1903 Rules and Regulations

RULES AND REGULATIONS OF 1903

The first Park rules were adopted on November 4, 1903

1. The Sulphur Springs Reservation shall be under the care of a superintendent appointed by the Secretary Of The Interior.

2. The Superintendent shall enforce all the rules and regulations of the Park.

3. The Superintendent shall take all applications for bath houses to be built in the Park.

4. Bath houses built in the Park are to be under the control of the Superintendent.

5. No business what-so-ever shall be carried on in the limits of the Park except in pursuance of a license issued by the Secretary Of The Interior.

6. No intoxicating beverages may be sold or be in the possession of persons. Consumption of alcohol in the Park is strictly prohibited.

7. No gambling, loud or profane language, disorderly conduct, indecent exposure or any act of immorality shall be tolerated.

8. No camping within 1,000 feet of any spring.

9. It is prohibited to cut any timber, injure any plant or remove any mineral from the Park. Horses or mules may not be tied to living trees.

10. The dumping of garbage on land or in the water or contamination of the waters is prohibited.

11. No more than one gallon of water per day per person. Water shall not be carried away in jugs. Use of the spring water is for "immediate drinking".

12. The grazing of livestock in the Park is prohibited.

13. No hunting or fishing or killing of any wild animal or birds or "frightening of the same". No swimming or wading is permitted.

14. No building, bridge or structure may be built without the permission of the Secretary of the Interior.

17. Cutting fences, injury to any stile or gate, failure to close a gate, injury to any notice or sign and all acts of malicious mischief is prohibited. No publications, political signs, advertising, or selling of merchandise shall be allowed.

Swimming and wading in Sulphur Creek was also prohibited. It seemed that people liked to bathe their feet in the springs where other visitors were getting their drinking water. It was later decided to allow swimming below the springs, in the lower part of the creek.

Although rules 3 and 4 pertain to the building of bathhouses in the Park, none were ever constructed. The reason for this is that both Superintendents Swords and Greene wrote letters to the Secretary of the Interior swaying his opinion against commercializing the Park and the springs. They both wanted to leave the Park in a natural setting. Another reason is that Congress was still upset about going into the bathhouse business with the problems encountered in Hot Springs National Park. There were many applications from doctors to build bathhouses in the Park but they were all refused.

Many local citizens staked out a milk cow or mule in the Park to graze. They were not allowed to do this either. Locals also cut firewood in the Park, hunted squirrels and fished in the streams even though there was rules posted everywhere to the contrary.

Rule #11 was soon abandoned when Supt. Swords realized that the removed citizens did not have domestic water to drink, cook and bathe. He then allowed the citizens of Sulphur to carry water from the more prolific springs in barrels for domestic use.