So much has happened since my last post. I am behind. on May 15 Bob and I went to Lakeview Arkansas for a week and went fishing. We stayed at Gastons. Left on sat the 15th drove down and arrived just in time for Happy Hour. Had some sort of wheat beer with a orange. I can't remember name.  We ate at the restaurant and I had trout almadine and they had a great salad bar with cheese ball and veg  and veg dip shaped in  the shape of a john boat with motor.We  had a fireplace which we lit.  On Day 2 I tried fishing off the bank with out much luck. We went into the nearby town and explored and bought groceries. On Day 3 we went fishing with a guide named Frank. He showed us how to fish  techniques that worked on the river. It was one of the best days of my life. We caught at least 20 rainbow trout and bob caught one brown.

This is memorial day weekend and Bob and I just returned from french lick I want to rememberEarly History


In 1778, George Rogers Clark is thought to have discovered the area's mineral springs and salt licks.[4] . The evidence of salt deposits enticed the government to plan on mining large quantities of salt for the demands of meat preservation to be used by the early pioneers. It was then determined the saline content was not sufficient to support the large scale extraction of salt and the property was offered for sale. Dr William Bowles purchased the land where the French Lick Springs Resort now sits and built a small inn on the site. The region's reputation as a mineral springs resort area began with the building of the first French Lick Springs Hotel in 1832. During the outbreak of the Mexican American War, the doctor chose to lease his inn to Dr. John Lane while he as off as a commissioned officer in the US Army. Dr Bowles agreed to a long term lease with Dr. Lane in which Lane would agree to enlarge and approve the facility. Through the deal Dr. Bowles would enjoy an improved facility with the potential for increased business at the lease's end. Dr. Lane would get back his initial investment as well as improved trade. Dr Lane was displeased when Dr. Bowles returned early to end the lease and retake possession of the hotel. He was so displeased that he opened up a new inn one mile down the road in 1852. This inn would be the beginnings of the West Baden Springs Hotel.







In 1852, John Lane built a hotel on a site near the town of Mile Lick that he named the Mile Lick Inn. The town was renamed West Baden in 1855, so Lane changed the hotel name to the West Baden Inn. In 1887, the Monon railroad built an extension to take guests to the springs and the hotel. By the late 1800s, seven railroads brought guests from all over the country to the Springs Valley[4] for relaxation and the alleged curative powers of the mineral water.



A group that included Lee Wiley Sinclair from Salem, Indiana acquired controlling interest in the hotel in 1888. Sinclair soon became sole owner and transformed it into a sophisticated resort, including an opera house, a casino—advertised as "The Carlsbad of America"[5]--and a two-deck, covered, one-third-mile oval bicycle and pony track. A lighted baseball diamond in the center of the track became the spring training grounds for several major league teams including the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates. Fire destroyed the entire hotel building in less than two hours in June, 1901; however, no guests were injured.[4] Owner Lee Sinclair declared that the new hotel would be fireproof and would have the world's largest dome. Most professionals in the architectural community considered it impossible, but unknown West Virginia architect Harrison Albright completed the new West Baden Springs Hotel on time.[4][6]



[edit] Eighth Wonder

The new structure opened in September 1902 and if the advertisements and articles about the new hotel were true, the facility deserved being called the Eighth Wonder of the World. It was claimed that the resort's mineral baths and drinking waters could cure everything from sterility to senility. The hotel's amenities included two golf courses, billiards, bowling, baseball, swimming, horseback riding, bicycling and hiking on scenic trails, movies and nightly theatre. On-site personal services included a stock brokerage, banking and a barbershop. Birds flew freely in the 200-foot-diameter atrium, and an enormous fireplace burned 14-foot logs to take the chill off on cool evenings.[4]



[edit] Notable guests

Paul Dresser is rumored to have composed Indiana's state song "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" at the hotel. Boxers John L. Sullivan and James J. Corbett trained there. Al Capone was a frequent guest as was Diamond Jim Brady. Politicians included Mayor "Big Bill" Thompson of Chicago and New York Governor Alfred E. Smith. Professional baseball teams even held their spring training at the resort.[4]`



[edit] Renovation

A massive renovation effort was begun in 1913, but Sinclair died in 1916. His daughter and her husband took over the hotel's operation and restoration. Overextended by the refurbishment, Lillian Sinclair sold the property to Ed Ballard for $1 million in 1922. Ballard, who began his career as a bowling alley worker in the hotel, made a fortune by operating a flourishing, albeit illegal gambling business in the Springs Valley. Ballard also owned several nationally recognized touring circuses. The rise of the automobile and resorts in Florida drew business away from the West Baden Springs Hotel, but Ballard aggressively promoted the hotel to conventioneers and trade exhibitions. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 spelled the end of the hotel. As word of the plummeting market spread, people gathered in the brokerage firm's offices at the hotel, which emptied of guests almost overnight. Ballard closed the hotel in June 1932 and sold it to the Jesuits for one dollar in 1934.



[edit] Jesuits

The Jesuits removed many of the building's elegant appointments when they transformed the hotel into a seminary. The four Moorish towers were dismantled when they fell into disrepair, while the grounds outlying sulfur-spring pools, contaminated by years of pollution, were plugged and cemented over. Known as West Baden College, the seminary operated until June, 1964 when declining enrollment forced the Jesuits to close the facility.



[edit] Northwood Institute

In 1966, the Jesuits sold the property to a Michigan couple who in turn donated it to Northwood Institute, a private college, which opened a satellite campus of their business management school on the property until 1983.[4]



[edit] Preservation

Vacant after 1983, the building slipped into extreme decay, resulting in the collapse of a good portion of the west wall in 1991.[7] In 1992, the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the hotel as one of America's most endangered places. Bill Cook, a Bloomington, Indiana, entrepreneur and billionaire, financed a partial restoration of the property by the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana which assumed ownership in 1996. It was marketed nationally for almost ten years without a buyer and over 400,000 visitors toured the hotel.



[edit] French Lick Resort

In 2006, title was transferred to a subsidiary of Bill Cook's Cook Group to become a part of the French Lick Resort Casino development. In May 2007, the building began hosting guests as a hotel in 246 luxury rooms for the first time since 1932. In 2009, AAA recognized the hotel as one of the top 10 U.S. historic hotels.[