Welcome to the Hotel Land-Between-the-Lakes-ifornia

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Being the music geek, and an Eagles fan, it would stand to reason that something called the "Hotel California" would jump out at me (even if that's not a favorite song). So when I saw something marked "Hotel California" on the map in the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area I was very interested. What's a "hotel California" doing in western Kentucky? As it turns out (as I mentioned earlier today) the LBL version of Hotel California came from what's known as eminent domain. It seems to my very non-legal mind that the government deciding they want somebody's property and condemning it when last week it was perfectly acceptable would violate the 4th amendment (seizing property) and the 14th amendment (due process). But what do I know. Apparently it is legal, 'cause it happens all the time. It's scary to think that the government -- or, since I live not too far from them, Churchill Downs -- can decide they want to expand and just knock on my door and say, "MOVE." It's happened in my family: when our airport expanded my aunt's neighborhood was condemned and she was forced to move. The airport authority didn't even give her enough money to fully cover the purchase of a new home. (But she did move into my neighborhood, where she remained for the rest of her life.) Anyway, enough of the ranting of an old woman. Let's get back to the Land Between the Lakes. In 1963 President Kennedy designated the "land between the lakes," a peninsula between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake, a national recreation area. There were people who lived in the area who would be forced to move when the Cumberland River was dammed, and that included some people who'd already been forced to move when Kentucky Lake was created. Now, when these lakes were created, towns were flooded. The Tennessee Valley Authority didn't really care that anything except the people got moved. That means that a lot of buildings were still standing when the water covered them. (If you think that is a little cruel, consider that CEMETERIES were buried beneath water upon completion of the Fontana Dam in North Carolina. ) That's where the "Hotel California" comes in. This was, at one time, a rather palatial home. It belonged, I discovered, to Grover Johnson Marler, who was a riverboat captain. He was born in 1903 and had a good life on the river, to some degree. On June 14, 1954, the Paducah Sun reported that Marler was "seriously burned" when his boat burned on Kentucky Lake. In 1966, as the battles were heating up over the land between the landowners and the TVA agents armed with the "eminent domain" edict, Marler's name showed up again in the paper. "My wife took off on me," he told the Louisville Courier-Journal on August 23, 1966. The retired towboat captain, however, said he wasn't so easily scared off. "I've got a private place where those TVA boys can't just come in, nosin' around." Eventually, though, the government won. They always do. Marler moved to Eddyville. He died at the age of 82 at Baptist Hospital in Louisville in 1985. Parts of his once-lovely home still stand in the Land Between the Lakes, now affectionately known as the Hotel California. You can see from the article linked below, written by someone who'd actually visited it, that it's not in good shape (and, considering the age of this article, I have to wonder how much of it is still standing). It's one of those places that kids go to drink, have sex, and write stupid things on the wall. I don't know if Grover Marler would have been pleased with that aspect of it, but maybe he would be happy to know that his old home did survive the TVA takeover. A 2013 article: