In April 1895, a tornado hit Boone County, causing massive damage to Big Bone. Several houses lost roofs and roads were blocked by fallen trees. The hotel was severely damaged, with one wing unroofed, another severely damaged, but only McLaughlin and his family were residing at the hotel at the time as it was before the summer season. The central wing where McLaughlin resided was spared from major destruction. Another building heavily damaged by the tornado was the two-story frame building that served as a Methodist Church and Odd Fellows Hall, recently built in 1888. The bathhouse and spring house adjacent to the hotel were destroyed. Also destroyed was Dr. Stevenson’s apiary, which was noted as the largest in Kentucky (San Francisco Chronicle 3 Apr 1895:2; Indianapolis Journal 3 Apr 1895:2).
Around the turn of the century, a Louisville-based oil-drilling company sought to access oil deposits thought to be located beneath the bedrock, however, after multiple attempts, they instead struck the underground lake which contained the supply of Sulphur water for the nearby springs, causing it to shoot into the air. After that, the springs dried to a trickle, forcing future development of Big Bone as a medicinal retreat to shutter (Figure 3-13) (The Courier-Journal 1952:111).
Figure 3-13. Ca. 1912 photo showing marshy area at Big Bone.
Big Bone dwindled to a few houses in the secluded valley, with the hotel and pavilion falling into disrepair (Figure 3-14). In 1916, the Big Bone Spring Company formed to create modern accommodations to the springs, but the venture failed and in 1943, the remains of the hotel were auctioned and demolished. The land was broken up and sold to many different people and the land continued to pass hands.
Figure 3-14. Ca. 1912 photo of Big Bone. Note the Methodist Church in the background on the right side of the road. (Louisville Courier-Journal 9 Jun. 1912).
The closure of the hotel and diminished importance of Big Bone also had a detrimental effect on the nearby port town of Hamilton (Figure 3-15). What once served as a popular landing spot for tourists wanting to visit the springs quickly lost prominence. Furthermore, the advancement of transportation technology resulted in physical changes to Hamilton. The damming of the Ohio River resulted in a shift of the shoreline, pushing the riverbank east closer to the main road through town (Striker 2010:107–110).
Figure 3-15. Ca. 1912 photo of the deserted hotel at Big Bone.
A 1952 article about Big Bone details that by the mid-century, only two churches, a couple
of stores, and a dozen farmhouses remained in the Big Bone area. Historic aerial imagery from 1949 reveals five buildings west of the Methodist Church and three buildings east of the Stevenson property, however, by 1955, at least three of those buildings are no longer extant. By the end of the 1960s, only the Methodist Church and the Stevenson house are located along the roadside. The Big Bone Methodist Church continued services until the mid-1980s when diminished membership caused it to close and congregants moved to other local churches (Yealey 1960:29; The Courier-Journal 1952:111).
Figure 3-16. Ca. 1930 photo of Big Bone along Beaver Road (Boone County HPRB 2002:74).
