Details and solid numbers are demanding to come by, but there’s no doubt Arkansas is getting pummeled as Presidents Donald Trump and Elon Musk sacrifice thousands of federal jobs at the altar of “government efficiency.”
In Hot Springs, the National Park Visitor Center and the pristinely preserved Fordyce Bathhouse will no longer be open Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The buildings had been open to visitors seven days a week.
The changed hours come as Hot Springs rolls through its busy tourist season, with horses running at Oaklawn through the spring.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette‘s James Leigh reported that the cuts have Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison worried that tourism numbers could drop, cutting into the popular resort town’s bottom line.
It’s a problem across the country, and in other parts of Arkansas, too. The Buffalo National River lost four staff members to the cuts this month as the Trump administration whittled thousands from National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and USDA Forest Service payrolls.
And this week, as First Gentleman Bryan Sanders presided over a tourism conference hyping outdoor recreation in The Natural State, the Buffalo Point Ranger Station shut down indefinitely.
Austin Gelder is the editor of the Arkansas Times and loves to write about government, politics and education. Send your juiciest gossip to austin@arktimes.com.
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