Miracle Water ~ French Lick Mineral Springs

by Ramona K. Cecil

When we think of “healing waters” or medicinal springs, our first thoughts are typically of Lourdes, France or perhaps Hot Springs, Georgia, made famous by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. There is, however, another spot where springs of “miracle water” flow and it’s found in my own state of Indiana.

In the southern most part of Indiana in Orange County sit the twin towns of French Lick and West Baden. There, tucked amid the scenic wooded Hoosier hills flow springs of mineral water once touted as “miracle water.”

Long before the arrival of the French settlers, the native people and wooded animals were already availing themselves of the area’s mineral salt “lick” deposits. The native people considered the springs a gift from the Great Spirit. 















In 1829 the land on which the mineral springs flowed were purchased by brothers Thomas and William Bowles. A physician, William not only recognized the virtues of the mineral springs, but also saw it as a business opportunity. In

French Lick Springs Hotel 1800s

the early 1840s he built a hotel and health resort touting the area’s healing waters. In 1845 Dr. Bowles leased land in West Baden, a mile from his resort in French Lick, to Dr. John A. Lane, who opened his own hotel and health resort; West Baden Springs.                                                                                                             

Both health resorts remained in business throughout the 1800s under the ownership of different physicians. 1901 ushered in not only a new century, but the heyday of the French Lick and West Baden hotel/health resorts. Tom Taggert, a business man and politician from Indianapolis bought the property and, with a group of investors, formed the French Lick Hotel Company. Besides renovating and modernizing Dr. Bowles original hotel and spa, Taggert convinced the Monon Railroad to lay a spur to the resort and run daily trains from Chicago the hotel. He also brought electricity, fresh water system, and a trolley to the town and built a new bottling facility to bottle the mineral water from what he called his “Pluto Spring” named for the mythical god of the underground. There is a scary-looking devil-like statue of “Pluto” in the French Lick museum.

Distributed nationally, French Lick’s 
Pluto Water became famous for its healthful properties, particularly as a natural laxative. It’s advertising slogan claimed “When Nature Won’t, PLUTO Will.” French Lick’s “miracle water” became wildly popular all over America. In 1907, even the famous illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini posed in front of an advertisement for PLUTO Water in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Harry Houdini beside Pluto Water sign, Indianapolis, IN 1907

In 1901 Dr. Lane’s West Baden Springs Hotel burned, but the property was then bought by a Mr. Lee Sinclair who rebuilt the hotel in grand fashion. Opening in

Historic West Baden Springs Hotel

1902, the new West Baden Springs Hotel—a circular building with an immense dome—was billed as “The Eighth Wonder of the World.” The West Baden Hotel offered its own brand of mineral water called Sprudel Water. Besides drinking the water that claimed to cure or improve a wide array of afflictions, guests could bath in elegant spring pavilions arranged around a sunken garden.

By the Roaring Twenties, celebrities of all stripes began to flock to French Lick/West Baden, Indiana to enjoy Taggert’s and Sinclair’s magnificent resorts and spas. I’m guessing that mineral water wasn’t the only liquid refreshment sampled by visiting A List patrons during those prohibition years. Illicit gambling was also rumored to have taken place at both resorts. I’m shocked!! The stock market crash in 1929 dealt a fatal blow to the West Baden Hotel and it closed in 1932. For the next fifty years the property was a Jesuit seminary, then a private college.

FDR at French Lick Resort in 1931

Taggert’s French Lick Hotel Resort and Spa weathered the stock market crash possibly due to the addition of two world-class golf courses. The Hill Course hosted the 1924 PGA Championship. Well past the first half of the last century, the French Lick Hotel boasted a guest list that reads like a Who’s Who of the rich and famous; Joe and Rose Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, the Reagans, John Barrymore, Abbot & Costello, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Howard Hughes, Lana Turner, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and many more enjoyed the amenities including a dose of PLUTO Water at the hotel’s luxurious PLUTO Bar.

In 1971 the production of PLUTO Water halted when the FDA classified Lithium, a naturally occurring element in the water, a controlled substance.

