{"nrhp_refnum":"74000278","name":"Hot Springs","other_names":["Boguillas Hot Springs"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"W of Rio Grande Village","address_restricted":false,"city":"Big Bend National Park","county":"Brewster County","state":"TX","lat":29.179365437000058,"lon":-102.9953084279842,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-09-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Health/Medicine","Entertainment/Recreation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Hot Springs is a site in Big Bend National Park, Brewster County, Texas, about two miles west of Rio Grande Village at the confluence of Tornillos Creek and the Rio Grande. It is a small resort complex developed by J. O. Langford from 1909, of which a stone store and a stone motor court (cabins) built after 1927 remain.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that Langford's health and recreational resort was the first in the area to draw visitors in sizeable numbers. The tourism it generated was largely responsible for the movement to establish Big Bend as a national park. It is rated as locally significant for its role in early tourism and commerce.","narrative":"Hot Springs is a former health and recreation resort on the Rio Grande, about two miles west of Rio Grande Village in Big Bend National Park, Texas. The springs were reputedly known to Indians and other residents long before J. O. Langford, a man in poor health, acquired the place in 1909. He developed it as a resort and ran it until the national park was established in 1942, except for 1912 to 1927, when border unrest made the area unsafe. After returning in 1927, Langford rebuilt the bathhouse and added a store and a motor court. Only those last two buildings survive. The store is a one-story stone building, and the cabins form a row of seven attached stone rooms, four with hand-painted murals. The resort drew the first sizeable numbers of visitors to the region and helped build support for creating the national park, which is why the site was listed for its local importance in tourism and commerce.","period_of_significance":"1909-1952","architect_builder":"J. O. Langford (built the store and motor court after 1927)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as excellent but altered; the store and motor court were being restored by the National Park Service. Two other structures across Tornillos Creek, a postman's shack and a stone residence, are in ruins.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.125421-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/90/9713/40971390/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/74000278.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000278/4a7dac87d1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000278/4a7dac87d1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Cummings","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Big_Bend_National_Park,_Texas_55.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">John Cummings</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Big_Bend_National_Park,_Texas_55.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971390","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Springs_(Big_Bend_National_Park)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5910432"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/brewster-county/hot-springs-74000278/"}