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| Indiana Landmarks currently offers historical tours at West Baden Springs Hotel five days per week. Check out the tour schedule here. |
There’s a lot going on here — two massive hotels, more than
a dozen restaurants, three golf courses, 3,000 acres encompassing it all. Oh,
and almost 175 years of history to go along with everything.
Naturally, you’ve got questions about all of it.
We caught up with the folks from Indiana Landmarks who
conduct the historical tours at both French Lick and West Baden Springs Hotels,
to find out a little more about the most popular talking points among guests
who take the tours. What’s the most popular question they get? What’s the
strangest inquiry they get? What factoid are people most surprised by?
Here’s a sample of what tops the lists:
THE MOST POPULAR
How did French Lick
get its name?
“That’s generally the one I get,” said James Pavey, who’s in
his 22nd year of leading tours here at the resort. “That is the Number 1 asked question.”
There’s a handful of theories, but the most widely accepted
story is that George Rogers Clark is the one given credit for first assigning
the French Lick name. In the late 1700s, his expeditions from Vincennes to the
Falls of the Ohio River near Louisville took him through this area. He noticed
the abundant wildlife licking the ground and rocks for the salty deposits left
behind by the mineral springs. During that time, French traders had begun
trickling into the area as well.
Somehow, Clark joined the French settlers and the salt licks
into a funny sounding name. “And French Lick parted from his lips. And it
stuck,” Pavey says.
And speaking of names…
Is West Baden
pronounced BAY-den or BODD-en?
Here, we say it BAY-den.
But if you travel to Wiesbaden, Germany — the place where West Baden derived
its name — it’s BODD-en.
Consider it the Hoosier-ized pronunciation, just like France
has Versailles (Ver-SIGH) and Indiana has Versailles (Ver-SAILS).
How many guest rooms
in French Lick Springs Hotel?
Right now: 443. Back in the day, “it could have been as high
as 650,” Pavey explains. “When having your own private bathroom became a
greater necessity, they actually took guest rooms and split them right down the
middle and opened the walls up on either side and created bathrooms for those
guest rooms, which brought that number down.”
Before the hotel changed ownership and underwent a massive
renovation in 2005-06, there were 475 rooms. That number got bumped down to 443
when one hallway of guest rooms was replaced by what is now the Promenade of
Shoppes.
WHAT SURPRISES PEOPLE?
The size. Pavey
says that people always seem taken aback about the amount of ground covered by
French Lick Springs Hotel and its neighboring structures.
When Pavey informs tour-goers that it’s pushing 2 million
square feet, he sees some eyebrows raise and hears the occasional “whoa.” The
historic portion of the hotel, which includes all the guest rooms and the
Promenade of Shoppes, is 1 million square feet. The newer parts of the
adjoining Event Center, casino and parking garage combine for almost another
million.
“People are amazed by that,” Pavey says.
The original cost.
Would you believe that West Baden Springs Hotel cost just $440,000 to build
originally?
It’s true: That was the price tag in 1902 when the hotel was
built anew after a fire destroyed the original structure. That equals about $12
million by today’s standards, but considering the sights, size and architecture
of the place, that still seems like a bargain in relative terms.
Reviving the hotel, now that required a few extra bucks.
Stage 1 of the West Baden renovation in the mid-2000s had an initial $34
million price tag. By the time it was finished, even more money went into the
West Baden restoration as part of the nearly $600 million resort-wide project
that included both the golf courses and both hotels.
THE STRANGEST
“Can you still buy Pluto Water?” isn’t necessarily an odd
question. (For the record, bottling of Pluto Water ceased in 1971.)
But Pavey did witness an odd sight years ago at the Pluto Spring when Indiana
Landmarks first started giving tours after the reopening of the hotel. He would jokingly say on tours that if your arm is long enough and you have a
ladle, you can help yourself to some of the mineral water. But some guests were stone-cold serious about obtaining Pluto Water of their own — including one woman who brought a container and was contorting her body trying to reach down toward the source at the spring.
"She said, ‘Honey, it’s good for what ails you.’ She said you take it home, you
put it in the refrigerator, that smell is going to go away. When your belly
doesn’t feel good, you drink a glass of it, it’ll perk you right up.”
Of course, we don't endorse going rogue trying to retrieve Pluto Water. A simpler way to experience it is by soaking in an original
Pluto Bath or Sprudel Bath, which are still offered at the French Lick and West
Baden spas.
And to take part in the Indiana Landmarks tours (and get
your own questions answered), check out our current schedule with tours offered
five days per week. Also, plan now to check out one of the special Twilight Tours this summer offered on June 16, July 21, August 18 and September 8.