Inside this unassuming building in French Lick, Indiana, is the French Lick West Baden Museum. The museum tells the history of two fantastic resort towns and that of the Hagenbeck Wallace Circus through the world’s most giant circus diorama.
The museum starts with a West Baden Springs Arch replica and moves through exciting galleries. The first thing that caught my attention was the limestone exhibit. Beneath all of southern Indiana is a significant layer of limestone, as it was once an ancient ocean. It was quarried and cut to make homes, buildings, and bridges, but that was just the beginning. Skilled artists used it to make masterpieces. Check out this fish and bananas. There are beautiful pictures and postcards from the past, and then there’s Pluto, the mythical god of the underworld.
This needs a little explaining. In a time before high-fat fast-food burrito Supremes and gas station Big Slurpee soft drinks, people were constipated a lot. French Lick and West Baden sat on a goldmine of mineral water from springs deep inside the earth, and that helped people go when nature didn’t. West Baden sold strudel water from their mineral springs and had a cute gnome-like mascot called Thirsty Bill. Being competitors, French Lick had to have an even better mascot, something edgy. They chose Pluto, the god of the underworld.
The Pluto Corporation is still around today in the center of French Lick, across from the casino. But getting back to the story, Pluto started taking on more devilish features like horns, a goatee, a devilish tail, and a goat hoof with a sword. He was set to give people a devil of a colon cleansing. As crazy as it was, the marketing worked, and people wanted Pluto water to improve digestion, clear their complexion, and all kinds of other things. The gallery is lined with Pluto water advertising that puts money in the cash register.
In the early 1900s, French Lick and West Baden were the places to go if you were anyone, and to get there, you traveled by the Monon Railroad. Many trains rolled into town each day with wealthy and famous passengers. What a place it was! It had the most enormous dome in the world, mineral springs to bathe in, and even a circus, not gambling.
Lining the museum walls are souvenirs you would have brought back from your trip, much like Disneyworld. Here’s a fun fact: tomato juice was invented at French Lick in 1917 when they ran out of orange juice, and people worldwide now enjoy it every day. There are many incredible local artifacts, not to mention French Lick’s most famous athlete, Larry Bird. They grew up here. You know you’ve made it when your picture is on a Wheaties box or lunchbox, a children’s book is written about you, and there are action figures. There’s even a full-sized cardboard picture of Larry to see how you measure up.
Around the corner is the Hagenbeck Wallace Circus Gallery. There are all kinds of circus artifacts on the walls, but nothing can prepare you for the size of this immense circus diorama. This humongous diorama takes up almost half of the museum. One entire wall houses just the circus train. Around the next corner is a multi-level display that shows how the circus would have looked as it traveled into town. The highlight of the exhibit is a vast display showing the circus tents. The attention to detail is breathtaking. There’s a sideshow tent and a tenth dining hall to feed the vast army of circus performers. Out back, a man practices with his horses.
You can’t help but look at this incredible detail and think of the years it took one man to create it. It is impressive in person.
The French Lick West Baden Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday; kids five and under are free with a parent or guardian. When visiting the area, it really should be the first place you go to appreciate the history of these two notable towns. Don’t miss out.
