Anderson Design Group Interviews Friends of Hot Springs National Park!
As artists and wilderness explorers, our passion is to venture into the 63 American National Parks, photograph and document the wonder of these natural places, and share our enthusiasm for the parks and other natural wonders by creating original, high-quality poster art for our 63 Illustrated National Parks Collection. In our travels, we’ve also developed an immense appreciation for national monuments, which inspired the American National Monuments and Natural Wonders collection.
The national parks, monuments, historic sites, memorials, recreation areas, forests, and other BLM lands were created to preserve America’s natural beauty and cultural history, with each protected site representing a significant chapter in the great American story.
Because we at Anderson Design Group believe strongly in preserving the parks and natural and historic spaces for future generations to enjoy, we’re always looking for opportunities to support the conservancies, foundations, natural history associations, and friend groups that protect these invaluable places.
To raise awareness for the important educational, conservation, fundraising, youth involvement, and preservation activities taking place in a one-of-a-kind national park located within the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas, we took some time this week to sit down with Roxanne Butterfield, President of Friends of Hot Springs National Park.
An Interview with Friends of Hot Springs National Park
ADG: Thanks for meeting with us, Roxanne! Can you start by introducing your group?
Roxanne: Friends of Hot Springs National Park was established in 1988 as Friends of the Fordyce and Hot Springs National Park, Inc., to support the restoration and opening of the Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center Museum. The organization’s name was shortened in 2014 after the Fordyce restorations were completed, but it’s the same organization. It is a 100% volunteer organization, too! That means we have no paid staff, so more of our donations and contributions we bring in can go right into the park where they belong.
Roxanne Butterfield pictured below:
ADG: Great summary. Can you walk us through some of the projects Friends of Hot Springs National Park has been involved in?
Roxanne: We sponsor cleanups in the park. Our volunteers continue to work with visitors in the Gulpha Gorge Campground and the Fordyce Bathhouse. Current projects include fundraising to replace over 100 trail markers with carsonite poles with stickers. And a goal to raise over $200,000 for a suspended stained glass ceiling in the Maurice Bathhouse. The Maurice is the last bathhouse to be restored and ready for adaptive reuse.
We were heavily involved in the opening of the Fordyce Visitor Center and Museum. That project spanned from 1988 through 2013-2014. It was a big project. I came on in 2015, and since then, we’ve been raising money to restore the Maurice bathhouse. We also raise money for the Junior Ranger program and Iron Ranger Program.
The park sometimes receives grant funding, but it’s not enough to address the work needed on the old bathhouses, trail infrastructure, and water access sites, so our fundraising steps in to meet that essential need.
ADG: Hot Springs is also historically significant, right?
Roxanne: Yes. The park was established in 1832 before there was a Park System, before even Yellowstone was established in 1872. The bathhouses themselves are significant to the bathing history of the park.
ADG: The park is located right in the city of Hot Springs. What’s that like?
Roxanne: Because the park is located within the city limits, it can’t really close down or be shuttered, even during a government shutdown. You park your car, step onto a sidewalk, and boom, you’re in the national park. For example, during the last federal government shutdown, the National Park Service visitor center was closed and park rangers were furloughed, yet people were still walking through the park and enjoying it. Patrons of the park volunteered on their own to pick up trash, clean, and generally keep the space tidy until the government reopened. We have one member of our friend group who set up his camper at the park campground and just ran the show there as camp host, all on a volunteer basis, all on his own time.
ADG: How does your organization fundraise to cover the park’s various needs? Projects that aren’t being paid for through grant money or allocated funds for the Department of the Interior/National Park Service?
Roxanne: We’re always thinking of new and unique, interesting ways to raise money for the park. Because the park is located in the city center and has several bathhouse buildings in constant need of repair, the park’s funding needs never end. Some of our fundraising campaigns have included things like:
Memberships. When people join the friend group, their membership dues help fund needed park projects.
Annual fundraiser. We hosted an annual fundraiser centered around art, wine, and food. We brought in local artists and had them exhibit their art in the bathhouses. It was a way for folks to see the bathhouses, be in the park, view art, and eat, drink, and be merry.
