The archway leading up to West Baden Springsįrench Lick and West Baden Springs prospered. He did just that, finishing his famous domed resort in 1902. When the original West Baden hotel burned in 1901, Sinclair vowed to rebuild within a year, this time out of fire-proof material. The West Baden resort was purchased by Lee Sinclair, of Salem, Indiana. In 1900 Thomas Taggart, Indianapolis mayor and hotel man purchased 350 acres, and with his associates founded the French Lick Springs Hotel Company. The Springs Valley proved fertile ground for entrepreneurs. By 1890 the Monon Railroad offered round trip tickets to French Lick from any railroad that ran through Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky. By 1880, fourteen thousand guests visited the French Lick House annually. These two grand hotels enjoyed enormous success.

Both bottled and marketed the waters for their curative powers. By 1855 a rival establishment was built just a mile away, which would later be called West Baden Springs Hotel after the famous springs of Weisbaden, Germany. William Bowles was the first to cash in on the natural phenomenon by building the French Lick House in 1832. By the late 1800s people began to recognize the potential of the natural mineral springs, and claimed the waters could cure anything from alcoholism to constipation.ĭr.

En route from Vincennes to the Falls of the Ohio, buffalo were drawn to mineral springs and salt licks in this hilly area. The first to discover the region known as the Springs Valley, were probably the buffalo. French Lick and West Baden Springs History

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