Fountain Lake, AR

Fountain Lake is a town in eastern Garland County, bordering Hot Springs Village and part of the Hot Springs metropolitan area. The 2020 census counted 475 residents. Highway 7 runs directly by the town, across from Fountain Lake Center, where a large stucco entrance and a long tree-lined drive mark the approach. The place is also tied to the lake that gives it its name, with Lake Balboa and the wider Hot Springs Village development adding a resort-and-lakes backdrop. For a small town, its map has a lot of water and roads packed into it.

ATTRPublic domain

Education is one of Fountain Lake's strongest local threads. Several rural school districts consolidated into the Fountain Lake School District in 1927, and the district now operates Fountain Lake High School along with the rest of its public schools. Fountain Lake incorporated as a town in 1999 and later upgraded to a city of the second class. The lakeside marina rents slips and boats, while the former Fountain Lake Resort property became associated with artesian water bottling and was acquired by Mountain Valley Spring Water in 2018. The result is a place where a school district, lake country, and the edge of Hot Springs Village all meet.