"The most celebrated national and international Pleistocene megafauna site known to science"
- Don Clare, Lost River Towns of Boone County
"The most celebrated national and international Pleistocene megafauna site known
to science"
- Don Clare, Lost River Towns of Boone County
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| Big Bone Methodist Church (later, a Baptist Church) |
The Methodist Church |
|
A few words on the Big Bone Methodist's Ladies Aid Society,
here. |
|
Big Bone Baptist
A 1943 history of the church is
here.
(pdf)
Main Street, Big Bone, Kentucky
Used through the cooperation of
the
University of Louisville Photographic Archives
Portion of a larger map by Henry Popple, drawn in 1733.
Identifies Big Bone as "elephant bones found here."
Loading Tobacco, Hamilton
Local Residents holding findings from Big Bone Lick, 1913
| "One of the pleasantest places to visit in this hot
weather is the Big Bone Springs. Colonel J. O. Campbell and Son,
formerly of Burlington, have charge of the Clay House there, and are doing
their best to provide for the comfort and amusement of their guests."
from the Covington Ticket, July 15, 1876. |
Many of the bones from Big Bone reside these days in Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences, now a part of Drexel University. They have a page on Big Bone at their website, here. |
For what it's worth: The US Post Office folks had a post office named "Big Bone Lick" from 1829-1831, "Big Bone Landing", from 1834-1835, and "Bigbone" from 1890 to 1941. |
| Big Bone State Park's web site is here. |
There were at least four steamboats manufactured in Big Bone. More here. |
Daniel Boone artifact found near Big Bone? Story here. |
| Wikipedia article about Big Bone is here. | Wikipedia article about the park is here. | A less flattering view of Big Bone is from R. E. Banta, here. |
|
The contemporary Friends of Big Bone have a site, here. |
You can read a proposal to build the Covington, Big Bone, and Carrollton Railroad, here. |
The steamboat C. T. Dumont is hit by the tow Tom Rees in 1865 at Big Bone, more here. |
Big Bone, c. 1930
American mastodon |
 Columbia mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) |
 Harlan's musk-ox (Bootherium bombifrons) |
 An extinct bison (Bison antiquus), |
 Stag Moose (Cervalces scotti) |
| The five animals above
represent holotypes found at Big Bone ( A Holotype is a single specimen or illustration designated as the type for naming a species or subspecies or used as the basis for naming a species - a big deal. Clicking on an animal's picture will take you to the Wikipedia site about it.) |
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| Mammoth (Mammuthus sp) |
A ground sloth (Mylodon sp.) | An extinct horse (Equus cf. E. complicatus), | Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), | Harlan's Ground Sloth (Paramylodon harleni) |
| Columbia mammoth (Mammuthus columbi), | Jefferson ground sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii) |
deer | bear (Ursus sp.) |
caribu |
|
Animals Found at Big Bone, to date most of the bones found at Big Bone date back to c. 18,000 B.C. |
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| This is not a "typical" bison, but an extinct version that was about 25% larger. The first skeletons of it were found at Big Bone. Read more here. | Mastodon skeletons were first discovered in America at Big Bone. Read more about them here. |
Newer views at the Big Bone State Park
Big Bone Mineral Water
ad from a 1904 issue of the Maysville
Public Ledger
The University of Nebraska's
archeological museum published a
newsletter of it's dig at Big Bone Lick in the 1960's. You can read
it here.
(pdf)
Why isn't there a great museum at Big Bone? One man's rant, here.