The French Lick Hotel and Resort languished in disrepair for decades until a group of preservationists bought both the French Lick and West Baden properties in the mid 1990s with an eye toward restoring the resorts to their earlier grandeur. Once again patrons can avail themselves of the mineral waters as well as the world class golf courses and even gambling. I’m shocked!!

Present day West Baden Hotel

While bottled PLUTO Water is no more, visitors to French Lick can still view the mineral spring that started it all, now housed within the French Lick Museum and guests at the hotels can bath in the mineral water.

They called it “Miracle Water.” Was it a cure-all for myriad ailments? Probably not. But that a back-woods mineral spring could precipitate the building of world-class hotels and spas, attracting a clientele of the most rich and famous to the southern Indiana sticks. . .well, maybe it was miracle water after all.

Ramona K. Cecil is a poet and award-winning author of historical fiction for the Christian market. A proud Hoosier, she often sets her stories in her home state of Indiana.

Check out her website at www.ramonakcecil.com 

https://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Heritage-Bonus-Magistrates-Richardson/dp/1634097122/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468951117&sr=1-1&keywords=heart%27s+heritage+cecil

Books for the Beach (Or the Porch, or the Pool)

Summer's halfway over, but there's still time to get in a few great reads. Whether your days are lazy and hazy or frantic and full, you'll  appreciate winding down to escape into a good book--and we've got one to fit your every reading mood, from sweet and romantic to mysterious or downright suspenseful. 

Don't leave for the beach (or the porch, or the pool--your vacation retreat, wherever it is!) without some good reads at the ready. 

                                                 

We proudly recommend the following.

Why? Because they're ours--they come right from our hearts--the authors who write the posts for this blog each day.

Click on the Book Covers to Get Your Copy!

The Charleston earthquake has left destruction like nothing Doctor Andrew Warwick has ever seen. On a desperate mission to find the lady who owns his heart, he frantically searches through the rubble, where he finds her injured and lifeless. After she regains consciousness, the doctor’s hopes are quickly dashed as he realizes she doesn’t remember him. Things only get worse when he discovers she believes she’s still engaged to the abusive scoundrel, Lloyd Pratt. Now Drew is on a race with the wedding clock to either help her remember or win her heart again before she marries the wrong man.

Waking in a makeshift hospital, Olivia Macqueen finds herself recovering from a head injury. With amnesia stealing a year of her memories, she has trouble discerning between lies and truth. When her memories start returning in bits and pieces, she must keep up the charade of amnesia until she can find out the truth behind the embezzlement of her family’s business while evading the danger lurking around her.

New from Vickie McDonough!

Dusty Starr is unstoppable in the rodeo arena, but when it comes to love? He was bucked off long ago. Now he has a second chance at love, but will he have what it takes to win? 

In 1942, Lexie Smithfield becomes heir to her family's vacation home on Jekyll Island, and a mysterious telegram beckons her return. Ten years before, tragedies convinced her mother the island was cursed, and the home in the exclusive Millionaire's Club was abandoned.  Russell Thompson knows what really happened, but swore never to tell. Will Lexie discover the real danger before it's too late? 

Three riveting short stories follow Samuel Adams as he struggles through the events surrounding the Declaration of Independence and evokes the Dawn of Liberty.

Liberty comes with a price. Can a fledgling nation bear the cost?

British forces advance upon a struggling colonial army. The time of decision has come. Declare independence, or give up the fight. The weight of a nation rests on Samuel Adams' shoulders as he joins the delegates of the Second Continental Congress. Can he raise the cause of Liberty above the fear of the King's wrath in the hearts of his countrymen?

Seattle debutante Sofi Andersson will do everything in her power to protect her sister who is suffering from shock over their father's death. Charles, the family busy-body, threatens to lock Trina in a sanatorium--a whitewashed term for an insane asylum--so Sofi will rescue her little sister, even if it means running away to the Cascade Mountains with only the new gardener Neil Macpherson to protect them. But in a cabin high in the Cascades, Sofi begins to recognize that the handsome immigrant from Ireland harbors secrets of his own. Can she trust this man whose gentle manner brings such peace to her traumatized sister and such tumult to her own emotions? And can Neil, the gardener, continue to hide from Sofi that he is really Dr. Neil Galloway, a man wanted for murder by the British police? Only an act of faith and love will bridge the distance that separates lies from truth and safety.