Rented the space. Sometimes we had opportunities to rent the Ozark bathhouse for weddings, parties, and receptions. That was a great way to generate income for the park.
Dinner theater. We have also done things like murder-mystery dinner theaters at the Ozark bathhouse. Fun stuff like that brings the community out for an entertaining evening that also supports a good cause of raising money for various projects in the park. The hot springs are the whole reason this town exists, and folks typically feel motivated to protect them.
Hammers & Hard Hats event. We held a fundraiser in the Maurice Bathhouse, which was like a construction site inside. Rather than hosting a fancy, formal, black tie fundraiser gala, this was a fun event where folks showed up in their jeans and flannels, and they could go from workstation to workstation, hammering out old walls, scraping paint, removing tile, stuff like that. A very interactive way to get people excited about restoring the park’s bathhouses.
Hammers & Hard Hats event below. Quoting Roxanne, "We held various fundraisers that enabled the public to get inside bathhouses that were not open or accessible. The Hammers & Hard Hats fundraiser in the Maurice Bathhouse was a fun 'working' party."
Christmas parade table. During the town’s annual Christmas parade, we set up a table and serve cocoa and cookies. People can get their cups, cocoa powder, marshmallows, and peppermint sticks, then literally walk over to one of the natural hot spring fountains to fill their cups with hot drinking water. It really connects people to the park and to its importance to the community.
Christmas event below. Quoting Roxanne, "We serve cocoa and cookies during the city Christmas parade. We also help fund the holiday decorations along historic Bathhouse Row in the Park."
ADG: Each park is very unique. And each one has different needs from its communities, visitors, and the friend groups that support it. What does your park need most? (Can be more than one thing).
Roxanne: To be honest, we need more of everything, especially people (volunteers) and funding (donations). We are a small friend group working in a small park in a small town in a rural part of the state, yet some of this park’s needs rival those of bigger parks. All the help we can get in terms of volunteer hours and donations is extremely helpful, and because we are an all-volunteer organization with no paid staff, we’ll make sure those resources are put to good use.
ADG: I know the park itself can also be short-staffed from time to time. What’s an example where your organization steps in to ensure park operations continue?
Roxanne: The health of the natural resources in the form of the hot springs is super important to this community, and one thing that needs to be done is that all the spring water sites must be tested for water quality. This is hugely labor-intensive, so the park relies on volunteers who step in, get trained, and shoulder some of that responsibility. We help spread the word about this need.
Friend group volunteers step in and help out where needed, as in the photo below. Quoting Roxanne, "We manned the Ozark Bathhouse/Cultural Center from 2014-2024, enabling us to collect donations from park visitors."
ADG: Why is establishing friend groups for each park so important to you personally? And why did you choose to get involved in this particular park? We’d love to hear about your connection to it!
Roxanne: I’m just a resident who loves this park very, very much. When you fall in love with a national park, there’s just nothing like it. It’s a special connection. To me, it’s almost like a part of my family. We benefit so much from our connection to the natural world, and one of the best ways to see that connection occurring in real time is to visit a national park. These places are preserved for the public and protected for our benefit. I feel very fortunate to be so close to one right here in my community.
ADG: We couldn’t agree more with those sentiments, Roxanne! Thanks for sitting down with us today.
Roxanne: Thanks for having me!
The Importance of Supporting National Park Foundations and Friends Groups
You can learn more about Friends of Hot Springs National Park at their website. If you want to support their work, you can become a member.
If you represent a natural history association, foundation, friend group, conservancy, or preservation association that works in any of the 63 American National Parks or the hundreds of national monuments and other NPS sites across the U.S., contact us today to set up an interview! Just email ren@andersondesigngroup.com.
In the meantime, we’ll get back to creating vintage poster art of the national parks. Let’s enjoy these beautiful, historic places and do our part to preserve them for future generations.
-Ren Brabenec
Anderson Design Group Staff Writer
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