While I was born and raised in North Little Rock and now live just outside Benton, I have to admit my favorite city in Arkansas is Hot Springs. Because of its history, beautiful scenery, unique stores and my favorite restaurant (McClard’s BBQ), I love visiting “The Spa City.” But there is one place in Hot Springs I have never visited, and that would be the geological wonder known as “Hell’s Half Acre.”
Hell’s Half Acre is not a piece of Arkansas real estate owned by Lucifer, but rather a slope formed by an accumulation of broken rocks on Indian Mountain, about 4 miles northeast of downtown Hot Springs.
As seen in old brochures and postcards, tourism promoters and purveyors of tall tales gave the area its name and said it was haunted by Satan himself. An 1892 Hot Springs tourism pamphlet describes Hell’s Half Acre as “a barren, weird, forbidding conglomeration of boulders, an arsenal for Titans. Not a blade of grass, not a shrub, not even a lichen dares brave the atmosphere of death and desolation which seems to pervade the uncanny spot.”
Here in the heart of the Bible Belt, religious people drew obvious comparisons to the Bible's bleak portrayals of Hell, making for a fascinating story for the hucksters promoting Hell’s Half Acre as a tourist attraction.
Similar to early theories about Pinnacle Mountain in Little Rock, Hell’s Half Acre was also thought to be the remains of an extinct volcano. The early settlers of "the Valley of the Vapors" thought that an extinct volcano’s crater could easily be found near the geothermal activity that occurs in Hot Springs.
But study after study has shown the rocks at Hell’s Half Acre are not volcanic. They are actually novaculite, which is common in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Native Americans in the area such as the Caddo used novaculite to make arrowheads, knives and ax blades. Excavation of Hell’s Half Acre has turned up evidence of Native American activity dating back more than 5,000 years ago.
Another legend stated that there was once a deep hole at the center of Hell’s Half Acre that once held a captive demon. According to the 1892 tourism pamphlet, “Tourists often encounter the putrid smell of the demon’s sulphureous breath as it rises from amongst the rocks, and hear deep underground moans of pain and shrieks of savage profanity.”
If you’re intrigued by the story of Hell’s Half Acre and want to pay a visit, you’re out of luck: Hell’s Half Acre is now located on private property, with no trail or road to reach the site. That’s alright with me — I’ll stick to visiting beautiful Bathhouse Row, the unique gift shops and, of course, McClard’s BBQ.
A proud sixth-generation Arkansan, Darrell W. Brown is a lover of all things Arkansas. He served several years with the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, and worked in all three divisions. He lives in Saline County with his wife and two beloved Boston Terriers. You can email him with questions, comments, and story ideas at AllAroundArkansas@Yahoo.com.
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