New from Anne Greene!
A kidnapping. A ticking clock. Three hot PI’s. A Black Widow kills again. Will Holly’s first case end in disaster? Will the two men in Holly’s life give her too much heat?

Motivated by the murky circumstances surrounding her father’s reputation-ruining murder, Holly vows to clear his muddied name, prove herself as a PI, and redeem Garden Investigation’s integrity and dwindling list of clients. Then her best friend, Matt, is kidnapped…and everything changes.

Orphaned Annie Paxton and her brothers have lost the only home they've ever known and are determined to make a better future in St. Joseph, Missouri. Annie dreams of a pretty house with window boxes, having friends, and attending church every week. But then her brothers land jobs as Pony Express riders, and Annie puts her dreams on hold to work as a cook at Clearwater Ranch on the Pony Express route.  Annie struggles to adapt to her new job, and the gruff station owner doesn't seem inclined to make her life any easier. A friendship has just begun to blossom and builds between them when Annie attracts the attention of a refined, dashing lieutenant from nearby Fort Kearney. Annie must learn how to trust her instincts and follow her heart--even if she's conflicted about which way it's leading her.

From heart-pounding battles on the high seas to the rigors of Valley Forge and the Shawnee’s savagely fought wars, Valley of the Shadow continues the thrilling saga of America’s founding.

New from Susan Page Davis! 1918, Rural Maine. Judith Chadbourne gave up her teaching job after her mother’s death to help her father with her five siblings. But when her brother Joel is drafted, the household chores and farm work may overwhelm her. Their neighbor, Ben Thayer, seems rich and mysterious, but his heart aches from his own loss. Judith accidentally breaks the antique ornament her mother loved. The splintering star echoes her family’s shattering. Joel falls ill at the army camp, and Ben’s concern may bring the beginnings of trust. Can love take Judith beyond the frozen Maine winter?

Beautiful historical romance novellas written just for you by some of today's best-selling and award-winning Christian authors! Sit back and relax while these four talented women whisk you back to simpler times in America's past... but with that simplicity came hard work and change, so curl up in your favorite spot and see what Mary, Ruthy, Pam and Cara have brought your way as you "Spring Into Love" with this new delightful Christian romance collection!

Meet 12 adventurous Victorian era women—a beekeeper who is afraid of bees, a music teacher whose dog has dug up a treasure, a baker who enters a faux courtship, and six more—along with the men they encounter while making summertime memories. Will these loves sown during summer be strengthened by faith and able to endure a lifetime?

New from Martha Lou Rogers! Summer Patterson, a photo-journalist for a popular magazine, is on a mission to capture the charm and nostalgia of the old Route 66 through the West Texas Panhandle in story and picture, but when her car breaks down in a "middle of nowhere" town, her mission takes a turn she never expected. Cody Harper is a retired rodeo champ filling in as a mechanic until he can get his own ranch. Repairing Summer's foreign car will take days, so he arranges for her to stay with his grandmother Ellis. Meeting the people of McLean, Texas and riding with Cody to discover the beauty of a part of Texas she'd never seen leads her in a direction she had no plans to take. She returns to her busy life in the city of Dallas, but her heart is back in West Texas where she lost it along Route 66.  Getting it back will be no easy task, especially if Cody has his way.

It's the spring of 1861 on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Amanda never thought she would marry because of a promise she made to her dying mother, but her attraction to Captain Kent Littlefield is undeniable.
When Texas secedes from the Union, her brother Daniel aligns with the Confederate States, while Kent remains with the Union troops.
Her heart is torn between the two men she is closest to and the two sides of the conflict. Amanda prays to God for direction and support, but hears only silence. Where is God in the atrocities of war―and whose side is He on?

