A Couple Days Away…
Summer is going by fast and it seems like it will be gone before we know it. It’s been three months since the Tornado. We finally took ownership of the new replacement tractor and have been working our way through 4 acres of grass not mown since May and mow/chopping weeds in 5 acres of pumpkin patches never planted. We look less like a nature preserve than we did two weeks ago. Early summer was spent prepping a new course in a new graduate program at school and the last half of summer teaching it. The rush towards the fall semester is filled completing two faculty courses of material to prep for teaching in a remote and uncertain COVID age. No summer vacation to remote places with famous scenery and must shoot subject matter this year.
As the clock was ticking down Jenny and I decided we needed to do something, even if for just a couple days for sanity’s sake. The geography of southern Indiana is a marked departure from that of central and northern Indiana. The glacial ice shelf scraped the northern 2/3rds of the state flat, depositing the dislodged material in the lower third of the state, creating a hilly landscape of limestone knobs and caverns cut by wide, flat river bottoms. There are many specific areas that feature their own charms.
Our favorite area features the spa towns east of Paoli – French Lick and West Baden. The sulfur springs there have drawn visitors for over 150 years. The smelly water is said to have many health benefits, the most credible seeming to be an effective cure for constipation. The promise of relief from one of life’s more stubborn problems was the basis for the establishment of two enormous and beautiful spa reports in the late 19th century. Both resorts found their prime in during the roaring 20’s, when two separate rail spurs brought visitors from Chicago, Louisville, Cincinnati and Indianapolis directly to the front gates.
The Depression hit the resorts hard. French Lick kept afloat through the years but West Baden closed up and despite the good will of subsequent owners (including a brotherhood of monks) fell into disarray. By the 90’s French Lick was nearing the end of sustainability and West Baden was structurally collapsing. At the time when these icons of the area were in threat of disappearing forever, Bill Cook of Bloomington stepped into save the day. Bill Cook’s company had created the medicated heart stent and made a fortune from the patent. His philanthropic gift back to his home state came in the form of restoration of many landmarks statewide. Of these, rescuing the spas was the largest endeavor.
We stayed in French Lick shortly after it reopened in 2006. We’ve often day tripped to the great domed atrium of West Baden but never stayed there until two weeks ago. We were greeted with temperature checks before we were allowed on the property, repeated each morning we were there. No day visitors were allowed on the property. We appreciated the associated peace of mind as part of our escape. Between the two resorts sitting a mile apart but managed as one, there’s 45 holes of golf, two separate spas, equestrian stables, a casino, a bowling alley, 10 different places to eat and a go cart facility across the road. But we come for two basic reasons - the history of the yellow bricked resorts and the more sublime features of the surrounding area.
The resorts sit on the NW edge of the Hoosier National forest and on Day 1 of our stay, we drove the 25 miles south and visited one of its sights, the Hemlock Cliffs. Hemlock Cliffs is a box canyon of sandstone cliffs and seasonal waterfalls. It was a short 1 mile hike to the most dramatic of the cliffs. The falls were just a trickle when we got there. We didn’t linger long until we heard thunder in the back ground and we cut our visit short moving as fast as we could to higher ground. We reached the car as the skies opened up. Within an hour, the falls surely were something to see, but we hadn’t prepared for what the weather forecast did not mention.
We then took a roundabout drive, small town to small town to a place 10 miles west of French Lick, Hindostan Falls. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Hindostan Falls is the site of a small town long since forgotten and forsaken of settlement. The broad White River nurtured swarms of mosquitoes that brought epidemic waves of yellow fever and cholera. The people left. But they left some marks.
When the river isn’t running high, there is a thumb of flat rock that protrudes into the middle of the river. When the water recedes it reveals wavy patterns of eroded rock that resemble the finger print of an actual thumb. It also reveals the only lasting memory of the town that once attempted to eke out its existence. About 50 square holes, about 8”wide, pock the surface of the protrusion. The original townspeople planned a mill on the site and these were foundations for piers on which the mill would stand. On the front side of the protrusion, foamy water from the falls upstream swirls in a circle. Upriver, the falls themselves. The falls are broad, but only feature a two and a half foot drop. Unfortunately they aren’t easy to get to, I suspect the state sees them as a drowning hazard and no path exists to them.
On Day 2, noticeably hotter, we sought cooler and more serendipitous destinations. The Archabbey of St Meinrad and the Monastery Immaculate Conception and Other Groovy Stuff straddle I 64 about five miles removed from each other. The first is a graduate school for the training and education of Catholic priests and the latter is a place where nuns are made. The schools hold dance mixers for the students every Friday night, alternating campuses.
Humor aside, St Meinrad’s is an amazing place to visit. The 400 acres are beautiful and peaceful, and the retreat center is a wonderful place to spend a couple days and nights in contemplative reflection. But on this day, we were there a couple hours before the light danced on the western facing façade of yellow sandstone. The heat coerced us back to the car and we kept moving onto Immaculate Conception, where the light was far more favorable illuminating the red brick structure. In neither place would COVID allow us an indoor experience. Understandable.
On this trip, I never really took the effort to get into sink with the light. We were just trying to take it slow and easy. I made some images, they could be better. One day I will do the complete architectural photo essay of West Baden I want to do but this wasn’t the trip for that. A slideshow of images from the trip, some with the M1 – Mark II and some with my phone plays below. Hoping you find your way to some rejuvenating pursuits this summer as well, even if they are short in duration.