourist track.
That could be about to change, as second or third-time visitors to the States turn to this “now for something completely different” destination.
And if it was good enough for Big Al, it’s certainly good enough for me. He relaxed in Hot Springs’ impressive Arlington Hotel, still a splendid example of 1920s charm in this spa resort.
You can stay in Capone’s suite, Room 434, and enjoy breakfast at his table – just make sure you keep your back to the wall.
Hot Springs is also the place where former US president Bill Clinton grew up before embarking on his political career in the state’s capital city of Little Rock, an hour’s drive away. Most folk remain immensely proud of “good ol’ Billy boy”, so much so that Little Rock even has a Clinton museum, which is genuinely fascinating. Contradictions seem to be a way of life in Arkansas. Take the wonderfully-named resort of Eureka Springs. It’s a curious Victorian-style mountain retreat where the misfits fit. Where else could you find 72-year-old former hippies running a herbal lotions and potions business which smells like something straight out of California at the height of the Sixties’ flower power movement next door to a New Holy Land park run by fundamental Christians, who piously practise their beliefs, refusing even to accept Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
There’s a thriving gay community too in this little San Francisco of the South, where even the cops wear lycra shorts and ride mountain bikes.
Yet they all sit together in apparent harmony, and for the most part everyone gets on with their own business. Even our hostess at the Harvest House was a Californian with a great sense of humour and perspective. As she put it: “Eureka is where the circus came to town and never left. We’ve got the biggest bunch of guys in denial you’ve ever seen! You either love this place, or it spits you out.”
Tourists certainly love it, as they come here in their droves for the entertainment and good food, such as that served up in style at the Grande Taverne. They also come to observe and mix with the residents. There are blues festivals, jazz weeks, and mountain music sessions too, not to mention a Passion play that packs ’em in every night from spring till fall at the giant white statue of Jesus that overlooks the town.
But if everyone agrees to differ and yet rub along together in Eureka Springs, everyone agrees wholeheartedly on one thing…the surrounding beauty of the mountains is truly spectacular.
It’s also an outdoor playground, offering white-water rafting, kayaking, climbing, cycling and walking in a wonderful environment.
And in the woods, those seeking sanctuary and peace can sit in the amazingly-tranquil Thorncrown Chapel, an architectural gem of wood and glass that brings the outside inside and gives you time to catch your thoughts.
Three hours’ drive away, there’s another unexpected offering for a Southern state, in the shape of the genuine cowboys and indians experience at Fort Smith, the old military outpost on the banks of the wide Arkansas River, with the lawless Wild West on the other bank in what is now the state of Oklahoma.
In a bid to tame the town and bring outlaws back to justice in “Injun Territory”, hanging judge Isaac Parker rode in with his posse of John Wayne-style marshalls and deputies. You can still see the gallows from which 80 men and women were hanged – and the courtroom he sentenced them in – at the National Historic Site museum.
Across the road is the equally-impressive Miss Laura’s, one of six bordellos that used to be in town. Miss Laura bought hers for $3,000 in 1903 and sold it for $47,000 eight years on – a fortune in those days.
A sadder and more salutary story is the museum’s chronicle of how the Native Americans were forced to march nearly 1,000 miles from their south-eastern homelands to the barren lands of Oklahoma to make way for the white settlers back in the 1830s.
But our spirits returned as we rose majestically into Ouachita Mountains in Mount Magazine State Park, and checked into The Pine Lodge with its views of the Petit Jean Valley 1,000ft below.
The next day it was back towards Hot Springs, past the spot where Jesse James robbed a stagecoach, and finally on to Little Rock, with all its Bill Clinton memorabilia. Even the place we stayed was called the Presidential Holiday Inn.
Little Rock was the home town of WW2 hero – and “Communist-hunter” – General Douglas MacArthur, and there’s a tank in a nearby park and a submarine moored on the riverbank next to a paddle-steamer, the Arkansas Queen.
In equally-typical Deep South tradition, there’s even the old mill which featured in Gone With The Wind.
What's the deal?
-NORTH American Highways (01902 851138, www.NAHighways.co.uk) have a seven-night self-drive break in Arkansas from £1,120pp. Price includes flights to Little Rock with Continental Airlines, seven nights’ accommodation and car hire.
-FOR more information go to www.arkansas.com
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