Discover four heroines in historical Austin, TX, as they find love--Jane Austen style. Volume 1 includes:

If I Loved You Less by Gina Welborn, based on Emma
A prideful matchmaker examines her own heart when her protégé falls for the wrong suitor.

Refinements by Anita Mae Draper, based on Sense and Sensibility
A misguided academy graduate spends the summer falling in love . . . twice.

One Word from You by Susanne Dietze, based on Pride and Prejudice
A down-on-her-luck journalist finds the story of her dreams, but her prejudice may cost her true love . . . and her career. Alarmingly Charming by Debra E. Marvin, based on Northanger Abbey
A timid gothic dime-novel enthusiast tries to solve the mystery of a haunted cemetery and, even more shocking, why two equally charming suitors compete for her attentions.

New from Tamera Lynn Kraft!

After Vivian’s fiancé dies in the Great War, she thinks her life is over. But Henry, her fiancé’s best friend, comes to the rescue offering a marriage of convenience. He claims he promised his friend he would take care of her. She grows to love him, but she knows it will never work because he never shows any love for her.

Henry adores Vivian and has pledged to take care of her, but he won’t risk their friendship by letting her know. She’s still in love with the man who died in the Great War. He won’t risk heartache by revealing his true emotions.

 

In this action-packed sequel to PULSE, author L.R.Burkard takes readers on a heart-pounding journey into a landscape where teens shoulder rifles instead of school books, and where survival might mean becoming your own worst enemy.

Now that an EMP has sent the United States into a Dark Age, Andrea, Lexie and Sarah have more to worry about than the mere loss of technology. Threats of marauders and rumors of foreign soldiers mean no one can let down their guard. The appearance of FEMA camps might be reassuring--except military outfits seem determined to force people into them...With evil threatening on every side, can the U.S. recover before everyone--and everything--is destroyed?  

Do you make time for fun summer reading? Where's your favorite place to read--beach, bed, lazy chair? Leave a comment and let's compare notes!  

When the Flu Killed 20 Million People

by Tamera Lynn Kraft

We live in a relatively healthy period in time. We no longer die of the black plague or small pox. There are cures for rabies and inoculations for just about everything from the flu to chicken pox to polio. But less than one hundred years ago, a flu pandemic swept through the world and killed over 20 million people. Over 600,000 of those people were in the United States. Some estimates say the death toll world-wide was as high as 30 to 50 million.

The time was during the ending days of World War One in 1918. Roller skating rinks, movie theaters, and amusement parks were popping up every where as Americans had more money and leisure time than ever before. Although almost everyone in America lived on farms and in rural areas, people were increasingly moving to the cities and suburbs. Model Ts were affordable, and many were trading their horses in for cars. All the modern conveniences like indoor bathrooms, running water, electricity, and the telephone were starting to make their way into some homes. Women were starting to work outside of the home before they had children, and states were ratifying the amendment to give women the right to vote.

The only downside to living in America during this period of time was the Great War across the ocean. Germany and its allies were set on conquest and Europe was in a stalemate costing thousands of lives. In 1917, the United States entered the war, and many young men were sent overseas as Dough boys.
In 1918, the first cases of the pandemic flu epidemic hit. Many soldiers in army training camps through the US were some of the first victims. Military hospitals, both in the US and overseas, filled up quickly with more victims from the flu then from warfare. Nine million solders died from warfare, but 50 million died from the flu.

In March 1918, Haskell County, Kansas sent a message to the Public Health Department informing them of 18 cases of severe influenza. By May, cases of influenza overseas was being reported. By August the flu swept through North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The flu came in three major waves, the last hitting in Spring 1919, a few months after the Great War had ended. One factor for the defeat of the Germans was the devastating effects of the flu on their soldiers.

The Public Health Service fought the flu spread through education (fliers, ads, posters), quarantine, sanitary measures, and requiring masks be worn in public. Although these measures probably helped, the flu epidemic eventually just went away. 

In my new novella, Resurrection of Hope, Vivian’s parents and sister died of the influenza epidemic. Most families during that time had family members who had died from the flu. 

