French Lick, IN

French Lick is an Orange County town built around mineral springs, with 1,722 residents in the 2020 census. The community began as a French trading post near a spring and salt lick, and a fortified ranger post was established by the springs in 1811. Those waters later made French Lick a resort town, a role that still shows up in the French Lick Springs Hotel and the larger French Lick Resort complex. The town's name carries that first landscape right on its face.

ATTRQuentin Melson / CC BY-SA 4.0

There is more to the local map than spa history. The French Lick Scenic Railway runs excursion trains through the hills, and Hoosier National Forest spreads across the wooded country around town. Springs Valley Community School Corporation serves local students, with Springs Valley High School in town; Larry Bird's high-school years there helped give French Lick a permanent place in basketball conversation. The resort district, school campus, railway, and forest roads all pull different kinds of movement through the same valley. French Lick feels like a place where mineral water opened the door, but rail rides, school events, and southern Indiana hills keep the town busy today.