Big Bone Lick
Boone County, Boone County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Big Bone Lick, Three Miles. Discovered in 1739 by French Capt. Charles Lemoyne de Longueil. Early explorers found countless bones and teeth of extinct Pleistocene elephants, the mammoth and the mastodon. This saline-sulphur spring was popular for salt making until 1812; also a health resort from 1815-30. Its waters were noted for mildly curative qualities. (Reverse) Big Bone Lick: Robert Smith, an Indian trader, recognized the significance of the large bones. From 1751-80, Big Bone Lick had many visitors, including Christopher Gist, John Finley, Mary Ingles, John Floyd and the McAfee brothers. Thomas Jefferson sent expedition headed by William Clark to collect bones; the next largest collector was N. S. Shaler. Some tusks measured 8-10 feet long. For more information, see ExploreKYHistory: Big Bone Lick, Three Miles
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
Where a sulphur-and-salt spring seeped to the surface in the Ohio Valley, generations of Ice Age mammoths and mastodons came to lick the minerals — and many died and were preserved, leaving a boneyard that astonished the first Europeans to reach it in 1739. Through the mid-1700s the lick drew a parade of frontier travelers and salt-makers, and by the early 1800s Thomas Jefferson, fascinated by these 'incognitum' giants, dispatched William Clark to gather specimens here. Later collectors like geologist N. S. Shaler hauled away tusks eight to ten feet long, making this quiet Kentucky spring one of the birthplaces of American paleontology.
Why it matters
Big Bone Lick is often called the cradle of American vertebrate paleontology — the place where the young nation's leaders and naturalists first confronted the reality of extinct species, reshaping how Americans understood their continent's deep past.
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Related people
- · Charles Lemoyne de Longueil
- · Robert Smith
- · Christopher Gist
- · Mary Ingles
- · Thomas Jefferson
- · William Clark
- · N. S. Shaler
Related events
- · Discovery of Big Bone Lick (1739)
- · Jefferson-sponsored bone-collecting expedition led by William Clark
- · Salt making until 1812
- · Health resort era 1815–1830
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Tanner's Station, 1789
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