Before the Doctor

Before European settlement, Cherokee people recognized the mineral spring as a place where deer gathered to lick the mineral-rich rocks. The water bubbled up from the earth, cool and clear, rich in calcium sulphate and dissolved minerals. The name “Lick Spring” predates every other name this place would carry.

Chick assembled the resort estate through five purchases spanning sixteen years. In 1828, he bought 100 acres from Banister Southerland and 226 acres from Almond Austin—both along the Tyger River. In 1831, David Goodlett sold him 180 acres on Richland Creek. In 1834, he purchased 78 acres from Absalom Carney Jr. for $166—the tract at the mouth of the spring branch headwaters. And in 1844, A.B. Chick—executor of Joseph Hawkins—conveyed another 418 acres in an intra-family transfer. By the mid-1840s, Chick controlled over a thousand acres around the springs.

While deer hunting near Taylors, Dr. Chick stopped at Asa Crowder’s home. According to an account passed from Alfred Taylor to J.A. Bull to Mrs. Tom Taylor and finally recorded by Jean Flynn, Crowder hired two or three Native guides—possibly Catawbas camped on the Enoree—to lead him to Lick Spring. They told him the ground at the spring would heal a sore. Flynn herself noted it was doubtful that any Indigenous people were living permanently in the area by 1838, suggesting these may have been travelers camped briefly along the river.