Tamera Lynn Kraft has always loved adventures and writes Christian historical fiction set in America because there are so many adventures in American history. She has received 2^nd place in the NOCW contest, 3^rd place TARA writer’s contest, and is a finalist in the Frasier Writing Contest. 

Her novellas Resurrection of Hope and A Christmas Promise are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Tidbits About Lamps from the 19th Century

When we research for Historical novels there are so many different things we look up. Below is a post I did on 19th Century Lamps. I hope you find it interesting.

I thought I'd post a simple item on lamps but my, oh, my, there is a lot to say about lamps during the 19th century.

Encyclopedia Britannica ©1824 has this to say. The link brings you to Google books. The article starts on page 207.

At the beginning of the 19th century lamps were primarily oil lamps of some sort. Argand lamps were developed during the last quarter of the 18th century. The Argand lamp included a burner and a chimney. The reservoir was on the bottom then the wick was feed into the oil.

We have a variety of oil lamps developed with this simple system during the early part of the 19th century. As the Victorian era came into vogue the lamps became more fashionable. In other words, the more elaborate the lamp the more your wealth and good taste showed to those around you. That did not negate the need for practical lighting.

Below are two images from the 1890 Encyclopedia Britannica. The first is a reading lamp. Generally as writers we might have a tendency to think in only table top lamps. But these reading lamps could stand on the floor or be mounted to a wall. The second image is of an 1838 invention by M. Franchot called the moderator lamp. This helped to pull the oil up to the end of the wick for a brighter flame.

A further invention of the flat wick was developed in the image below. In an 1865 patent Messgrs. Hinks claimed it could have two or more flat flames.

The other key ingredient for these lamps was the oil. We've all read and heard about the whaling industry and how whale oil was the best oil for burning. Animal and Vegetable oil were the first oils used. Mineral oil began being used in the 1830's, specifically because of the invention of the moderator lamps. Another names for these lamps is "Camphine, Vesta and Paragon lamps. They light given off by these lamps were brighter and less smokey. However they produced soot-flakes which made people nervous about them being more dangerous.


Lynn A. Coleman is an award winning & best-selling author who makes her home in Keystone Heights, Florida, with her husband of 42 years. Lynn's latest novel "The Shepherd's Betrothal" is the third book in her Historical St. Augustine, FL. series. Coming in Oct. The Rails to Love Romance Collection

Dinosaurs—Colorado Style

by Linda Farmer Harris

I fell in love with dinosaurs at Dinosaur Valley State Park on the Paluxy River in Glen Rose, Texas when I was 32 years old. I thought dinosaurs were a boy thing and we had a 10 year old daughter. During the summers, we visited state parks for their historical value within a hundred mile radius of our home in Austin. Jerry taught eighth grade history and these excursions augmented his lessons.

Amanda at Dinosaur Valley State Park, Glen Rose, Texas

Back then you could walk in the creek and put your foot in the tracks embedded in the limestone.

Fascinated, I learned along with Amanda about the theropod and sauropod tracks and saw the models of an Apatosaurus - meaning deceptive lizard (70 feet) and Tyrannosaurus (45 feet). I enjoyed the prehistoric stories and reading the controversies about man walking among the dinosaurs. Yes, I had heard of  Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and the T-Rex, but now they were more than facts on a page.

Apatosaurus

Tyrannosaurus Rex

As their collection and exhibits grew over the next two decades so did my enjoyment. I was still the proverbial "Kid in the candy shop." The movie Jurassic Park I & II are still fun to watch even with some of its wobbly paleontology. 

Then Jerry and I retired and moved to Colorado. My days of Texas dinosaurs came to an end.

Colorado took the reins and guided me to the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center (RMDRC), west of Colorado Springs. The colorful, life-sized dinosaur statues of the Das[pletosaurus and Styracosaurus are awesome.

Human & Daspletosaurus comparison by Robinson Kunz

Styracosaurus

Human & Styracosaurus comparison

Even through they're skeletons now, the Anzu wyliei, edmontosaurus annectens, Pachycephalosaurus, and the T-Rex once walked the Midwestern and Western United States. Some of the skeletons at the RMDRC were built from the actual fossilized bones, while others were molds cast from fossilized bones.

