GCCC-Pauper's Cemetery & Pest House Traditional Cache
GCCC-Pauper's Cemetery & Pest House
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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In September 1895, the city of Hot Springs bought a piece of land on Adams Street for $150 from the J.M. Evans family. The property became the location of the city “pest house” and pauper’s cemetery. The land is still owned by the city and was occasionally used as a pauper’s cemetery until sometime in 1984 when 104 year old Alfred Wilson was buried there. There is no record of any later burial.
Hundreds of unmarked sunken graves cover the hillside south of what is believed to be the location of the site of the hospital that the city built shortly after acquiring the property. Many of those buried here are believed to have succumbed to an outbreak of smallpox around the beginning of the 20th century. However, many people also died from other causes. The hot mineral water baths were considered an important health treatment for many aliments before the introduction of penicillin and other antibiotics. People came to Hot Springs from all over the United States for medical treatment. New customers had to have a physical before being admitted to the bath houses. Many arrived without funds or friends and it would be discovered that they had a contagious and fatal disease. They would be admitted to the hospital and taken care of till they died or recovered. Without relatives to claim the body or to provide for burial, the body would be buried in the onsite cemetery on the property by the city hospital. The term “pest house” was used in reference to a hospital or hostel that was used for persons afflicted with communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera or smallpox. Often it was used for forcible quarantine. Many towns and cities had one accompanied by a nearby cemetery. Several older Hot Springs residents still remember the facility that was located here and describe it as “a place where people were sent to die when they had smallpox or something.” Common practice was to dig a grave on a 45-degree orientation as a warning that the grave should not be opened due to smallpox. However, most of the graves here are on a 90-degree orientation (north-south) rather than the normal east-west. In any event I would not recommend any digging!!! This information was obtained from a March 19, 2006, Sentinel Record article.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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