Water. That's what attracts people to Hot Springs. They have been coming here since the first person discovered these hot springs perhaps 10,000 years ago. Old documents indicate that American Indians knew about and used the hot springs during the late 1700s and early 1800s, as their ancestors may have done. Local legend celebrates the area as a neutral ground, where different tribes came to hunt, trade, and bathe in peace. Surely they drank the springwater, too, for the water with its minerals and gases has a pleasant taste and smell. These traces of minerals, combined with a temperature of 143 degrees F, are credited with giving the waters whatever therapeutic properties they may have. Waters from cold springs, which have different chemical components and properties, are also used for drinking. Besides determining the chemical composition and origins of the waters, scientists have determined that the waters flowing from these hot springs are more than 4,000 years old. The waters gush at an average rate of 850,000 gallons a day!