Title 16ConservationRelease 119-73

§374 Taking or use of or bathing in water in violation of rules and regulations

Title 16 › Chapter CHAPTER 1— - NATIONAL PARKS, MILITARY PARKS, MONUMENTS, AND SEASHORES › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER XL— - HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK › § 374

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

You must follow the park’s rules to enter, use, or bathe in any spring at Hot Springs National Park. If you are being treated by a doctor, you must show proof that the doctor is registered at the superintendent’s office as allowed to prescribe the waters. Breaking these rules is a misdemeanor. A person convicted can be fined up to $100 and must pay court costs. Doctors who seek patients by solicitation (for example, using agents) cannot be registered. If a person bathes because a doctor gave permission, the doctor is responsible unless registered. The bather is not guilty unless they knew or should have known the doctor was not registered.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §374

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Any person who shall, except in compliance with such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may deem necessary, enter or attempt to enter upon said tract, take, or attempt to take, use, or attempt to use, bathe in, or attempt to bathe in water of any spring located thereon, or without presenting satisfactory evidence that he or she (provided he or she is under medical treatment) is the patient of a physician duly registered at the office of the superintendent of the Hot Springs National Park as one qualified, under such rules which the Secretary of the Interior may have made or shall make, to prescribe the waters of the Hot Springs, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be subject to a fine of not more than $100, and be adjudged to pay all costs of the proceedings. No physician who shall engage in the solicitation of patronage through the medium of drummers, or otherwise, shall be or remain thus registered. If any person so bathing, or attempting to bathe, or so entering, or attempting to enter upon the described tract, shall have the permit of a physician, such physician shall be liable to the penalties of this section, unless he be regularly registered; and such person shall not be liable to the penalties of this section, unless it shall be made to appear that he knew, or had reason to believe, that the physician giving him such permit was not regularly registered.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

“Hot Springs National Park” substituted in text for “Hot Springs Reservation” pursuant to act Mar. 4, 1921.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 374

Title 16Conservation

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73