Mudlavia Springs

Overview

The mud that made a resort

In August 1884 a Civil War veteran named Samuel Story was digging a drainage ditch in the valley of Big Pine Creek, west of Attica, when he struck a spring. As the story goes, he drank the water, got covered in the mud, and found his rheumatism fading. A post office called Cameron Springs opened the next year.

Harry L. Kramer saw a business in it. On Christmas Day 1890 he opened a $250,000 hotel and spa around the spring, at first called Indiana Mineral Springs and soon Mudlavia, after the mud baths. The Indiana State Library calls it one of the country's finest sanitariums in its day, with guests from around the world. Wikipedia lists the boxer John L. Sullivan, the poet James Whitcomb Riley, the songwriter Paul Dresser and the singer Harry Lauder among them. The village that grew up beside it took Kramer's name in 1901.

The main hotel burned in February 1920. A smaller building carried on as a rest home and a restaurant until fires in 1968 and 1974 ended that too. The springs' name lived on in bottled water. Today the resort grounds are private, and Visit Indiana described what is left as mere ruins in 2019.

Timeline

From a ditch to a grand hotel and back

1. Aug 1884Samuel Story, a Civil War veteran, strikes a spring while digging a drainage ditch. He says drinking the water and working in the mud eased his rheumatism.
2. Nov 5, 1885A post office opens nearby as Cameron Springs, named for its first postmaster, William Cameron.
3. Dec 25, 1890Harry L. (or Henry L.) Kramer opens a hotel and spa built around the spring, at a cost of $250,000. It is first called Indiana Mineral Springs.
4. 1890s–1910sRenamed Mudlavia for its mud baths, the resort draws guests including James Whitcomb Riley, John L. Sullivan, Paul Dresser and Harry Lauder.
5. 1901The post office takes the name Kramer, after the resort's builder.
6. 1908The resort prints its own paper, Mudlavia News, and a postcard panorama shows the hotel, outbuildings and grounds below the wooded bluffs.
7. Feb 1920Fire destroys the main hotel. Wikipedia dates it to February 29.
8. LaterA smaller building on the grounds becomes a rest home, then the Pleasant Valley Lodge restaurant, which burns in 1968.
9. 1962The USGS Williamsport sheet still shows buildings at Mudlavia Springs, on the road just west of Kramer.
10. 1974Reopened as Mudlavia Lodge under another owner, the building burns again.
11. 2000Perrier Group of America buys Cameron Springs, the Indianapolis bottler whose water had drawn on the springs' name, for about $10.5 million.
12. Jun 2019Visit Indiana describes the site as "mere ruins" on private property and tells readers not to trespass.

What's left

Ruins behind a property line

Wikipedia places Mudlavia Springs where Moores Hill Road and Hunter Hill Road meet County Road 150 North, less than half a mile west of Kramer, with Big Pine Creek just west. The 1962 USGS sheet shows the last resort buildings there, just east of that junction, at the foot of the wooded ravines. Lovers Leap, above Big Pine Creek, is named on the same sheet to the northwest.

Visit Indiana's 2019 list calls what is left mere ruins in the countryside and says the land is private. A video posted September 23, 2024 shows a multi-story brick building in the woods, partly collapsed and open to the sky, with brick stairs, a fireplace, debris and graffiti throughout. The creators walk inside, so we cite the video but don't show it. Wikipedia says the community no longer exists, though the USGS still names it. Kramer, next door, had 86 people in the 2020 census.

The resort's own booklets and newspaper made big claims for the mud and the water. Read the cures in this story as advertising.

• Brick shell of a resort building, partly collapsed, on private land (2024 video)
• The spring valley below the ravines west of Kramer
• The name on USGS maps

Historic maps

Mudlavia Springs on USGS maps, 1962–1984

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19621:24,00019841:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Attica is the closest town, 5.0 miles and about 13 minutes away by US 41 and Moores Hill Road. From Indianapolis the drive runs west on I-74 and north on US 41 through Attica. Both routes end at the road junction at Mudlavia Springs. The ruins are on private land: stay on the road.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Mudlavia in photos

The resort in 1908: a panoramic postcard titled "Mudlavia, Kramer, Ind."The main hotel before the 1920 fire, from a postcard

Visitor reports

Been to Mudlavia Springs?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Mudlavia Springs

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Indiana index.

• Glen Cliff2.8 mi SE · Warren
• Warrenton2.9 mi SE · Warren
• Kickapoo3.2 mi E · Warren
• Point Pleasant4.5 mi NW · Warren
• Chatterton5.3 mi NE · Warren
• Old Town7.4 mi SW · Warren
• Sycamore Corner7.6 mi W · Warren
• Hooker Corner8.1 mi N · Warren

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Mudlavia Springs, Indiana", retrieved October 2026: Liberty Township, the location at Moores Hill, Hunter Hill and County Road 150 North west of Kramer, Big Pine Creek, the community gone but still on USGS maps.
2. Wikipedia, "Hotel Mudlavia", retrieved October 2026: Samuel Story's 1884 find, the December 25, 1890 opening and its cost, the February 29, 1920 fire, the rest home, Pleasant Valley Lodge and the 1968 and 1974 fires, the guests, Cameron Springs and the Perrier purchase. It cites the 1913 and 1966 Warren County histories.
3. Wikipedia, "Kramer, Indiana", retrieved October 2026: the post office names and dates, the Kramer name, the 2020 population of 86.
4. Indiana State Library, "Hotel Mudlavia, Warren County, Indiana collection", read October 2026: the 1884 spring, the December 1890 opening as Indiana Mineral Springs, the renaming, its reputation, the February 1920 fire.
5. Visit Indiana, "Stranger Things Scavenger Hunt," June 28, 2019: the site as mere ruins, private property, do not trespass.
6. Library of Congress, "Mudlavia, Kramer, Ind." (1908 postcard) and the Indiana State Library's Mudlavia booklets on Wikimedia Commons: the photographs on this page.
7. kavicular, "Exploring an ABANDONED HOTEL | MUDLAVIA HOTEL IN 2024 | URBEX," YouTube, posted September 23, 2024: the condition of the ruins (overgrown brick shell, partial collapse, stairs, fireplace, graffiti). Not embedded: it shows entry onto private land.
8. Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, Williamsport 1962 and Danville 1984 sheets. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• The resort in 1908: a panoramic postcard titled "Mudlavia, Kramer, Ind.": Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The main hotel before the 1920 fire, from a postcard: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Front page of Mudlavia News, the resort's own paper, July 1908, with a photo of the grounds: Mudlavia Hotel (Kramer, Ind.), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The cover of a Mudlavia advertising booklet from the 1910s, showing the long hotel front with its towers and awnings below the wooded hill: Mudlavia Hotel (Kramer, Ind.), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Williamsport 1962, 1:24,000; Danville 1984, 1:100,000.