Jim Bradshaw: South La. spa was named for belle of the ball

Not even memories remain of the 160-acre spa called Belle Cheney Springs, which attracted visitors from far and wide to the piney woods of northern Evangeline Parish in the late 1800s.
The New Orleans Picayune once said it was “the most delightful watering place in Louisiana,” and a steady stream of visitors seemed to agree.
The clear, cold, mineral-laden springs just northwest of Turkey Creek were first called Dog Springs, because, as a Ville Platte Gazette article explained many years later, “The … medicinal properties of the waters were discovered by … sportsmen, who bathed their dogs in the springs, curing them of skin diseases.”
People began flocking to the springs when the word spread about their medicinal properties, and the spa that was developed there was named for Belle Cheney, who was known thereabouts for her beauty and charm.
“Years and years ago, so long ago that many reading these lines were yet unborn, beautiful Belle Cheney was the toast of Louisiana ball rooms,” the Gazette recalled in 1935.
But “the famous beauty is dead, and with her died the fame of ‘Belle Cheney springs,’ once a magnet for the rich, the famous, and the gallant.”
It’s not clear what connection the beauty had to the spa that bore her name. “Uncle Billy” Clark, longtime registrar of voters for Evangeline Parish, said in 1937 he thought it was “named for a beautiful woman who lived here. … [but] no one alive today remembers her or anything else about her reign as belle of the ball.”
The new name was certainly an improvement over Dog Springs, and probably helped make it a popular place by the 1850s. In July 1851, the Picayune reported, “The Belle Cheney Springs have been opened for visitors during the month, and are already patronized by a handsome company ... With numerous springs of pure and crystal water, with reputed medicinal virtue as a beverage and baths, together with accommodations of an excellent quality … the proprietors may well prepare for full and worthy patronage … The entire country west of the [Mississippi] river has made this cheerful spot, during the summer months,”
When the place was put up for sale in 1852, the advertisement noted that, “besides the Mineral Springs and baths . . . there are on the premises seven double cottages and three large houses for accommodation of families, twelve cottages for gentlemen, a large tavern house to which is annexed a commodious Ball Room, a large Coffee House, Stable and Store house with other necessary buildings.”
J. J. Beauchamp and Joseph Daigle, described by the Opelousas Courier as “two intelligent and industrious young men” paid $6,100 for the place and began to promote it as a resort that included fine accommodations, spring water bathing, live music, balls twice a week, and good hunting and fishing nearby.
As late as the early 1900s, the springs “were visited by the best members of society from New Orleans, Alexandria, Shreveport, and many other parts of Louisiana during the summer months,” the Gazette said, but then it began to decline — largely because of disputes among its owners.
The St. Landry Clarion reported in August 1907 that fewer and fewer people were visiting Belle Cheney, “not because the waters have lost their healing powers, but because there are no buildings worthy of being so called are left there. … The various stockholders who now own the springs … will not come to any agreement into building improvements.”
 Everything was gone by 1935, when the once-busy spa could be reached only by “an old country road, barely visible,” The Ville Platte paper reported. “There are only a few houses left … and a caretaker and his wife make up the population of the famous springs. … The steps to the old bath houses and swimming pool are visible, but grown up in weeds and the pool is but a sluggish stream. Nearby is an old electric light plant once used for lighting the resort and pool, which has not been operated for many years.”
The property was then owned by Opelousas attorney John W. Lewis, who kept a summer home there.
He threw a big barbecue at the springs in 1937, hoping to attract investors to “restore Belle Cheney to her former glory.”
“Uncle Billy” was one of the few at the barbecue who remembered the place in its heyday, “I can remember the days when there were people here by the thousands,” he recalled. “Folks came from everywhere within a hundred miles’ radius; some came from other states …. Big encampments were pitched … for as long as two weeks at the time. Life moved slowly in those days and everybody could enjoy themselves for as long as they wanted.”
Lewis’s barbecue was proclaimed a big success, but his restoration plan never got beyond a fond hope and dream.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.