Bledsoe's Lick

The spring that drew buffalo to this lick also drew people to rename it. Isaac Bledsoe followed the old buffalo paths to the salt lick on a long-hunting trip in 1772, with Kasper Mansker. Jeremiah Belote bought the lick in 1807, and his descendants kept it for decades. After James Winchester's death, his family renamed the place Castalian Springs, after the spring at Delphi, and it carried on as a health resort until 1914. The name stuck, which is why the old lick and the village now go by different names.

What the plaque says

Bledsoe's Lick The spring to the north was a rendezvous for salt-seeking game in the pre-pioneer days. First settlers came in 1779. In 1787, Isaac and Anthony Bledsoe and their families settled here. The two brothers were killed by Indians and are buried in the family plot 500 yards northwest. Bledsoe Female Academy also near here.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wynnewood State Historic Site — steps away
  A National Historic Landmark log inn at the Bledsoe's Lick springs, beside a Mississippian mound center and tied to the domestic slave trade.
• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 21 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.
• Fort Negley — 31 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.

More markers nearby

• William Brimage Bate — steps away
• First Settlers in Middle Tennessee — steps away
• General William Hall — 0.3 mi
• Abraham "Abram" Bledsoe — 0.4 mi