If you’ve ever spent any time at French Lick Resort, you’ve seen
firsthand how French Lick Springs Hotel and West Baden Springs Hotel are overflowing
with history. Fittingly, the historical vibes trickle just across the highway
to the French Lick West Baden Museum.
Sitting just across State Road 56 from the south edge of
French Lick Springs Hotel, the museum is a great addition to the to-do list for
your next trip to the resort, offering more substance to the deep historical connections
of both resort hotels and the adjoining towns they anchor.
A brief peek at what you can encounter on a walk through the
museum’s corridors:
Pluto statues and exhibit
One greets you at the museum’s entrance. Another looms large in a separate display further inside the museum. These two shiny, golden Pluto statues once overlooked the entrance to French Lick Springs Hotel, as Pluto (the Roman god of the underworld) became the hotel’s mascot thanks to the Pluto Water bottling company that used to be next door.
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| Pluto still strikes an imposing presence. |
Pluto Water, with its distinctive red devilish figure, used
to be touted for its power to soothe practically any ailment — though chief
function of the water that bubbled up from the area’s sulphur springs was a
laxative, hence the once-famous catchphrase “When nature won’t, Pluto will.” Back
in its heyday, Pluto Water could be purchased at most drugstores nationwide.
Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus
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| Note the circus admission price for kids in the lower right corner: 25 cents. |
Here’s where the circus comes to life.
The French Lick West Baden museum paints the picture with
the world’s largest circus diorama, which sprawls out over 1,100 square feet.
It depicts the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus from the time the train rolls into town
to when the show unfolds for fans under the big top.
More than 150,000 pieces comprise the diorama, so plan to
stay a while and view it in all its amazing detail. It’s the sort of thing you
could visit a hundred times and notice something new each time.
Casino
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| Relics from one of the former underground casinos in the Valley, including stone carvings. |
These days, you can freely play your hand at French Lick Casino. But gambling in the Springs Valley used to be a far more clandestine venture.
That’s detailed in the casino section of the museum, which
includes relics from the illegal gambling joints that used to be sprinkled
through the Springs Valley long before casino gambling was legalized. Before a
raid shut down the illegal casinos in the late 1940s, French Lick/West Baden
was considered the Las Vegas of its time, attracting famous socialites and visitors
from across the country.
Sports exhibits
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| A backboard from the old Springs Valley High School gym where Larry Bird once starred. |
You'd better believe there's a segment devoted to French Lick’s most celebrated native, Larry Bird, who progressed to legendary careers at Indiana State University and the Boston Celtics.
You’ve certainly heard of Bird. You may not be familiar with a few other sports stories with strong local ties. Such as Joe Louis, the famed heavyweight boxing champ who used to train at French Lick. Back in the day, Louis could be seen going for training runs around the town and hotel grounds, with little kids sometimes joining in to run alongside and feverishly trying to keep up with one of boxing’s all-time greats.
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| Famed heavyweight boxer Joe Louis (right) with Ed Ballard, the former owner of West Baden Springs Hotel. |
Also detailed are the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox,
which were some of the pro baseball teams that used to visit French Lick/West
Baden for spring training as recently as the 1940s. Also a big draw back in the
day were the Plutos and the Sprudels, which were amateur baseball teams with
players mostly drawn from the African American staffs of the French Lick and
West Baden hotels, respectively. These were no ordinary amateur squads — the
Sprudels beat the Pittsburgh Pirates once, and several Pluto and Sprudel
players advanced to playing careers in the Negro Leagues.
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| The French Lick Plutos and West Baden Sprudels rose to prominence back in the day as amateur baseball teams comprised mainly of employees from the hotels. |
Odds and ends
Make a point to peruse all the layers of history housed at the museum, which also includes a gift shop and is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.