French Lick Resort is a resort complex in the Midwestern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, located in the towns of West Baden Springs and

French Lick, Indiana French Lick is a town in French Lick Township, Orange County, Indiana. The population was 1,807 at the time of the 2010 census. In November 2006, the French Lick Resort Casino, the state's tenth casino in the modern legalized era, opened, drawing ...

. The complex includes two historic resort spa hotels, stables, a casino, and three golf courses that are all part of a $500 million restoration and development project.

Casino

The casino opened for business on November 3, 2006, after a gaming license originally intended for

Patoka Lake Patoka Lake is the second-largest reservoir in the U.S. state of Indiana (after Lake Monroe) and is spread across Dubois, Crawford, and Orange counties in southern Indiana. Lake Created as a joint effort between the US Army Corps of Engineers ...

was transferred to French Lick. Honoring state law allowing only water-based gaming, it was originally designed as a riverboat and surrounded by a small pond (commonly nicknamed the Boat in the Moat). In 2008, the moat was filled in and the casino boat was converted into the state's first land-based casino. The casino features more than 1,300

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s, and table games including blackjack,

craps Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, "street ...

, roulette, and poker derivatives.

French Lick Springs Hotel

The site was originally known as the

French Lick Springs Hotel The French Lick Springs Hotel, a part of the French Lick Resort complex, is a major resort hotel in Orange County, Indiana. The historic hotel in the national historic district at French Lick was initially known as a mineral spring health spa an ...

, a grand resort that was a mineral spring health spa. The hotel catered to guests seeking the advertised healing properties of the town's sulfur springs, three of which were on the hotel's property. William A. Bowles built and opened the first hotel on his property around 1845. Subsequent owners enlarged the original hotel, but it burned in 1897. Rebuilt and expanded on an even grander scale, especially under the ownership of

Thomas Taggart Thomas Taggart (November 17, 1856March 6, 1929) was an Irish-American politician who was the political boss of the Democratic Party in Indiana for the first quarter of the twentieth century and remained an influential political figure in loca ...

, a former mayor of Indianapolis and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the popular resort attracted many fashionable, wealthy, and notable guests. In the 1920s and into the 1930s the resort became known for its recreational sports, most notably golf, but the French Lick area also had a reputation for illegal gambling. The hotel was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2003. The restored hotel, with its exteriors of distinctive, buff-colored brick, reopened in 2006.

West Baden Springs Hotel

The historic, 243-room luxury

West Baden Springs Hotel The West Baden Springs Hotel, formerly known as the West Baden Inn, is part of the French Lick Resort and is a national historic landmark hotel in West Baden Springs, Orange County, Indiana. It is known for the dome covering its atrium. Prior ...

, in the adjacent town of West Baden Springs, from the French Lick Springs Hotel, is also part of the casino resort complex. The present-day West Baden hotel was built in 1902 () to replace an earlier hotel. The new hotel became known for the dome covering its

atrium Atrium may refer to: Anatomy * Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart * Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods * Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain * Pulmona ...

. It held the title of the largest free-spanning dome in the world from 1902 to 1913, and remained the largest dome in the United States until the completion of the

Coliseum The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world t ...

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, in 1955. The hotel was listed on the

in 1974, and became a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1987. It is also designated as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. In 2008 readers of '' Condé Nast Traveler'' ranked the West Baden Springs Hotel twenty-first on its list of the top resorts on the United States mainland.

Golf

The casino complex includes three golf courses: the Valley Course, the Hill Course, and the Pete Dye Golf Course at French Lick. Beginning in the early twentieth century, when golf was gaining popularity, the French Lick hotel began to expand its modest golf facilities. Valley Course, the resort's first golf course, is adjacent to the hotel and casino. It was enlarged to an 18-hole course on around 1907. The larger course design, attributed to

Tom Bendelow Tom Bendelow (1868–1936), nicknamed "The Johnny Appleseed of American Golf" and "The Dean of American Golf", was a Scottish American golf course architect during the first half of the twentieth century. He is credited with having designed some ...

, featured a combination of wooded hills and flat turf. It has been altered and reduced to a 9-hole course as a result of the casino construction. Donald Ross and his associates designed the 18-hole Hill Course, the resort's second golf course, around 1917. Completed in 1920 on approximately , the championship course was located about from the French Lick hotel. The course hosted the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

tournament in

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...

, which

Walter Hagen Walter Charles Hagen (December 21, 1892 – October 6, 1969) was an American professional golfer and a major figure in golf in the first half of the 20th century. His tally of 11 professional majors is third behind Jack Nicklaus (18) and Tig ...

won. It also hosted the

LPGA Championship The Women's PGA Championship (branded as the KPMG Women's PGA Championship for sponsorship reasons) is a women's professional golf tournament. First held in 1955, it is one of five majors on the LPGA Tour. It is not recognized as a major by the ...

tournament in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

and

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

, and the Midwest Amateur from the 1930s through the 1950s. In 2006–07, the course was restored to its original specifications in cooperation with the Donald Ross Society.

Pete Dye Paul Dye Jr. (December 29, 1925 – January 9, 2020), known as Pete Dye, was an American golf course designer and a member of a family of course designers. He was married to fellow designer and amateur champion Alice Dye. Early life Dye was ...

, a renowned golf course designer from Indiana, designed the resort's third course. The 18-hole Pete Dye Golf Course at French Lick opened in June 2009, and hosted the

PGA Professional National Championship The PGA Professional Championship is a golf tournament for golf club professionals and teachers who are members of the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It has been held by the PGA of America since 1968, when touring professionals spl ...

in June 2010. Mount Airie,

's 1928 Colonial-style home, was purchased and transformed into a clubhouse and pro shop that overlooks much of the course. This site hosted the

Senior PGA Championship The Senior PGA Championship, established in 1937, is the oldest of the five major championships in men's senior golf. It is administered by the Professional Golfers' Association of America and is recognized as a major championship by both PGA ...

in 2015.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * Office of Code Revision Indiana Legislative Services Agency
"Riverboat Gambling," IC 35-45-5-10.
* * * * * * * *

External links

* {{official, http://www.frenchlick.com

Hotel buildings completed in 2006 Casinos completed in 2008 Casinos in Indiana Golf clubs and courses designed by Donald Ross Golf clubs and courses designed by Pete Dye Golf clubs and courses designed by Tom Bendelow Hotels in Indiana Resorts in Indiana Riverboat casinos Buildings and structures in Orange County, Indiana Tourist attractions in Orange County, Indiana 2006 establishments in Indiana