He added an opera house, golf courses, church, ball field and double-decker pony and bicycle track. Sinclair transformed West Baden Springs Hotel into a sophisticated resort when he assumed ownership in 1888. He later changed the name of the hotel, and the town, to West Baden Springs after the famous mineral springs in Wiesbaden, Germany. Five years later, another doctor by the name of John Lane saw the success of French Lick Springs Hotel and decided to build his own health resort just one mile up the road and named it Mile Lick Inn. William Bowles built French Lick Springs Hotel, which drew guests from as far as 100 miles away to partake of the “miracle waters” from the sulfur springs that naturally surfaced in the area. The region of Orange County, with its small towns of French Lick and West Baden, became a famed vacation and gathering place for wealthy and prominent society members. French Lick Springs and West Baden Springs Hotels were the iconic symbols of great economic achievement back in the early 1900s for rural southern Indiana.

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