French Lick and West Baden Springs

by Jerry Copas

Generations of visitors have found health and prosperity in the French Lick-West Baden region of Indiana. The history of these communities is filled with tales of exploration, ambition, philanthropy, and promised miracles from a foul-smelling water that magically seeped from the ground. The French Lick Hotel, founded by William Bowles in 1845, and the West Baden Hotel, founded by John Lane in 1855, both grew to set the standards for elegance and luxury across the country. Tycoons and gangsters found comfortable refuge here in this secluded corner of Indiana, but the challenges of the Great Depression and the war years set the community back on its heels. The once posh hotels fell into a period of decline and disrepair, only to come bounding back again in the 1990s. Today, the resort is filled with visitors who come seeking the perfect round of golf, a day at the spa, or a winning hand at the poker table, in two lavishly restored hotels that are reminiscent of another era.

128 pages, Paperback

Published May 6, 2019

Reviews

[Leslie Goddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm truly shocked that NONE of the gift shops I visited at either the French Lick or West Baden hotels stocked this books. It's not just startling, it's disappointing. This was the perfect book for me. I visited both hotels and wanted to get a succinct, not overly detailed, but nicely informative history of both of them. Others books about the hotels were either too long, too lacking in photographs, or too focused on just one hotel. Copas should be applauded for telling the story of both hotels through both photographs and informative captions. I really liked how the photos helped tell the story. Some Arcadia books have captions that do little more than just point out what you can see for yourself in the image, but that's not the case here. And he includes both the early history of the hotels, their heyday eras, their challenges in the late 20th century, and their current rebirth with the casino licensing. Really an excellent book, and the one I'd recommend to anyone wanting to learn about the hotels without investing in a coffee-table book. It reminds me, as the best Arcadia books do, of a nicely done museum put into an engaging book format.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pictorial history of the two iconic southern Indiana hotels. I found the history fascinating and enjoyed the accompanying images. The book was thoroughly researched and well-written. There's nothing particularly innovative about the book and the author has no particularly distinct voice but for a quick nonfiction read on two fascinating Indiana landmarks, this was exactly what I was looking for.