Big Bone Lick State Park

Big Bone Lick State Park is located in Boone County, Kentucky, and is commonly referred to as the birthplace of American Paleontology. It is also largely well-known for its display of excavated Ice Age fossils as well as its iconic bison. While Big Bone Lick was officially established as a Kentucky State Park in 1960, the first known discovery of Big Bone dates all the way back to 1739 by Charles Ill le Moyne. He was leading a military expedition when he and his soldiers stopped at a mineral spring along the Ohio River. Several fossils were brought back to France once Charles’ expedition was over, and majority still remain at the National French Museum of Natural history (or the Muséum national d’historie naturelle). A sign at the park itself describes famous explorers Lewis and Clark’s history with the park. The sign reads, "In Oct. 1803, while traveling down the Ohio River to meet Wm. Clark for their expedition to the Pacific, Meriwether Lewis visited Big Bone Lick. He was to gather fossilized bones for Pres. Thomas Jefferson. In Spet 1807, Clark supervised a 3-week dig for Bones at Jefferson’s request." The park and museum are both completely free to enter, and accessible to anybody. There are five trails that visitors can walk along, one of which leads to a viewing area of the park’s bison. The museum features multiple fossils and the history behind where they were found and what animal the fossil belongs to. Outside of the museum, there are multiple life-sized replicas of just a few of the animals that once lived in Kentucky, including mammoths and giant sloths.