Monday, March 7, 2011

Drennon Springs

Drennon Springs is located halfway between Pleasureville and Carrollton, KY. The landscape is breathtaking, and on this clear day quite photogenic. The sulphur-saline spring the Native Americans used, apparently for healing (according to the sign), has long been out of service. The church (Drennon Christian Church, Disciples of Christ) that rests near the spring site is a very fitting white painted wood structure surrounded by woods and a cemetery.

I am fascinated to hear that the area was staked out by the McAfee Company by Jacob Drennon and Matthew Bracken, under the command of Colonel Hancock Taylor; however, George Rogers Clark is the man who received settlement rights to the land from then Governor of Virginia Patrick Henry (whom the county is named for). Quite a bit of history is in this site. Clark built a log station here in 1775, yet abandoned the area after a Native American raid killed some of the other settlers in 1787. Apparently, the sulphur spring was used by a medical doctor named Robert Hunter for healing, and a few cabins were erected nearby by others swearing by the medicinal properties of the spring. It was in the 1830s that the spring developed some popularity. In 1847, AO Smith built an elegant hotel, which housed wealthy and some famous travelers who had come to enjoy the healing properties of the spring. However, the cholera outbreak in 1849 witnessed a complete abandonment of the area.

A high hill overlooks the scenery of the bottoms known as Drennon, and the weathered road, farm fences, flooded creek, and distant church is quite a display of God's handiwork. The roads to and from Drennon are beautiful landscapes as well.

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