As if dinosaurs weren't enough, I moved on the prehistoric fish like the Xiphactinue audax.

Xiphactinue audax with a Gillicus arcuatus in its stomach. Photo by Spacini

These fossils were recovered in 1952 from Gove County, Kansas by George F. Sternberg (1883-1969). They are on display at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas. It's estimated that they are "probably the most photographed fossil specimen in the world."

Other places in Colorado to visit dinosaurs. Websites after the cities.

Dinosaur Journey Museum—Fruita—Dinosaur Journey 

This museum is devoted to hands-on experiences with robotic displays of the stegosaurus, triceratops and T-rex. 

Dinosaur National Monument—Fossil Bone Quarry—DNM 

Explore craggy hills embedded with fossils, rock art, and go whitewater rafting. 

Dinosaur Ridge—Morrison—dinoridge.org 

The Discovery Center features bones of the Stegosaurus and the Apatosaurus, plus the Backyard Bones Dinosaur Dig. 

Denver Museum of Nature and Science—Denver—www.dmns.org 

Visit Dinosaur Gulch in the Discovery Zone 

Florissant Fossil Beds—Divide (near Cripple Creek)—FFBNM 

Petrified redwood stumps with detailed fossils of insets and plants. 

Picketwire Canyonlands—south of La Junta—PC 

Explore the largest known set of dinosaur tracks in North America, Native American rock art, plus abundant wildlife. 

Royal Gorge Dinosaur Experience—Cañon City—RGDE 

Features among other exciting experiences full-scale dinosaur fossil casts, hands-on experiences, skinned animatronic exhibits. 

Triceratops Trail at Parfet Prehistoric Preserve—Golden—Triceratops Trail 

The half-mile hiking trail is full of trace fossils.

For more Colorado places and links go to http://www.colorado.com/articles/where-see-dinosaurs-colorado 

Read Amy Higgins's interesting article "A Gig You Can Dig" in the Colorado Country Life Magazine. 

Dinosaur Trackway near Morrison, CO. Photo courtesy of Mark Ryan

Science Buzz's article on The Science of Ichnology, a specialized branch of paleontology that studies the trace fossils of prehistoric creatures, offers information about a couple of recent discoveries. Plus the author traces previous finds. Reports of new prehistoric tracks from Montana could be a rare footprint of a Tyrannosaurus rex. In New Brunswick, Canada the discovery involves some 315 million year-old reptile tracks.

In 2012, Science on NBC News called Colorado the Dinosaur Freeway after more than 350 "newly" discovered tracks made by various dinosaurs, crocodiles and pterosaurs were found. The Dinosaur Freeway goes from Boulder, Northeast Colorado, to Tucumcari in east central New Mexico.

On our first trip to Glen Rose I found a print-embedded small rock. The pathways to the outdoor exhibits had been graded before the park opened for the season. This marvelous little rock was cast into the grass on the shoulder. The director let me keep the rock because it was palm-sized.

Photo by Linda Farmer Harris

Maybe I'm a paleontologist at heart and just now finding that out. 

Do you have an interest that stayed hidden for a long time or a hobby that's recently emerged? Do you live near a dinosaur park?

I don't write Jurassic era historicals but my novella, The Lye Water Bride set in 1849 is included in The California Gold Rush Romance Collection (Barbour Publishing, August 1, 2016).

Join us on Tuesday, August 2 at 8PM - 10PM (CDT) for the Release Party of The California Gold Rush Romance Collection. We'll be giving away a Kindle Fire and a beautiful necklace as a grand prize, hear behind-the-scenes stories from some of the authors, and more.

   

Lin and her husband, Jerry, live on a hay and cattle ranch in Chimney Rock, Archuleta County, Colorado. Alas, no dinosaur remains have been found on our 129 acres.  


Linda Farmer Harris  
Turning Tidbits of History into Unforgettable Stories